Editor:

I would like to extend my personal “thank you” to Joy Bell for her service to Unita Senior Citizens Inc. (USCI), her commitment to community and most of all the selfless time she donated to serve the seniors and clients for the past 10 months.

The Medicare waiver program for skilled nursing services requires two critical positions to maintain compliance, an administrator and director of nursing. The State of Wyoming mandated that USCI be in compliance by Nov. 30, 2022, or USCI would be in jeopardy of the state revoking their home health license and the program and services would have to be terminated.

Joy was recruited to join the USCI board of directors due to qualifications that she possesses and USCI was in dire need of to maintain services for the clients that were utilizing skilled nursing services. Joy’s qualification to act as the administrator for the Medicare waiver program was essential for compliance with the State of Wyoming and maintaining services for those program clients as well as the continued employment of USCI personnel associated with the waiver program.

Recruitment for the unpaid, volunteer board of directors continued into 2023 and seats were filled, officers elected, and Joy received the nomination as board treasurer. Joy’s experience with grant funding and in particular the Medicare program was essential for the board to begin piecing together the overall financial picture of USCI.

Acting in the capacity of an unpaid administrator, as USCI was not in the financial position to hire an administrator or director of nursing, Joy was directly able to save USCI approximately $80,000 through her volunteer service of 10 months.

In early 2023, it became evident that the Medicare waiver program for skilled nursing was a financial drain on USCI based on the financials that Joy was able to put together. The board of directors collectively made the decision to divest that segment of the business and our focus was to ensure our current clients did not lose services but gained in the service suite that was available to them and ensure that every employee who was employed by USCI in the waiver program would be offered continued employment if they chose to accept it.

Joy was instrumental in USCI’s partnership with Rocky Mountain Care through the contract negotiations for the clients and the employees. That partnership lives today through the clients that have elected RMC as their care provider and through the employees who elected to transfer their employment.

The board of directors entered into a multi-year agreement with DeCoria and Company for financial auditing. Joy spent numerous hours digging through boxes of financial records, often late at night, trying to locate records for the auditing team.

At our recent board meeting, Dave DeCoria praised Joy for her willingness to go above and beyond to get the financial records. Without Joy’s and others’ efforts, USCI would not have audited financials today which will allow for USCI to apply for additional grant funding.

Although many individuals were and continue to be involved in the turnaround of USCI, in my opinion, Joy Bell has been the most selfless and instrumental. Having spent as many volunteer hours as Joy did at USCI, Joy either neglected her personal business or just simply did not get the proper amount of sleep for the past 10 months.

I believe that the community should be aware of Joy’s commitment to the senior citizens and the community as a whole. Thank you, Joy, for your service to USCI and our community. It was a pleasure and an honor to serve on the USCI board with you. 

Daryl Fisher

Evanston