Michael (Michie) Nudell // Allure Healthcare Services

Screenshot

It’s safe to say that we are busier than ever these days, especially in the workforce. The work day is already long, and scientists say that due to the lack of focus during “regular” work hours, people are forced to work even longer hours to make up for it. As frum Yidden, maintaining a healthy work-life balance can be difficult.
When I was introduced to Chicago-based nursing home operator Michael Nudell, or Michie as his friends call him, I was told that he is involved in many different organizations and that he gives of his time, money and home to help them.
Michie started out in the nursing home field as an assistant administrator after someone was kind enough to help him out with a job. This quality of Yidden helping Yidden he believes is a particular strength of Chicago Jewry.
He worked his way up in the field, partnering with others and eventually owning several of his own nursing home facilities.
We spoke about the nursing home industry and how to advance in this field and, in fact, in any field. We spoke candidly about the influence of money and how people with money try to influence others. More importantly, we spoke about how he balances work and helping a myriad of causes. His enthusiasm about helping out klal Yisrael is admirable and something to aspire to.
Michie is easygoing about business and life, with humility and such tangible emunah and bitachon that I was jealous. Enjoy! Have a wonderful Yom Tov!

—Nesanel

 

I was born in St. Louis, Missouri, where my mother’s family has deep roots. We moved to Chicago when I was 15 years old because my father got a better job opportunity. Chicago is an unbelievable community; I feel that it is, in many ways, a perfect community. It has a lot of the big-town amenities—not as many as Lakewood or New York, but definitely enough. However, it has different communities you can choose from, like West Rogers Park, Skokie and Lincolnwood, and they all come together as one community at the end of the day.
“One of the beauties of growing up in St. Louis was that it is a very simple community, to the extent that people aren’t involved in gashmiyus at all. There was no pressure to have the newest thing. I didn’t have an inkling of what was cool or trendy before going to camp as a kid. I was exposed to that world when I got to high school.
“I went to Torah Prep when I lived in St. Louis, to Ner Yisroel for ninth and tenth grade, and Fasman Yeshiva in Skokie (Skokie Yeshiva) for the rest of high school. I then went to Adelphia, where I acquired a real love for learning. My 11th grade rebbis were Rabbi Farkas and Rav Yitzchak Shain. The rosh yeshivah was Rav Naftali Stern, with whom I learned first seder for three years.
“My father worked in voluntary benefits offered to employees, such as life insurance, accidental deaths and disabilities. Today he owns his own company called Axiom Healthcare Enrollments, and, of course, I offer his services to all employees at our facilities. He mainly works with nursing homes because it doesn’t cost them anything to hire him. Many times, especially when it comes to disability insurance, it helps reduce worker’s comp claims.
“I’m the oldest of eight children. My mother was a stay-at-home mother, but now she works in my company. She does skilled billing for me.
“Growing up, my family had what we needed, but there weren’t any extras. As a teenager in yeshivah, I had to figure out ways to make a few dollars here and there to buy what I wanted. I would sell snacks and sandwiches and offer to iron shirts for people. I did whatever I could to make money. If there was a need, I would try to fill it. When I was kid, I was very into playing sports and never thought about anything money related. It was only when I grew up and wanted new clothing that I started to hustle. I would buy inventory from a wholesale store like Sam’s Club and then resell it at a profit. I worked in the canteen at Ner Yisroel, but that was more to barter for food as opposed to actual money.
“After yeshivah, I was interested in going to Eretz Yisrael, but I felt the guys I was friendly with weren’t so interested in learning. I thought to myself, ‘If I am going to go to such a holy place, a place where I should grow, going with the wrong chevrah would bring me down.’ So, I stayed in Adelphia for another year. I immersed myself in learning and hit my stride. That is when I found my love for learning.
“After Adelphia, I went back to Skokie Yeshiva for my college degree and masters. I got a BTL (bachelor’s in Talmudic Law), as well as a business degree.
“My first job out of college was doing project management for a company that developed condos and built homes. I was in charge of going down to the sites, making sure people were working and helping out with any issues they were having. Like many young people, my big plan was to be a big real estate mogul, but that didn’t work out too well (laughs). I did that for a couple of years.
“When I got engaged, my boss Tzvi Ray, a real mentch, sat me down and said, ‘You’re getting married. You have a lot of responsibilities. You need to make a real living, and this place is not the place to do it.’ So I got a job doing a certain type of tax credit, work opportunity tax credits (WOTC), which is very prevalent in healthcare; you get nursing homes to sign up to get their employees enrolled. I didn’t make too much money, but it was more than I’d been making at my previous job.
“After that, I dipped my toe into the nursing home world. When I was around 27 I realized I needed to make a real living and my current job was not going to be the conduit through which to do so. I knew a guy from shul, Dudi Berkowitz, who was an administrator, and he partnered with Yossi Meystel to buy nursing homes. At the time, they had about ten facilities, so I asked them for a job. They were not only successful businessmen but also big askanim and baalei chesed.
“At the meeting, they asked me what I wanted to do. I asked, ‘What is the best way to become a nursing home owner?’ Yes, it’s as funny to me repeating it as to you hearing it. Admittedly, I knew very little about the nursing home industry. They said that I had to become an administrator to get a full view of what it means to be in nursing homes, and that I could become an owner in a couple of years if I put in the work to learn the industry. And I was willing to work.
“You might be wondering why they hired me with zero real experience. That’s how it works in Chicago. People give others a chance. They realize that the more people are successful, the better the community does. It’s a pretty simple equation.
“I would sit with every department and learn what they did so that I could understand how to run it. I sat with social services often, for at least six weeks. I worked a little bit in the kitchen with dietary housekeeping, followed the CNAs (certified nursing assistant) around and the nurses too. The bulk of my time was spent in the business office with billing, learning how reimbursement worked, how to effectively collect, and marketing and census.
“My venture into owning nursing homes all comes from learning Torah. When I got out of yeshivah and was working at my first job, my boss set me up with a chavrusa. He insisted that for one to be successful, one needs to learn before work. One of my chavrusas was Yossi Brandman, who is a third generation in the nursing home business. We learned every morning for half an hour with the man who runs the Lakewood kollel, Rabbi Moishe Sterman. Yossi would always tell me that one day we would partner together.
“In 2012, he felt I had enough experience as an operator that he would take a chance and partner with me on a facility that was for sale. He would put in the money and we, his brother-in-law Yoel Goldberg and I, would put in the work. Yossi put in the money, he would own the real estate, and we would split the revenue of the home.
“Our first venture was an 82-bed nursing home for developmentally disabled adults in Illinois. We started with 100% Medicaid, which has its advantages and disadvantages. It was almost shut down once, but baruch Hashem, it is still up and running.
“They were overstaffed. People think the more staff the better, but it’s really the opposite, because when you have a lot of people, you think someone else is going to do something, and in reality nothing gets done.

To read more, subscribe to Ami

subscribebuttonsubscribeEMAGbig