Schuylkill County Commissioners agreed today to sell Rest Haven to Nationwide Healthcare Services for $12.25 million.

The sale of the county rest home will be final in May.

Commissioners said employees will be eligible to stay when the new company takes over.

Nationwide also owns Ridgeway Nursing facility in Schuylkill County and three others in Pennsylvania.

Ten companies were competing to buy Rest Haven.

Three of the companies are in Pennsylvania, three are in New Jersey and four are in New York.

"The strong interest in Rest Haven is not surprising, and it is indicative of the high quality of care the facility and its employees have provided for our residents," Commissioners' Chairman Frank J. Staudenmeier said in a prepared statement.

Rest Haven has 113 full-time and 130 part-time workers, and 142 residents.

U.S. News & World Report earlier this year recognized Rest Haven in its 2014 list of the Best Nursing Homes in Pennsylvania.

Commissioners on Aug. 20 announced they had decided to sell Rest Haven after learning the 142-bed facility, behind the Penn State campus along Route 61 in Schuylkill Haven, was running $4.6 million in the red.

One major financial problem is that, as of August, 84 percent of the home's residents relied on Medicaid to pay for their stay. But Medicaid only pays $172 a day while the actual daily cost of care comes to $221 a day.

Also, $853,176 owed Rest Haven had not been collected as of August. The home's operating expenses had increased from $10.7 million to $12.5 million, about 16 percent, between 2008 and 2013 while its revenue grew by only 1 percent. As of August, the county had loaned and given Rest Haven about $2 million.

The county hired the Harrisburg law firm of Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott for $250,000 as special counsel for the sale.