The New York Attorney General on Wednesday charged nursing home operator Centers Health Care and its owners with stealing $83 million in government funds while understaffing its facilities, resulting in widespread neglect, illness and death among residents.
In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan state court, Attorney General Letitia James wants to ban four New York Centers nursing homes from admitting new residents until they are properly staffed and from hiring financial and health monitors to oversee the compliance with the rules.
James is also asking the court to force Centers, owners Kenneth Rozenberg and Daryl Hagler and others allegedly involved in the fraud to return the stolen money.
A spokesperson for Centers, which has offices in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Kansas, did not immediately comment.
James said Rozenberg, Hagler and others used a complex network of companies and bogus contracts to pocket $83 million in Medicare, Medicaid and other funds intended for patient care over the past decade.
Meanwhile, residents of four New York institutions suffered appalling neglect and abuse, the indictment said. Among the many examples cited in the indictment are a man who died of sepsis due to an untreated pressure sore; a woman who suffered a brain injury after she fell out of bed and received no treatment; and a man with dementia who left an institution unsupervised.
Residents were routinely left in dirty diapers for hours and calls for help were ignored, the lawsuit said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, centers failed to provide masks to staff or implement infection control measures, James said. More than 400 residents died in New York’s four nursing homes in 2020, in part due to these deficiencies, the lawsuit said.
The defendants used various tricks to extract money from the Centers nursing homes, James alleged.
For example, Hagler, who owned the property, charged the operating companies owned by Rozenberg with exorbitant rents. A staffing company owned by Rozenberg’s daughter was paid millions of dollars by Centers-affiliated entities even though it had no contract, the lawsuit added.
The defendants also transferred money between entities they controlled using interest-free loans, many of which were never repaid, the lawsuit said.
2023-06-28 17:47:42
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