for-profit home

Largest Healthcare Fraud Exposed Through Nursing Home Mogul

Published on: April 9, 2019 | Levin & Perconti

healthcare fraud

Miami-Dade Nursing Home Owner Convicted in Largest U.S. Healthcare Fraud Scheme

Just last week, a 12-person jury deliberated for four days before finding Philip Esformes, a 50-year-old entrepreneur and owner of a network of 16 nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Florida, guilty on 20 out of 26 charges related to healthcare fraud. This is believed to be the largest fraud scheme ever charged by the U.S. Justice Department and a reflection of the business owner’s greed through receiving kickbacks, money laundering and conspiracy to commit federal program bribery totaling $37 million. In an April 5^th, 2019 public statement, prosecutors called him a “despicable,” “vampire” who was fueled by “unbounded greed.”

“Esformes exploited and victimized patients by providing inadequate medical care and poor conditions in his nursing homes. We will continue the fight against such parasites.”

What Happens To The Residents When A Nursing Home Closes?

Published on: April 3, 2019 | Levin & Perconti

nursing home attorney

McClean County Nursing Home Residents Transferred After LeRoy Manor Closes

The former long-term care residents of the LeRoy Manor building, located in the central Illinois community of Bloomington-Normal, have moved to other nursing homes throughout Illinois. The private nursing home closed on February 15, 2019, displacing 75 employees and 66 residents. Administrators say about 90 percent of the residents were receiving Medicaid and poor reimbursement by the state was to blame for the closure. The group announced plans to end long-term care services at the home in January of 2019.

Thankfully, regional ombudsman from the East Central Illinois Area Agency on Aging told local news outlets that residents and their family members felt individual rights and desires were protected during the transition and that staff saw the process out appropriately. Unfortunately, this is not always the case and many residents preparing for a move out of their control will find themselves neglected or abused during a time of uncertainty and when changing staffing challenges become present. The move may be tough though for many of the LeRoy Manor residents who were originally from the area and able to stay connected with family and friends on a regular basis. These are relationships important when addressing basic care and medical needs and identifying nursing home neglect and abuse symptoms of loved ones.

Nursing Homes Continue To Fail Under CMS Turmoil

Published on: March 11, 2019 | Levin & Perconti

nursing home reform

Latest Senate Hearing Shows CMS Can Do More to Protect Nursing Home Residents

On Wednesday, March 6, 2019 another government session, this time led by the US Senate Committee on Finance, was held to discuss several disturbing reports of nursing home abuse and neglect and the lack of preventative measures and faulty reporting system used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to create environments for quality resident care. The hearing was led by Chairman, Chuck Grassley (R – IA) and Ranking Member, Ron Wyden (D – OR) with special panelist testimony delivered by family members of residents fallen victim to nursing home abuse or neglect.

A Minnesota woman heartbreakingly remembered her mother, an Alzheimer’s patient who was raped by care staff. During the hearing she said, “My final memories of my mother’s life now include watching her bang uncontrollably on her private parts for days after the rape, with tears rolling down her eyes, apparently trying to tell me what had been done to her but unable to speak due to her disease.” A woman from Iowa shared her family’s concern after their mother died in a nursing home ranked with the highest possible quality of resident care scores from CMS even though the organization had been seriously fined for physical and verbal abuse. The elderly woman was allegedly left in severe pain and may have been dehydrated days before her nursing home death.

Nursing Homes Put Profits Over Patients

Published on: January 11, 2019 | Levin & Perconti

for profit nursing homes

Vulnerable Populations Pay the Price as U.S. Nursing Home Chains Crumble Under Risky Financial Choices

The Long Term Care Community Coalition, in partnership with the Center for Medicare Advocacy, is preparing a strong agenda for 2019 starting with a joint statement concerning the chaos that has occurred in the nursing home industry as operators, even those of large care groups, are undertaking money hungry risks at the cost of their own staff resources and vulnerable patient residents. The joint statement highlighted investigative findings reported by The Washington Post, The Kansas City Star, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times of these U.S. nursing homes chains.

The Carlyle Group bought HCR ManorCare and each year since the number of health deficiencies at the chain rose 26 percent. The Carlyle Group then went on to sell ManorCare’s real estate collection for more than $6 billion dollars but inevitably faced bankruptcy in 2018 after not being able to pay rent to the new owners.

For-Profit Nursing Homes Should Come With Warning

Published on: November 19, 2018 | Levin & Perconti

for profit nursing home

Chicago School of Public Health Research Findings Conclude For-Profit Nursing Homes Need to Provide Better Care

Lee Friedman, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences in the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, recently led a study that found “community-dwelling adults 60 years old and older who need assistance with tasks related to daily living but do not live in a nursing home had the fewest number of clinical signs of neglect compared with those living in any type of nursing facility.”

These findings come as no surprise to the abuse and neglect attorneys at Levin & Perconti though. For decades, it’s been known that residents receiving care in for-profit nursing homes are twice as likely to experience health issues caused by substandard care compared with those living in not-for-profit facilities or residents in their own homes among the general community. We share the same sentiments published in Friedman’s new report in the journal Gerontology.