Last month, an eye-popping settlement was reached as a Long Island nursing home ended a civil fraud lawsuit.
Additionally, the corporation that operates the nursing home pleaded guilty to criminal charges that it falsified documents to cover up the death of a resident.
Long Island Business News describes the civil suit:
Medford Multicare Center will pay $28 million in a settlement of a civil lawsuit that claimed that the facility’s owners committed fraud and illegally operated the company, according to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. In addition, Medford will return more than $10 million in restitution to Medicaid.
The lawsuits were based on criminal conduct by Medford’s employees as well as staffing and service cuts, along with diversion of Medicaid funds, the AG’s office said.
Under the settlement, Medford’s owners must retain an independent operator to manage care and compliance at the facility for five years. It will also hire an independent financial monitor to administer a newly-mandated resident care fund with a total of $9.1 million to pay for quality of care reforms and improvements that the new operator recommends. The company will also hire a compliance and risk management officer.
In addition, the company will hire full-time nurses to be overseen by registered nursing supervisors and maintain staffing levels for seven years. This measure will enable it to rely less on agency nursing staff.
And on the criminal side of things:
On Wednesday the corporation was also sentenced after pleading guilty to first-degree attempted falsifying business records in connection with the cover-up by its administrator, David Fielding, of the circumstances surrounding the 72-year-old’s death. That resident was at the facility for what was supposed to be short-term rehabilitation. New York State Supreme Court Justice John Collins, who oversaw the trial of the three nurses and two respiratory therapists who were convicted of causing and covering up the October 26, 2012 death of Aurelia Rios, fined the corporation $10,000, according to Schneiderman.
