State AG Sues WP Nursing Home for Fraud and Neglect
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A nursing home in White Plains is one of four being sued by New York Attorney General Letitia James for years of alleged repeated and persistent fraud and illegally misusing funds that resulted in significant resident neglect, harm and humiliation.
Following an investigation by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the lawsuit filed by James last week targets Centers for Care, LLC, which operates Martine Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in White Plains, and three other facilities statewide.
“Nursing homes are meant to be safe spaces where the most vulnerable members of our community receive the care and dignity they deserve. Instead, the owners of Centers Health Care allegedly used these four nursing homes. and the vulnerable New Yorkers who lived there, to extract millions of dollars for their personal use, leading to elderly residents and those with disabilities suffering unconscionable pain, neglect, degradation, and even death,” James said.
“Rather than honor their legal duty to residents to provide the highest possible quality of life, Centers leadership and their associates seized every opportunity to put personal profit over resident care,” she continued. “My office will always protect and defend nursing home residents statewide, and I encourage anyone who has witnessed disturbing conditions, neglect, or abuse at a New York nursing home to contact my office.”
The probe revealed that residents at the four facilities cited allegedly were forced to sit for hours in their own urine and feces, suffered from severe dehydration, malnutrition, and increased risk of death, developed infections and sepsis from untreated bed sores and inconsistent wound care, sustained life-changing injuries from falls, and died.
At the Martine Center, James alleged one female resident appeared to be in pain while she was visited by a daughter. When the daughter pulled her mother’s hand from under her blanket, it was covered in feces. The daughter found that her mother, who used a colostomy bag, was wrapped in a towel filled with feces and without a bag. When she unwrapped the towel, she saw her mother’s exposed intestines and the surrounding area covered in feces. While staff attempted to clean the resident, she complained that the area burned and there was still visible feces around the wound.
Another resident allegedly did not receive adequate care for his bed sores. When his wife visited in October 2021, she was shocked to find that his wounds had progressed to Stage III and Stage IV ulcers, one of which was eating away most of his buttocks. His wife then began the process of having her husband removed from Martine Center to be cared for at home, but before she got the chance, he developed sepsis, was hospitalized, and died.
The lawsuit also alleges that the nursing homes’ owners and operators converted more than $83 million in Medicaid and Medicare funds to enrich themselves, their families, and business associates through an elaborate network of related companies and collusive, fraudulent transactions, rather than use the funds for their intended purposes of providing sufficient staffing and required resident care.
To stop further harm and suffering, James is seeking to prohibit the nursing homes from admitting new residents until staffing meets appropriate standards, to implement a financial monitor and a healthcare monitor, and to disgorge any and all wrongfully received government funds.
Martine Center is a 200-bed facility. Centers Health Care is co-owned by Kenneth Rozenberg and Daryl Hagler.
In a statement, Jeff Jacomowitz, a spokesperson for Centers Health Care, refuted the claims made in the lawsuit.
“Centers Health Care prides itself on its commitment to patient care. Centers denies the New York Attorney General’s allegations wholeheartedly and attempted to resolve this matter out of court,” Jacomowitz stated. “We will fight these spurious claims with the facts on our side. Beyond that, Centers Health Care will not comment on ongoing litigation.”
James maintained the COVID-19 pandemic “exposed and exacerbated” the deficient resident care and poor working conditions that resulted from Rozenberg and Hagler’s decisions. In addition to operating with insufficient staffing, James alleged the nursing homes failed to ensure proper infection control, such as quarantining sick residents, providing adequate and reliable health screenings, and equipping staff with personal protective equipment.
At the Martine Center, James contended the Assistant Director of Nursing continued to report to work after exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 in early April 2020, telling her colleagues that she did not want to abandon them while they were understaffed. On April 17, 2020, she punched out of work at Martine Center for the last time. Four days later, she was hospitalized and tested positive for COVID-19. She died in the hospital a few weeks later.
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