For many years, we have been stating on this blog that one of the greatest sources of our healthcare crisis is Medicare Fraud. A recent article in The New York Times details the recent increase in this disturbing trend of for profit nursing homes not only over-billing Medicare, but actually altering the treatment of innocent residents - solely to increase their profit.
A nurse in Florida has been fired several times for the falsification of records and poor work performance, and yet was hired again to work with children at a hospital in St. Petersburg. Over the past 10 years, Bernard Moran was employed by Mease Countryside Hospital and Helen Ellis Memorial. Moran was fired from Mease after he faked his time sheets and collected $118,000 at the expense of the residents and the facility. After a short suspension, Moran was hired at Helen Ellis Memorial in Tarpon Springs, Florida. While there, he falsified records to make it look like he had given nurses their annual CPR training and failed to inform his supervisor of two serious surgical mistakes. After all of this, Moran was recently hired as a nurse at All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg. Read this full story online here.
I recently found a USA Today article that details how nurses can move from state to state and keep working in spite of incompetence and criminal activity. There is a compact among 24 states whereby a license obtained in a nurse's home state allows access to work in the other compact states. But an investigation conducted by, ProPublica, the non-profit news organization, found that the pact also has allowed nurses with records of misconduct to put patients in jeopardy. In some cases, nurses have retained clean multi-state licenses after at least one compact state had banned them.
You can read more on this story online here.
David R. Cohen, Chair of Stark & Stark's Nursing Home Litigation Group, authored the article, Decubitus Ulcers: An Update on Staging and The Impact of Never Events on Hospital Litigation, for the June 21, 2010 edition of the New Jersey Law Journal.
The article features an update on the process of diagnosising and staging decubitus ulcers, as well as guidelines for proper care and prevention. The article also includes a discussion on the applicability of so-called “never events” and what effect they can have in litigation matters.
You can read the full article online here. (PDF)
According to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office, the state agencies responsible for assessing whether or not nursing homes are compliant with quality standards continue to miss serious deficiencies in homes throughout the country. The report released by Senators Chuck Grassley (R, Iowa) and Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) brings to light a major disparity between the reports conducted by federal investigators and state examiners.
The federal surveys, which are used to monitor state reports, noted that the failure of state inspectors to notice deficiencies in homes is a serious problem that needs to be addressed and fixed immediately. Though the gap between federal and state inspections is closing (from 14.7% in 2007 to 12.3% in 2008), the Senators believe the rate at which the gap is closing is not quick enough in order to prevent serious harm to residents.
Additionally, the number of federal surveys that caught a lower-level care deficiency, which was initially missed by a state inspection, grew dramatically from 55% in 2001 to 75% in 2008. Once again, the reports show that federal inspectors are detecting problems which state inspectors have missed. The Senators hope that this report will urge Congress to do more in order to improve the survey system, increase funding and standardize the survey process.
As reported recently, a New Jersey Labor Union recently narrowly avoided a strike. The article referenced three nursing homes - Manhattan View Nursing Home in Union City, Teaneck Nursing Center in Teaneck, and Amboy Care Center in Perth Amboy. All three are operated by Michael Konig.
As we have noted in this blog, the first order of business in caring for nursing home residents is to hire qualified staff - and treat them well.
To read the full article click here. (PDF)
David Cohen, Shareholder in the Personal Injury Group, concentrates his practice in nursing home negligence and abuse claims, elder abuse and assisted living facility litigation. Mr. Cohen is the Chair Elect for the American Association for Justice’s (AAJ) Nursing Home Litigation Group.
AAJ released an original research report on the insurance industry, “Tricks of the Trade: How Insurance Companies Deny, Delay, Confuse and Refuse.” The new report describes some of the most egregious ways the insurance industry attempts to make money at the expense of consumers. Additionally, the new report details six tactics that target policyholders, names the insurance companies that are engaging in these practices, and lays out what consumers can do to prevent abuses and fight back.
You can read the full report here (PDF).
Here is an article on the National Rating System for Nursing Homes. It is with mixed feelings that I can report on the new CMS ratings system for nursing homes. Although I appreciate any effort to get more information to consumers, a nursing home's performance and systemic issues which may plague it are very nuanced. I do not believe that a star rating system will provide enough valuable information and might serve to dumb-down the screening process for consumers. All residents (and their needs) are different. A nursing home that is weak in some areas may be strong in others. That being said, I am sure that a very poorly rated facility will be doubly motivated to improve its score. Time will tell how well the new system will work.
Enter keywords:
