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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA nursing home where 83 residents died of Covid is still in business under a new name
In December 2019, Sharon Farrell flew from Florida to visit her brother Stephen at a New Jersey nursing home, where, she said, she found disgusting conditions. "I told the nurse, 'I am calling the state,'" she said. "Im paying $9,000 a month, and I wouldnt let my dog live like this."
Farrell said that four months later, as Covid-19 was spreading rapidly, she repeatedly called the facility to ask how her brother was doing. When she finally reached someone, she said, she was told he was fine. Within a few days, however, he was dead.
It has been 19 months since the discovery of 17 bodies in a tiny morgue at the Andover Subacute II nursing home in Sussex County, New Jersey, in April 2020. The federal government fined the owners $221,115 for not being in "substantial compliance," and the attorney generals office began an investigation.
But the owners are still in business. They changed the names of Andover and its sister facility and installed new signs out front. As of Friday, there were 25 residents of Andover with Covid, according to state data.
And the owners are still being paid by Medicare and Medicaid, the taxpayer-funded programs that pay most costs for U.S. nursing home operators even though one of the owners, Louis Schwartz, helped run a chain called Skyline Healthcare, which collapsed in 2019 amid accusations of neglect and financial mismanagement, which the chain denied.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/nursing-home-83-residents-died-covid-still-business-new-name-rcna6189
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This is disgusting and exactly what is wrong with nursing homes. These guys should be LOCKED UP for good!
Phoenix61
(17,019 posts)to ensure nursing homes are in compliance. Add insanely low pay for the majority of the people who work in them and its no surprise conditions are so horrible.
Jilly_in_VA
(10,008 posts)This article is about the people who OWN these places. They are the real criminals.
Phoenix61
(17,019 posts)Its the reason it happens. They rarely get caught so its profitable for them to break the rules. Its the same mentality that people who hire unregistered workers use. Sure its breaking the law but its profitable.
lame54
(35,328 posts)ProfessorGAC
(65,227 posts)They've accumulated 35 COVID deaths. There are only 180 beds.
Nearly 1 in 5 long term care patients.
They're still open.
I should acknowledge that they haven't had a death since early January. And 25 of the deaths earlier than mid-May 2020. And, that some of those killed were very much up in age.
But, still they never closed.
So, I guess I'm not very surprised.
Solly Mack
(90,789 posts)JanMichael
(24,894 posts)Or $108,000 annually?
Wow.