Three New Jersey nursing homes chronically understaffed, state comptroller finds
Officials say that due to the “egregious” understaffing, the nursing homes must pay back Medicaid funds along with a penalty.
Three New Jersey nursing homes have been ordered to repay more than $2 million in Medicaid funds after a state investigation uncovered chronic understaffing that left residents without basic care, including one facility where 82 patients went three full shifts without a single staff member on duty.
Acting State Comptroller Kevin Walsh’s office will withhold 10 percent of all future Medicaid reimbursements until the penalty is satisfied.
The penalty comes after a July 2023 investigation of the nursing homes that found they failed to meet legal staffing requirements every single day of that month. One of the nursing homes, the Belle Care Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Trenton, failed to have a single direct care staff member present to care for 82 patients during three full shifts that month.
“The minimum staffing requirements are clear, and they were put in place because residents rely on nursing home staff for their daily needs,” said Josh Lichtblau, director of the Comptroller’s Medicaid Fraud Division. “And the numbers don’t lie. We looked at 31 days, and they failed to meet the legal requirements every day. Nursing home residents deserve adequate staffing, and the Medicaid program should demand nothing less.”
New Jersey state law requires one certified nurse’s aide to every eight residents during the day shift, one direct care staff member to every 10 residents during the evening shift, and one direct care staff member to every 14 residents for the night shift.
Singled out in addition to the Trenton nursing home were Barnegat Nursing and Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, Barclays Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Cherry Hill. Calls to the facilities this week were not returned.
Walsh’s office is seeking to recover $735,180 from Barclays, $791,380 from Barnegat and $647,304 from Belle Care.
The staffing mandates have been challenged as unconstitutional by the representatives of the state’s long-term care industry, who have argued they are too onerous.
In December, the Comptroller’s Office released an alarming report that found waste, abuse and fraud over a five-year period at South Jersey Extended Care in Bridgeton. The Comptroller uncovered substandard care, disregard of state and federal requirements, and a fraudulent scheme to obscure ownership and maximize profits.
The owners of the facility “funneled tens of millions in profits, funded by a steady stream of taxpayer funds, into their network of for-profit and not-for-profit entities,” investigators reported.
During the period investigated, the facility received $35.6 million in Medicaid funds but spent $38.9 million on contracts with entities owned or controlled by the owners.
“They failed to report any of these related-party transactions to the state and federal governments, as required,” the Comptroller found. “They concealed their roles in order to avoid scrutiny and hide their conflicts of interest.”
New Jersey has about 350 nursing homes, also known as long-term care facilities, which are residential facilities that offer around-the-clock supervision, health-related care, and a range of support services. Senior advocates point out that nursing home residents are among the most vulnerable patients in the health care system and rely almost exclusively on Medicaid and Medicare.
“Again and again, we are seeing owners and operators of Medicaid-funded nursing homes in New Jersey engaging in massive fraud. That’s causing real harm to the vulnerable residents who rely on Medicaid. The fraud is also wasting taxpayer dollars,” Walsh said in February. “This is a systemic problem, and it needs to be treated as one.”
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Jeff Pillets is a freelance journalist whose stories have been featured by ProPublica, New Jersey Spotlight News, WNYC-New York Public Radio and The Record. He was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2008 for stories on waste and abuse in New Jersey state government. Contact jeffpillets AT icloud.com.
