WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. Chuck Grassley and Sen. Joni Ernst are asking the Justice Department to explain the penalties against an Iowa nursing home that was ordered closed and ordered to pay $100,000 to federal taxpayers over “grossly substandard care” that was essentially “without value.” Grassley and Ernst said The Abbey of Le Mars was on a federal watch list for two years during the Obama Administration because of concerns about care.
“Given that it was a problem-prone facility, the Justice Department, as well as other agencies, need to explain why such outrageous abuse of patients was allowed to occur and what steps will be taken to ensure that this conduct will not go unpunished,” Grassley and Ernst wrote to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Grassley and Ernst asked a series of questions about when the Justice Department began looking into the facility; whether it coordinated with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General; how it arrived at the $100,000 False Claims Act settlement and whether an additional $360,000 in fines will be paid separately; how long the facility provided services deemed essentially “without value;” what monitoring is involved when a nursing home is on a federal watch list; and what other steps the previous administration took to “ensure that those engaging in the aforementioned conduct were held to account.”
Grassley and Ernst said holding the nation’s nursing homes accountable to federal safety standards is critical to the health and well-being of nursing home residents as well as ensuring taxpayer value for the billions of dollars spent on nursing home care.
The Grassley-Ernst letter is available here.
If you have a loved one in a care center, please be an advocate for them. Visit often and at different times. Listen to how the residents are being talked to and be observant. Don’t be afraid to question things that don’t seem right.
Most of the care is good, there are always a few who shouldn’t be working around people.
Word on the street is. I overheard two people talking about the Heritage nursing home here in town. It seems that Heritage is under staffed, so residents are not getting proper care. That’s what I heard, believe it or not.
Gossip monger, knock it off jerk. Guess what I hear about Allen?
How is it gossip when the people I heard talking have someone at Heritage. If I had someone there, I would want to know they weren’t getting good treatment. Besides, it goes along with the main article. Oh, one more thing, I don’t give a rats ass what you heard about me, so put a treble hook up your ass and troll somebody else.
When you begin your post by saying “word on the street……. you sir are the Troll fishing for bottom feeders just like your gossipy self.
Allen, you are correct. Good Shepherd has staffing problems as well. It is hard to get young people to work weekends and holiday’s and that is what is required in Nursing Homes. It isn’t that they don’t care, because most are very caring (there is always the exception) it is just hard to get people. The drug use is a issue too. Many young people can not pass the required drug test.
All nursing homes are under staffed. The problem is administration hires according to how many residents live there, not according to the needs of the person. Some people require more care than others and staffing is a problem everywhere. Don’t blame the facility, blame the state. They are the ones who write the regulations.
Where does it say I, blamed anybody.