![]() ![]() The facility failed to provide medication to residents, lacked hot water and clean linens, and residents suffered falls, pressure sores, and other significant lapses in care.Īs part of the settlements, the owners, unlicensed operator, and landlord have admitted wrongdoing, and together, will return $7.1 million to Medicaid, with $4.3 million going to New York. Under the control of this unlicensed operator and his associates, conditions at Saratoga Center rapidly declined. In 2017, following a financial dispute, Saratoga Center’s landlord pressured the owners, who were the licensed operators, to relinquish control of the nursing home to the unlicensed operator, and never reported the change to the New York State Department of Health (DOH). NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James and the United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York (USAO-NDNY) Carla Freedman today announced they have secured more than $7.1 million from the Saratoga Center for Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Care (Saratoga Center), a former nursing home in Ballston Spa, and its owners, unlicensed operator, and landlord for years of fraud and resident neglect. ![]() Settlement Marks Fourth Recent Action by AG James to Address Problems in Nursing Homes and Protect Vulnerable New Yorkers “We have to ask the question: What do we value as a nation and as a society?” James said.Owners, Operator, and Landlord of Saratoga Center Deceived DOH, Caused Widespread Neglect and Abuse James is also calling for the legislature to include wage increases for nursing home workers in the state budget, which is due April 1. ![]() However, she said that doing so was on her agenda for her visit to Albany next week. James, who ran a short-lived Democratic primary campaign against Hochul before dropping out in December, has yet to speak with the governor about the pauses. Hochul issued her first executive order to pause the cap two days later. ![]() The nursing home industry filed a federal lawsuit against the profit cap in December, arguing it's unconstitutional for the state to confiscate their revenue and that there is no direct correlation between profitability and quality of care. Meanwhile the profit cap, passed as part of the 2021-22 state budget, limits nursing home profits to 5% and mandates at least 70% of revenue go toward care. There’s been debate over whether nursing homes will have to comply with that average every day or on a quarterly basis. The law, passed in May and signed into law by Cuomo in June, mandates nursing homes provide residents with an average of at least 3.5 hours of direct nursing care every day. James’ report was a driving factor in state lawmakers passing the safe staffing law, which had languished in Albany for years. State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli confirmed those findings in his own report last week. The report also detailed how former governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration undercounted the state’s nursing home death toll by about 50% by not including residents who died of COVID after being taken to hospitals. It also found some nursing homes directed money toward related parties rather than investing in staffing and personal protective equipment. James’ January 2021 report found many nursing homes across the state were ill-equipped and ill-prepared to deal with the pandemic because of poor staffing levels and a lack of compliance with infection control protocols. “It’s time to lift the pause on both of those bills, and put in place staffing ratios, put in place a law that was deemed to address where the profits of some of these owners should be placed, which is back into the nursing homes,” she said. James, speaking Monday with union leaders from 1199 SEIU United Health Care Workers East, said the laws are needed to protect both workers and residents from understaffing. The governor has issued monthly executive orders to pause the laws, citing the state’s health care worker shortage and the COVID-19 pandemic. 1, but Hochul has delayed their implementation. The state’s nursing home safe staffing law and profit cap, meant to direct more money toward resident care, were supposed to take effect Jan. Kathy Hochul to implement those same reforms. New York State Attorney General Letitia James, whose report on nursing homes last year led to industry reforms, is now calling on Gov. ![]()
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