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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Business is booming at SentosaCare, LLC. Despite a record of repeat fines, violations and complaints of deficient care, the company has become the largest nursing home network in New York, with at least 25 facilities and nearly 5,400 beds.
While the nation’s $137 billion nursing home industry has made major improvements since the landmark Nursing Home Reform Act, SentosaCare’s unhindered expansion highlights the continued weakness of nursing home oversight in New York, and exposes gaps in the state’s system for vetting parties who apply to buy shares in homes, Allegra Abramo and Jennifer Lehman write.
Key takeaways:
- SentosaCare homes took in nearly $538 million from Medicare and Medicaid in 2013. But 11 of those facilities exceeded the state average of 24 violations over the past three years, and three had double that number. Thirteen SentosaCare homes have Medicare’s bottom score for nurse staffing.
- On multiple occasions, state inspectors discovered the staff at SentosaCare facilities tried to cover up lapses in care — allegedly lying about residents leaving the premises without staff knowledge or the failure to spot bedsores, for example.
- New York is among a minority of states that don’t mandate minimum staffing ratios, even though research shows a strong link between nursing staff and residents’ well being.
- The Public Health and Health Planning Council has substantial leverage to press nursing home applicants to improve quality, but an examination of dozens of transactions in recent years show that power is seldom used.
Read the full story here: http://www.propublica.org/
And search for state-by-state inspection reports on our Nursing Home Inspectapp.
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