Beverly Enterprises - Poster Child Of Fraud And Neglect In Nursing Home Industry

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Here the state's attorney general investigated Beverly for a "number of questionable practices, including falsification of records, problematic prescription practices and kickbacks involving medication and pharmacy services," LTC said.

According to Irvine California Attorney James Daily, just as in this case, nursing home abuse can include over-sedation, poor medical care, or wrong medication.

He says, prescribing drugs unnecessarily is a great example of a profit motive in many forms for all sorts of reasons.

"Lets say a drug makes people lazy, lethargic and comfortable, he says, "what a great drug that would be for a nursing home without people complaining, they are calm as Hindu cows easy to take care of and unlikely to complain."

"Thus they are like an annuity check for the nursing home," he explains, "because the people are less active, you can cut staffing you don't need so many people planning activities when they are all in their rooms."

"The checks just keep on flowing," he adds.

"The nursing home benefits, the drug companies benefit and the doctors," he said, "the doctors who only have to visit like once a month they can have 9000 patients."

Attorney Daily said, "I have a defendant right now who has 9000 patients."

"I wonder how much time you can spend with someone if you have 9000 patients?" he pointed out.

In the Hawaii settlement, Beverly was required to pay $619,000 to the state and $250,000 to be shared by two former employees who helped with the investigation and to bring its operations into compliance or pay another $500,000 penalty.

On July 23, 2005, Northwest Arkansas New.com reported that a Saline County Arkansas judge ordered Beverly to post a $20 million bond after the company intentionally delayed releasing discovery documents to plaintiffs in a nursing-home care case

But that's nothing. The month before, Judge Phillips threatened Beverly executives with jail when he found the company in contempt of court for failing to release e-mails and other electronic data.

The new order filed was based on a status hearing "as a sequel" to the contempt order, Judge Phillips said in the ruling.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of former residents and alleges that Beverly executives maximized profits by failing to provide enough staff to properly care of residents.

The litigation that Rapid City, South Dakota Attorney Mike Abourezk handles involves the cost-cutting incentive programs that nursing home companies often implement, which predictably results in shoddy care of the elderly residents.

"For instance," he says, "companies like Beverly Enterprises typically put an administrator in charge of each home."

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