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Beverly Enterprises - Poster Child Of Fraud And Neglect In Nursing Home Industry
By Evelyn Pringle (about the author)
Become a Fan -- Page 3 of 7 page(s)
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."
That administrator is paid based on a formula. The formula includes a number of factors, but one of the critical factors is always keeping costs as low as possible. If the administrator is successful in doing that, the administrator is paid more in salary.
Become a Fan -- Page 3 of 7 page(s)
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."
That administrator is paid based on a formula. The formula includes a number of factors, but one of the critical factors is always keeping costs as low as possible. If the administrator is successful in doing that, the administrator is paid more in salary.
Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for OpEd News and investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government and corporate America.
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
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