As the coronavirus spread, inspectors found that staffers in some Life Care homes failed to wash hands, wear masks and isolate patients.
Nursing homes operated by Life Care Centers of America, one of the largest chains in the industry, violated federal standards meant to stop the spread of infections and communicable diseases even after outbreaks and deaths from covid-19 began to sweep its facilities from the Pacific Northwest to New England, inspection reports show.
Around the country, even nursing homes with strong track records have publicly reported cases of covid-19, which is particularly lethal among the elderly.“We have a virus that has attacked our vulnerable populations who have co-morbidities, and that has made this extremely difficult to manage,” said Tim Killian, public information liaison for Life Care Centers of America. “We need help. We need hands on the ground. We need money. We need equipment. We need doctors.
The company, without admitting liability and arguing the government did not prove its case, settled with the Justice Department in 2016 for $145 million — the largest settlement with a skilled nursing chain in the department’s history. Life Care also entered into a five-year corporate integrity agreement with the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, which required an independent annual review of the company.
The federal government has not yet released a death count in nursing homes nationwide, but state data has placed the number in the thousands. CMS in early March When an inspector showed up at a home in central Tennessee in April, the receptionist did not ask questions about the inspector’s health or about the health of a visitor who arrived afterward. The inspector looked at the visitor log and noted the receptionist had checked no to a series of screening questions, including whether the visitors had signs and symptoms of respiratory infection or had been in contact with anyone who had covid-19.
Preston and his partners opened the first nursing home in 1970. From his Tennessee headquarters, the company would grow to more than 200 nursing homes, one of the largest networks in the country.described the 45th anniversary of the first Life Care home, when Preston recounted the first night in operation: “I said these lights will never go off again until the second coming.”
In court records, the company denied the allegations and said that the nursing home’s conduct was lawful and appropriate. Prosecutors alleged that “every level of the corporate hierarchy” at Life Care pressed staff to grow Medicare revenue. Some patients put in therapy were terminally ill, sick or medically unstable, according to the Justice Department’s lawsuit, filed in federal court in Tennessee.
Life Care also said the Justice Department did not link “alleged corporate practices and actual claims nor individuals involved with submitting false claims.” By the third week of March, long after the virus had struck Life Care’s Kirkland home, Le said her colleagues were also short on masks, gowns and other protective equipment.
“Something’s going on there, but no one at the Life Care Center will tell us,” Eldridge recalled the fire chief saying.
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