Concordia
Care Centre faces loss of federal funding |
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Concordia Care Centre, the
nursing home that allegedly failed to protect residents from sex offenders
living there, has until midnight Friday to assure regulators that residents are
safe or it will lose funding. |
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The centre will lose all
federal Medicaid and Medicare funding on Saturday unless it can assure that
residents' health and safety no longer are in "immediate jeopardy,"
state and federal officials said Wednesday. If the centre can't do this, it
will be forced to move its 70 residents. |
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In addition, the city of Minneapolis
filed 11 criminal neglect charges against the nursing home on Tuesday. The
gross-misdemeanour fines could total $33,000, the Star Tribune reported in its
Thursday editions. |
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Concordia has faced the loss of
federal funding since a June 17 inspection. |
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The centre has denied
allegations of improper care, attorney Sam Orbovich said. It intends to appeal
at least some of the findings. |
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"There's a little
regulatory piling-on happening," he said. "I'm confident the
immediate jeopardy will be abated by Friday." |
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On Wednesday, Concordia
submitted a "plan of abatement" to the state Health Department. State
inspectors will visit the home Thursday or Friday to see whether the most
serious problems have been resolved. |
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Last week, a state inspection
found some additional infractions and "continuing immediate jeopardy
problems, some potentially aggressive behaviour by residents that was not
properly controlled," said Mike Tripple, who supervises inspections for
the Health Department. |
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"When we go back, if
residents still are in immediate jeopardy, the nursing home essentially will
move into closure mode," he said. |
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In a letter to Concordia last
week announcing the possible loss of federal money, the federal Centres for
Medicare and Medicaid also said that it had doubled Concordia's daily fines,
which have been accruing for infractions since April 5. |
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The nursing home owes $159,950
in federal fines as of Thursday. The fines grow $6,050 each day. It also owes
the state $108,377.49 in back payments of a nursing home surcharge imposed on
all homes last year. |
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It also faces a civil lawsuit
brought in May by Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch over the allegations of
sexual abuse and unclean conditions. A spokeswoman for Hatch said the suit will
continue even if the home is closed. |
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Meanwhile, Concordia is
operating at a financial loss and has defaulted on $2.8 million in revenue
bonds issued by the city of Minneapolis. |
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Concordia is owned by Benchmark
Healthcare of Minneapolis, which is owned by the Foundation for the Elderly, in
North Carolina. Two other homes owned by the foundation in Wisconsin had such
severe care issues that the state took charge of them. Another, in Toledo,
Ohio, filed for bankruptcy in May. |
"The financial issues are
major," said Thomas Johnson, a Tennessee businessman who took control of
Concordia in November. "But our first priority is good care of residents.
We want to make sure that the state agrees that we are doing that properly.
Then we will deal with the financial problems."
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