The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against American Health Foundation and its affiliate, AHF Management Corporation. Three affiliate nursing homes located throughout Pennsylvania and Ohio are also named in the lawsuit. According to the DOJ, these medical facilities provided grossly substandard medical care to patients resulting in a violation of the False Claims Act.

The three nursing homes named in the suit include; Cheltenham Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, a 255-bed facility, The Sanctuary at Wilmington Place, a 63-bed facility, and Samaritan Care Center and Villa, a 56-bed facility. These nursing homes are owned and operated by AHF, which is a nonprofit corporation.

The lawsuit details a slew of claims including specific examples which depict violations of the False Claims Act. The lawsuit details that residents lived in facilities that were dirty and pest-infested. Along with substandard living conditions, residents received inadequate care from the nursing staff. The DOJ details that residents were given unnecessary medication such as antibiotics, anti-anxiety and hypnotic drugs, and antipsychotic drugs. Because the facilities failed to create and keep track of important medical records, residents were often deprived of receiving necessary medication.

The complaint goes on to detail that staff at the nursing home failed to properly care for residents including safeguarding their personal belongings. Residents were not offered extracurricular activities or events that would provide stimulation to pass the time appropriately. The lawsuit goes as far as alleging that the staff members in the facility, including nurses, routinely subjected residents to verbal abuse as well.

The complaint lists specific incidences in which the medical care of residents was not prioritized. In one instance, the DOJ details an individual who was admitted to the Cheltenham nursing home. The patient had a history of self-harming behavior, and when he exhibited signs of self-harm, the facility ignored the warning signs and failed to provide him with the necessary psychiatric services. As a result of this failure, the man died by suicide after hanging himself in the shower room using a bed sheet.

In other instances, the lawsuit details how staff members disregarded inspections of the facility. The lawsuit explains, “On July 26, 2017, which was less than a week after Pennsylvania had completed a survey of the facility, one Cheltenham employee sent an internal email with the message: “Ain’t nobody faker than a nursing home when state is in the building . . . #Factz.” Another employee replied with a picture of a person laughing and the caption, “I’m dead,” indicating that she thought this was so funny she had died laughing.

The lawsuit alleges that the healthcare facilities and their operators knew about the substandard care. The lawsuit reads, “Ultimately, the Defendants knowingly submitted or caused the submission of false and fraudulent claims for nursing home care by (a) providing services that were either nonexistent or grossly substandard and (b) consistently violating the standards of care set forth in the Nursing Home Reform Act and its implementing regulations.”

Head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, shared the following after announcing the complaint, “Nursing homes are expected to provide their residents, which include some of our most vulnerable individuals, with quality care and to treat them with dignity and respect. The department will not tolerate nursing homes — or their owners or managing entities — who abdicate these responsibilities and seek taxpayer funds to which they are not entitled.”