As those who follow nursing home-related disputes in the news can attest, the most common excuse you’re likely to hear when an accident occurs is, bottom line, a complaint about money.

When a resident is injured in a fall and lays unattended to for a long period of time, the likely excuse is that the facility lacked the money to hire enough workers — same for residents suffering horrific injuries from bedsores.

When a resident is injured or becomes seriously ill from too much or too little medication. It was too expensive to hire skilled staff. When nursing homes make these arguments, they generally cite to statistics about dwindling Medicaid and Medicare funding and the like.

The next time you hear this argument, keep this story in mind. As the article explains, Tennessee’s largest nursing provider agreed to pay $9.35 million dollars to settle a lawsuit brought by the federal government alleging that CareAll Management “robbed the Medicare Trust Fund of millions of taxpayer dollars.”

The lawsuit claims, in a nutshell, that the company submitted eight fraudulent cost reports to support Medicare billing that it knew was inaccurate. Now, this isn’t to suggest by inference that this sort of practice is widespread, but it’s certainly something to keep in mind the next time you hear a nursing home’s representatives complain that it can’t meet proper staffing and resource levels due to Medicare funds drying up.

Playing by the rules is a two-way street, and nursing home residents shouldn’t have to take the brunt regardless of what a facility’s funding situation truly is.

You can contact us here 24/7/365 (and we really mean that as we will answer our phone) if you have anyquestions and to learn how we may be able to help you or your loved one who has been a victim of nursing home abuse or neglect – in particular, you will find that we listen, take your phone calls and e-mails (and even text messages!). We would be honored to help you with your matters – large or small.