As the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the country, nursing home residents proved especially vulnerable to the deadly virus. In New York, the Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation reported 35 coronavirus-related deaths—a figure that was later found to be much lower than the real death toll. As a result, the attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) has issued subpoenas in their investigation of the nursing home facility to help determine whether patients and staff were largely unprotected from the virus.
What Led to the State Attorney General’s Investigation of the Nursing Home?
An investigative article released in August reported that Cold Spring Hills Center, a 588-bed New York nursing facility, had largely underreported the number of resident deaths resulting from coronavirus. While the nursing facility had reported 35 COVID-related deaths, that number does not include those who died after being transferred to the hospital.
Death certificates on file with the Town of Oyster Bay clerk prove that the true death toll at the nursing home from March 1 to May 31 was not 35 residents—but 116. This exceeds the death toll of the previous year by 44 during the same time frame.
In light of this gross miscalculation, investigators assigned to the attorney general’s MFCU have issued subpoenas to the operators of Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation to learn about the nursing facility’s operations.
Current and former employees of the nursing home and family members of past or present residents have also reportedly been questioned. Among those individuals approached by the investigator are two former employees filing a wage-discrimination lawsuit against the nursing home facility.
What Do State Attorney Generals Want to Learn in the Investigation?
The cost of long-term care for New York’s elderly residents is covered by Medicaid and partially financed by the state budget; therefore, the MFCU leads the investigation. This unit, within the Attorney General’s Criminal Division, is accountable for handling cases “to safeguard elderly and disabled New Yorkers from abuse and neglect in nursing homes and other health care facilities.” If the nursing home is liable for fraudulent or improper Medicaid billing schemes, those responsible will be penalized and prosecuted extensively.
According to those questioned, the investigators are asking:
- How patients and residents were treated during this time
- Whether there was enough personal protective equipment (PPE)
- General questions about the facility’s operations
- Questions about the center’s administrator, Yossi Emanuel
In addition to the billions of dollars in revenue generated by Medicaid, Medicare, and private revenue, the nursing facility’s operator, Cold Spring Acquisition, LLC, received $3,411,620 as part of the federal nursing home providers relief package for COVID-19.
As the investigation continues, the State Attorney General’s Office will ultimately determine whether the Cold Spring Hills Center neglected to care for and protect both residents and staff during the peak of the coronavirus crisis to ensure that this does not happen again.
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