Healthcare Compliance Perspective:
Compliance Officers need to monitor their staff for potential conflicts of interest that may interfere with a staff member’s ability to provide the highest level of care to their clients.
The Illinois Public Health Department (IDPH) recently issued citations and fined a nursing and rehabilitation center $2,200 for financial abuse of a resident. The fine was attributed to the failure by the healthcare facility to supervise nursing staff and provide adequate personal care to ensure the well-being of a resident with a bi-polar disorder who was admitted in March 2015.
In June 2015, the social services director approached the resident’s mother about selling the resident’s home. It was noted in a report that the resident “was upset and is trying to get stronger so she can go home.” Soon after, the resident wa
s told that her home would have to be sold.
The investigators found records that listed the resident’s home as having a fair market value of $82,769. Also, they found an estate settlement agreement that showed a sale dated April 19, 2016, of the resident’s home for $10,000 to the spouse of the facility’s social services director. The sale had been recommended by the facility’s business manager.
In July 2017, the business manager told the IDPH investigators that he house was in bad shape, and the realtor had suggested selling to someone who could renovate it. The realtor indicated he had worked with the social service director’s husband before and suggested an attorney to use for the sale. The resident had no attorney to represent her in the sale, and there was no appraisal done on the house as part of the sale. The social services director’s husband, along with his attorney, offered the facility $10,000 for the house and it was accepted. Soon after that, the husband sold the house for $95,000.
The resident was reported as being upset that her home had been resold for $95,000, and she now had no home. She also told the IDPH investigators that the offer she had accepted for the house was $2,000, not $10,000.
The IDPH also found out that the facility’s business manager and the husband of the social services director had been involved in the sale of real estate in another facility. The pair were terminated, and there is pending litigation against the facility by the resident’s family on her behalf.
