Nursing Home Abuse News

Nursing Home Horror The Dark Side Of Fraud

The 88-year-old woman at Claywest House nursing home near St. Louis was totally reliant on staff for her care. There was nothing she could do about the ants crawling all over her. Or the waste she helplessly waited in during the weeks leading up to her death.

She’d been in good standing, her bills covered, at least in part, by the federal Medicare program. The problem at Claywest and at two other area nursing homes was poor staffing. And as investigators would later learn, the shortage wasn’t an oversight. It was built into the system—a decision that led to horrific conditions at the nursing homes between 1998 and 2001 and federal charges that the homes and their upper management were padding their balance sheets on the backs of helpless residents in their care.

“They were all trying to make a buck,” said Alan Peak, a supervisory special agent in the white collar crimes unit of our St. Louis field office, where the case was investigated in conjunction with local Health and Human Services inspectors. The probe revealed criminal conditions at the nursing homes—residents suffering from bed sores, malnutrition, beatings, neglect—all the result of their management company’s directives to cut costs. Meanwhile, managers rewarded themselves handsomely for their efficiency. Read more at fbi.gov.

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	Did You Know?
	There are places to report nursing home abuse. Make your report to the nursing home’s administrator, director of nursing, or social worker. The state or local ombudsman.The local police or state law enforcement. A protection and advocacy or adult protective services agency. The state survey agency that licenses and certifies nursing homes (often in the Health Department). A citizen advocacy group, or other church or community group that visits regularly.