Listen to this articleAn $8.6 million settlement has been reached in an investigation into charges of financial fraud and abuse at a nursing home, the New York Attorney General’s Office said Monday.
The AG’s office secured the settlement with Fulton Commons Care Center, and is requiring its owners and operator to also install monitors to reform its healthcare and financial operations after “years” of fraud and residential mistreatment, according to Attorney General Letitia James.
“For years, residents at Fulton Commons endured despicable mistreatment that left them with traumatic injuries and humiliating living conditions while the owners and operator of the facility pocketed millions of dollars of taxpayer funds instead of investing in critical care,” James said in a statement.
Fulton Commons will now be controlled in part by an independent healthcare monitor, who will mandate reforms to improve resident care, such as hiring more staff. The AG’s office is also installing an independent financial monitor to audit Fulton Commons’ spending and prevent future financial transactions.
In the agreement, Fulton Commons will pay up to $7 million into a fund to implement the required reforms to ensure the safety of its residents, and pay an additional $1.6 million in restitution to Medicaid and Medicare for the funds they illegally diverted. In addition, the facility must pay the AG’s office $100,000 as reimbursement for the investigation costs.
In addition, James announced the guilty plea and sentencing of Fulton Commons for criminal acts relating to covering up reports of sexual assaults against residents in 2020 and 2022. Fulton Commons was sentenced to a fine of $5,000 and ordered to fully comply with conditions imposed by the AG’s office.
Fulton Commons can be excluded from the Medicaid program if it violates the terms imposed by OAG, and the terms will still apply even if Fulton Commons is sold to new owners.
“The most vulnerable New Yorkers and their families trusted Fulton Commons to care for them, but instead of dignified treatment, they were neglected and abused,” she added. “Today, we are ensuring that the owners and operator of Fulton Commons are held responsible for their negligence, and that the facility makes all the necessary changes to guarantee its residents get the care they deserve.”
Officials say that that owners of Fulton Commons constructed two different financial schemes to steer funding intended for patient care to themselves.
In one scheme, the current owners paid themselves $14.9 million in fraudulent inflated rental payments using Medicare and Medicaid funds. In another scheme, the principal owner and operator of Fulton Commons, Moshe Kalter, paid fraudulent salaries to his eight adult children, who were each one percent owners of Fulton Commons, for no-show jobs at the nursing home. In total, more than $16 million in taxpayer funds went into Fulton Commons’ owners’ pockets instead of being used to care for its residents.
According to James, the investigation involved cases in which a woman admitted to Fulton Commons for rehabilitation and care after having her foot amputated because of diabetes. Her call bells for assistance were often unanswered, and as a result, she missed doses of her medication and at times sat in soiled briefs for prolonged periods of time. In January 2020, her remaining foot developed an infection, which progressed until her entire foot turned black from necrosis. On the day she died in November 2020, her healthcare proxy arrived at Fulton Commons and attempted to see her but was told her condition was not severe enough to merit an in-person visit. She died less than two hours later.
