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The New Mexico attorney general recently filed a lawsuit against one of the country’s largest nursing home chains, Preferred Care Partners Management Group, for defrauding Medicaid and causing the neglect and mistreatment of residents.
The lawsuit specifically names 11 nursing homes, although it could have larger implications in other states if it is successful. Preferred Care Partners is based in Texas, with nursing homes in about 10 other states including Iowa and Florida. According to the suit, the chain purposefully understaffed its nursing homes in the pursuit of higher profits, at the expense of the physical and emotional well-being of its residents.
In a related story, NPR recently reported on one of the most pronounced and dangerous problems in American nursing homes: overmedicating residents. These two stories are closely related and impact one another because staff that work at chronically understaffed nursing homes often turn to pharmaceuticals to “restrain,” or “subdue” the residents they do not have time to care for.
An estimated 300,000 nursing home residents are currently on antipsychotic drugs to suppress aggression or anxiety. Antipsychotic drugs, like Seroquel or Risperdel, all come with a black box warning (the FDA’s most strict warning) to alert patients of the increased risk of death. The FDA also specifically states that most antipsychotic drugs should not be prescribed to elderly patients with dementia.
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In fact, in 2013 the agency released a public health advisory, warning that certain antipsychotic drugs were associated with increased mortality among these patients. Several clinical studies, along with the tragic premature death of countless people, prompted the FDA to make this public announcement. The drugs are proven to cause significantly higher death rates, along with infections and heart failures in this demographic.
How, you may ask, are hundreds of thousands of elderly dementia patients still receiving antipsychotics? The crux of this issue can be explained through the lawsuit in New Mexico and its implications. Preferred Care Partners is accused of profiting from falsely billing Medicaid while understaffing its facilities and giving residents substandard care.
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Improperly staffed nursing homes are unable to deliver suitable care to its residents, which results in overmedicating residents, leaving residents in soiled clothes and beds, ignoring restroom requests, and higher rates of serious falls. Other allegations against Preferred include neglecting to bathe residents, failing to assist them with meals, and residents suffering from dehydration and malnutrition.
The New Mexico attorney general is claiming that Preferred billed Medicare and Medicaid for services that were not provided, or were fundamentally worthless.
Federal law also prohibits the use of antipsychotics in residents who do not have a psychological disorder, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
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More often than anyone would like to believe, understaffed nursing homes give residents these drugs to control them in a practice called “chemical restraint.” Powerful, dangerous drugs are given to residents with dementia who express severe anxiety, unruliness, agitation, and other difficult-to-control behaviors. Understaffed facilities simply do not have the time to care for these residents, so they subdue them with drugs.
The vast majority of dementia patients experience behavioral and psychological symptoms at some point. That is simply the nature of the disease, and it is often why residents are placed in nursing homes to begin with: so they can be in a safe environment with medical professionals. In order to give someone an antipsychotic drug, there needs to be a medical need and when the drugs are prescribed needlessly, the effects are obvious.
The NPR profile gives detailed accounts of families who have been impacted by this practice, along with an interactive database showing the history of antipsychotic drug usage by area code.
Nursing home negligence lawsuits are the fastest, most efficient way to get corporate chains like Preferred Care Partners to change their practices. If you have any questions about this topic or any other type of elder abuse and neglect, contact our firm immediately. Our team of elder law attorneys accepts clients from all 50 states, and offer case reviews completely free of charge.
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