A Republican senator is calling on the Justice Department to open an investigation into the “egregious and flagrant conditions” at the Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center, a nursing home that has made national headlines amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa penned a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday, urging him to look into violations of the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA). The letter was co-signed by Sens. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Thom Thillis of North Carolina.
Grassley also addressed Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure in a separate letter asking the agency to detail why it is still paying for patient care at the facility, and what actions may be taken in the future.
CMS sent a letter to Woodland back in February threatening to take its nursing home license away “unless substantial compliance [was] achieved before March 3” after inspections revealed that staff had failed to prevent abuse and neglect of its residents, according to Grassley’s letter.
The government agency has since extended that deadline to Aug. 15, though more work still needs to be done in order for the facility to continue to participate in Medicare and Medicaid, CMS said.
Grassley’s letters come at a time when the White House has zeroed in on the nursing home industry with 21 recently proposed initiatives across five strategic goals, one of which being increasing accountability and transparency among nursing home owners.
The state and federal governments have been keeping a watchful eye on Woodland, previously known as Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation II, for the last several years even before the pandemic.
Back in 2017 the nursing home agreed to pay $888,000 to resolve False Claims Act allegations that it provided “substandard or worthless nursing services to some patients.”
In April 2020 police discovered 17 bodies in a makeshift morgue at what was then the Andover facility. After CMS investigated further it found numerous health and safety violations and imposed a $220,235 civil penalty, the letter stated.
This is also not the first time Grassley has stepped in and called on the federal government to investigate nursing homes. Back in March 2021 the senator encouraged the DOJ to investigate nursing home deaths at facilities in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
The DOJ declined to open a CRIPA investigation into nursing homes in New York, Pennsylvania, or Michigan, but indicated it opened a CRIPA investigation into two nursing facilities operated by the state of New Jersey, according to the letter. Grassley is urging Garland and his staff to expand the investigation in New Jersey to include Woodland.
Companies featured in this article:
Andover Subacute & Rehabilitation I & II, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, CMS, Department of Justice, DOJ, Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center
