Nursing Home charges Government for Dead Residents

Nursing Home charges Government for Dead Residents

Nursing Home charges Government for Dead Residents 150 150 Lauren Ellerman

I didn’t make that up. Read this article from The Boston Globe

The State of New York recently performed an in house audit of State Medicaid payments – who received them, why, etc. The audit found the agency had paid MILLIONS for services, to those who had already been deceased. How does that happen – well, the facility bills under a client name or code for services – Medicaid pays it!

The audit found that 1 nursing home collected $15,000 for a patient two years after the patient died. Overall, state tax payers were paying for medical services for 4722 deceased persons. Thats incredible!

How did all this happen – well, bureaucracy at its best – or as my grandmother used to say – the right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing. There was no standard state reporting system for deaths – “One reason the state paid for dead patients is that there is no standardized way for counties to update information to the state’s Welfare Management system, according to the audit.”

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Lauren Ellerman

In 2011, Lauren Ellerman was named "Young Lawyer of the Year" by the Roanoke Bar Association for her work in the community. To speak with Lauren about your personal injury case, contact her at lellerman@frithlawfirm.com.

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