Kentucky journalist investigates nursing homes, violations, fines & government payments

How & why all of us can become ‘investigators’

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How many of you can name the state and federal agencies which oversee care and compliance in our nation’s nursing homes, also referred to as Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF’s)?

Before I began caring for my mother and realizing there would likely come a day when I would have to make the tough decision to transition to facility care, I knew little of how this system works.

And I’m going to bet that is probably the case for many of you. After all, it is really tough to research and educate ourselves about the world of eldercare, until we absolutely have to.

The reality is though… by that point, it is often too late. And that’s when many families then find themselves scrambling trying to survive a crisis situation, find resources and get answers.

The more we know

Despite recent trends of various public figures working hard to throw journalists under the bus, it is quite often because of the persistence and dedicated work of local journalists that we all learn how to better protect ourselves and our families.

That is exactly the case with a recent report produced by Louisville, Kentucky investigative journalist, John Charlton.

Investigative Journalist John Charlton, WHAS 11/Courtesy: Screenshot WHAS 11

He and his producers spent time digging into state and federal records, to identify nursing home facilities in the Louisville area which faced fines for various violations.

You can watch the full report here, from WHAS 11 in Louisville, Kentucky

Some of the violations ranged from lack of patient care, accusations of abuse and or neglect and failure to respond to patient needs.

What Charlton’s investigation also revealed, is that at the same time many of the facilities were facing fines, they also received thousands of dollars from the government. The payments were part of the Provider Relief Fund, which came about due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Disclosure:Charlton is a trusted colleague and also a long-time friend. We worked together many years ago in Miami, Florida.

I reached out to Charlton to talk about this report, why it was important and what he was able to share with viewers.

“So I looked at the situation here and looked at the fines levied against some nursing homes and then cross-referenced and compared it to what some would call bonus payments for quality incentive programs to fight Covid-19 in the nursing homes.

A lot of these nursing homes were failing so badly but then the rewards they were getting; so called rewards, were equal to or higher than the actual fines they were facing.

Courtesy: Screenshot WHAS 11

So the question is, where is the accountability? If you are failing on one end and you’re getting a bunch of money on another, is there really a punishment?”

Key takeaways

Charlton says one thing he learned as a result of producing this segment, is how important it is for family members to research facilities in advance of needing assistance.

“You can go online and look at the fines at the CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) website. You can search nursing homes anywhere in the country. It is a little tricky to navigate it, but once you get on there, you can search your specific area. You can see the fines and maybe ask questions yourself; what are these fines all about?”

You can investigate!

To do a little digging yourself, specifically about fines and violations, visit the Civil Money Penalty Reinvestment Program which can also be found on the CMS website.

You can also visit the Provider Relief Fund via the Health Resources & Services Administration. This is where you can determine which facilities may have received financial assistance.