Closer look at nursing homes is needed

It's a horrifying trail of alleged neglect and mistreatment, of profits over patients, of a tragic and appalling lack of attention to the most vulnerable Long Islanders.

Residents of Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Woodbury deserve far better.

The accusations detailed in a complaint filed in Nassau State Supreme Court by Attorney General Letitia James against Cold Spring Hills and its owners, particularly principal owner Bent Philipson, paint an alarming picture of a nursing home that should have — but did not — care for those who could not care for themselves. In citing examples of leaving residents unshowered or sitting in soiled diapers, ignoring basic hygiene and patient calls for help, and failing to provide necessary medical and wound care, the lawsuit indicates that the home's owners, managers and staff didn't put their residents' needs first.

Instead, profits came first. James alleges that the nursing home's owners diverted more than $22.6 million in Medicaid and Medicare funds for patient care into their own pockets, using 13 different companies as deceptive go-betweens. Even federal COVID-19 stimulus payments were transferred into a limited liability corporation controlled by one of the owners. Meanwhile, staffing cuts became the norm.

A Newsday investigation in August 2020 first brought concerns regarding Cold Spring Hills to light, especially the facility's response to COVID-19. None of this began with COVID, but COVID exposed issues some nursing homes have had for years.

The lawsuit follows another that James filed against Fulton Commons Care Center in East Meadow, which also focuses on patient neglect and misuse of profits. In both cases, state and federal prosecutors might also want to take a look.

Both are welcome spotlights on an ugly picture that illustrates the deep and very real worries regarding some for-profit nursing homes, the taxpayer funds they receive, and the lack of appropriate oversight and accountability that has led to this moment.

James is right to seek independent health care and financial monitors for Fulton Commons and Cold Spring Hills, and the removal of Cold Spring Hills' current ownership. But none of that will solve the more pervasive problems. State public health officials must assess their own oversight practices, to see what regulations and enforcement guidelines must change. Better metrics, with updated consumer-friendly surveys and reports, would help. And James must be aggressive in presenting the State Legislature with proposals meant to stop such atrocious behavior, particularly when it comes to sufficient staffing and vendor relationships.

Not all for-profit nursing homes can be called bad actors. But the model is clearly set up to allow owners to take advantage and misuse taxpayer money for their own benefit. That has to stop.

Long Island's oldest and sickest residents have suffered enough. It's time to give them the care and attention they deserve.