SANTA FE: New Mexico’s attorney general is suing one of the nation’s largest nursing home chains over inadequate resident care, alleging that thin staffing made it numerically impossible to provide good care.
The novel approach in the lawsuit filed by outgoing Democratic Attorney General Gary King could be applied in other states if it succeeds. It targets seven nursing homes run by Preferred Care Partners Management Group L.P. of Plano, Texas, a privately held company with operations in at least 10 states: Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
“We hope that this action sends a message to nursing homes across the nation that the failure to provide the care that patients need and that homes are paid for will not be tolerated,” the state attorney general’s office wrote.
Under both the company and a previous owner, Cathedral Rock Management L.P., the attorney general alleges that the nursing homes profited by skimping on staff “at the expense of the physical well-being of vulnerable nursing home residents.”
Preferred Care Management Partners said in a statement that it had not yet seen the complaint, but believed the attorney general is targeting practices at its facilities that date to the time before it bought them.
The nursing chain operator is structured as a manager overseeing a series of private partnerships. Its chairman, Thomas Scott, who was named defendant in the lawsuit, is the only listed individual investor in publicly available Medicare data. His company is considered to be the 10th largest nursing home chain in the country…