A state level corporate whistleblower center is now encouraging nursing home employees to speak out against nursing home facilities overbilling Medicare. According to a statement, the center says, “We are urging a manager or an employee at a [state] nursing home, a skilled nursing facility, a dialysis center or a company providing hospice services to call us anytime…if they can prove their employer is involved in significant Medicare overbilling for needless medical treatments.”&nb…

The lack of state laws on surveillance cameras in nursing homes creates a lack of freedom to use cameras as desired. Families are at the mercy of nursing home administration when laws are not in place to protect them. Many stories illustrate how surveillance cameras installed by family members to monitor the care of their loved ones reveal abuse as it occurs.Addressing the abuse as it occurs offers the opportunity to prevent further abuse.

Legislators in one state are working to pass into law preventions for death due to power failures. One nursing home has a current death toll of 14 patients who died in the aftermath of a hurricane. The weight of the tragedy has caused focus on prevention of power loss to avoid further incidents. In the words of one legislator, “Any loss of life is tragic, but it is worse when death can be avoided.” Nursing home owners are showing disfavor with the potential requirements of generat…

Advocates of camera use in nursing homes are making the argument that cameras are being used to abuse patients, so they should be allowed to be used for protection. Nurse caregivers are taking indecent photos of patients and posting them on social media. This is seen as a contradiction to any ban of cameras to monitor care of patients. Patients can be protected from abuse, or at least abuse can be recognized and dealt with appropriately with cameras monitoring care.

A nursing home that allowed a patient's wounds to become infested with maggots was earlier fined $163,000.  The facility earlier allowed a patient to experience unwitnessed falls and die. The facility then allowed a patient to be placed in “immediate jeopardy” due to a sexual assault that took place. The patient with infested wounds was sent to the hospital and died just a week later.

A nursing home patient that died in the aftermath of a hurricane was billed on what would have been her 100th birthday. The facility has since shut down due to the issues surrounding 14 patient deaths. The patient was automatically billed to her account where an overdraft fee was done. “How are they going to charge a dead person?” said a cousin of the deceased patient, in disbelief.