The Hopkins Center Nursing Home in Brooklyn – Your Dog Will Get Better Treatment in a Kennel

 

“The Nearby Kennel is a Far Better Place to Be Than Hudson Center”

 

Dear Readers: This week we received numerous Letters to the Editor from people who have family members in the Hopkins Center in Brooklyn, NY. There are allegations that patients are being held against their will. There are claims of fair hearings that are either not being held or are being held and then ignored. In one case, the Social Worker involved allegedly advised the family that the patient could not leave but the patient is, according to the family, well enough. The family alleges that the social workers hold patients for the purposes of continuing to collect medicaid and medicare benefits for treatments that are either unnecessary or not being performed and for medications that are not being distributed.

We take letters like these very seriously. It is our hope that someone reading this can look into the Hudson facility to investigate.

Landau and his ilk have not been given a star for excellence in the compassion and kindness department. They are experts in their capacity to manipulate the system with payoffs and financial interests. And, as we have stated many times, but for a threatened copyright litigation, we would post Joel Landau’s face for public consumption.

In the interest of protecting the elderly and most vulnerable in our society, we are reposting information from previous posts.

As to the letters we have received, they are not being posted because they contain medical information and records about patients. Subject to the authorization of the families involved, the records are available for law enforcement investigation.

LM 10-7-17

http://nursing-homes.healthgrove.com/l/9416/Hopkins-Center-For-Rehabilitation-And-Healthcare

Hopkins Center for Rehab: 

https://www.yelp.com/biz/hopkins-center-for-rehabilitation-and-healthcare-brooklyn-2

“Stay away from this place the director Eileen lies! They made my mother walk around with a hospital type looking gown; never dressed her up to sit in the dining room; left the bed wet  and walking around in her slippers nothing on her when she could’ve fell; no supervision !”

To sum it up…as long as there is a failure of moral imperative-as long as the anything goes ‘free market’ health care continues, there will be enabling of criminal behavior. There will be no questioning that something that goes on within the four walls of the nursing facilities is ‘legal.’ How could it not be when there is no guideline and rare enforcement that might curb the abuse on many levels.

If an operator, like Landau in New York must simply pay chump change penalties/settlements to ignorant or willfully complicit government officials – to continue their mismanagement, there will be no change.

The negligent Albany legislators who are kept in office by predatory real estate interests and in the pockets of nursing home lobby groups such as Leading Age, that are run by the same people profiting from the government negligence and moral blindness, our most vulnerable population at the end of their lives will continue to be preyed upon.

Brius Heathcare, Shlomo Rechnitz and Public Funds – Audit

http://www.times-standard.com/article/NJ/20170628/NEWS/170629883

State to audit nursing home company’s use of public funds

A state committee voted Wednesday to approve an audit of California’s largest nursing home owner, Brius Healthcare Services, and whether the company misused hundreds of millions of dollars in government health care funds to benefit its affiliated businesses.

North Coast Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) is a member of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee that voted in favor of the audit Wednesday afternoon. He said the Los Angeles-based Brius Healthcare Services has a “very convoluted” system of nursing homes under limited partnerships and has connections with other businesses founded by Brius Healthcare’s CEO Shlomo Rechnitz.

“Brius controls one in 14 [nursing home] beds in California and it is a very convoluted network of limited partnerships and all sorts of other mechanisms out there,” Wood said to the Times-Standard. “Part of this audit is to see if they are all legitimate. … Our feeling is the way they’re doing this is to maximize profits. It’s not about providing high quality care for people.”

Brius’ spokesman Stefan Friedman wrote in a statement to the Times-Standard that Brius representatives were present at the committee hearing today and were in full support of the proposed audit.

“Not only will the audit results prove that Brius has abided by all applicable rules and regulations, it will also show that Brius went well above and beyond its duties and obligations to subsidize the care of California’s most vulnerable,” Friedman said.

Friedman also questioned McGuire’s and Wood’s information, which it states was provided by the National Union of Healthcare Workers. The union has been outspoken in its opposition to Brius Healthcare Services and created a website — briuswatch.org — to scrutinize the company and its CEO Shlomo Rechnitz.

“What is most disturbing though is that legislators McGuire and Wood would also glean their information from ‘newspapers’ and blogs, demonstrating their lack of understanding for the very program they oversee,” Friedman continued. “We urge the community and the media to follow the audit through to its findings.”

Brius Healthcare, which owns five of the six nursing homes in Humboldt County and over 80 nursing homes statewide, received over $500 million in reimbursement funds in 2015 from the MediCal and Medicare government health plan programs, which made up 80 percent of its profits, Wood said.

Wood and his North Coast legislative colleague Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) said Brius paid out more than $67 million that year to businesses with similar or related ownership for the purchase of services, goods and supplies, and paid more than $46 million to companies established Rechnitz that serve as landlords for their nursing home facilities.

A letter from McGuire and Wood to the state audit committee from earlier this month states that there is evidence that Brius facilities paid inflated prices to some of these business, with some prices exceeding 200 percent of market averages.

The nursing home company has come under fire for alleged patient health care violations, which has led to state entities denying the company’s bids to acquire more nursing homes and has led to multiple wrongful death lawsuits to be filed in Humboldt County in recent months.

“This is absolutely unacceptable especially when the state and federal government is spending $500 million dollars to care for our state’s most vulnerable in Brius facilities,” McGuire said to the Times-Standard on Wednesday. “We need to hold this corporation accountable.”

Brius Healthcare has expressed dissatisfaction with the reimbursement rates it receives from the state for treating MediCal patients.

The company temporarily stopped accepting MediCal patients into its Humboldt County nursing homes in 2015 while it disputed reimbursement rates with the North Coast’s MediCal provider, Partnership HealthPlan of California. Partnership HeathPlan agreed to increase reimbursement rates to Brius and other long-term skilled nursing facilities.

In the latter half of 2016, Brius Healthcare used its plans to close of three Humboldt County nursing homes to pressure Partnership into providing higher reimbursement rates so as to prevent the closures. Brius Healthcare cited low staffing levels as their reasoning for the proposed closure.

“We are confident we can avoid these closures, but we need PHP to start paying its fair share and allow us to attract full-time staff to meet our patients’ needs,” Friedman told the Times-Standard in September.

Partnership declined to increase rates, prompting Brius to announce its intention to cancel its contract with Partnership. However, this announcement was shortly retracted after it became clear that the company would lose reimbursement funds. Brius announced in November that it would only be closing one nursing home — Pacific Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Eureka — instead of three.

McGuire and Wood said the audit will likely be completed in 2018 and will be made public when it is given to the Legislature. McGuire and Wood said that the findings could result in legislation or, in the worst case scenario, criminal charges filed by the Attorney General’s Office.

To read the remainder of the article click here.

Shlomo Rechnitz Denied Change of Venue in Wrongful Death Suit

 

Judge Denies Skilled Nursing Defendants’ Change of Venue Bid

Judge Timothy Cissna denied skilled nursing magnate Shlomo Rechnitz’s request for a change of venue in a wrongful death and elder abuse lawsuit following a short hearing today, rejecting claims that he couldn’t get a fair trial in Humboldt County.

Cissna said the case should be tried locally because it involves a substantial personal injury that occurred in Humboldt County and a recently named defendant lives in the area.

The judge also dismissed arguments made in the change of venue motion that contended “negative news articles” would taint the local jury pool, saying there hadn’t been a showing of “undue prejudice.”

The civil case before the judge — one of three currently pending against Rechnitz and the skilled nursing facilities he owns in Humboldt County — alleges low staffing levels at Seaview Rehabilitation and Wellness Center contributed to the death of Ralph Sorensen. The 76 year old died in January of 2016 from complications related to an infected pressure ulcer.

Seaview, Rechnitz, Brius and administrative services company Rockport are named in the lawsuit. (Read more about the case here.)

After Cissna explained the reasoning for his tentative ruling, he offered attorneys each less than eight minutes to present any further points.

Rechnitz’s attorney James Yee, who appeared by phone, unsuccessfully argued that case law requires the venue be moved to Los Angeles County because that’s where most of the defendants live.

In court filings, the difficulty of traveling to Humboldt County and finding appropriate accommodations for Shlomo Rechnitz’s wife Tamar Rechnitz, who holds a share in the company, were also cited as reasons for the change of venue request.

Those issues were not brought up during the court hearing.

Yee also told the judge that the most recently named defendant was added to the lawsuit as a “doe” in “bad faith” because her name should have been readily attainable and asked Cissna to disregard her Humboldt County residency as a factor in his decision.

Attorney Timothy Needham, who represents Sorensen’s family, told Cissna that Yee was citing an archaic case law in his claims about the naming of the latest defendant, who is the administrator of Seaview.

“The arguments they’re making are over 100 years old and they are just wrong,” Needham said.

Cissna told the attorneys he was following through with his tentative ruling and denied the change of venue motion. The next hearing in the case is set for Sept. 5

To read article in the original format click here.

Healthcare Abuse and Neglect – NYS – A Whistle-blower’s Account, Video

Published on May 1, 2017

THE G-MAN INTERVIEWS: JACK HALPERN

Whistleblower Says Managed Long-Term Care and Home Health Agencies Have No Real Oversight in NYS, Warns the Elderly Will Continue to Be Abused or Die

**FAIR USE NOTICE**

These Videos May Contain Copyrighted (©) Material. The Use of Which Has Not Always Been Specifically Authorized by The Copyright Owner. Such Material is Made Available to Advance Understanding of Ecological, Political, Human Rights, Economic, Democracy, Scientific, Moral, Ethical, Social Justice Issues, Teaching, and Research. It is believed that this Constitutes a ”Fair Use” of Any Such Copyrighted Material as Provided For in Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In Accordance With Title – 17 U.S.C. Section 107, This Material is Distributed Without PROFIT to Those Who Have Expressed a Prior General Interest in Receiving Similar Information For Research and Educational Purposes. For More Information: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode

Welcome.

Jack Halpern, who’s made two previous appearances on this show, is the CEO of the New York City-based “My Elder Advocate, LLC”, an organization provides advocacy services and helps seniors with issues such as eviction prevention, nursing home or assisted living placement and long term care planning.

Mr. Halpern, a 40-year veteran of the industry, joins me to explain why Managed Long-Term Care, also known as MLTCs, and home health care agencies in New York State have no real oversight, He will also explain why he believes thousands of seniors will continue to be abused or die as a result.

The interview was conducted on April 24, 2017.

Information pertaining to this episode is available through the following links:

My Elder Advocate, LLC.
http://myelderadvocate.com/

Home Health Care News
http://homehealthcarenews.com/

• Category

  • News & Politics

• License

  • Standard YouTube License

The Allure of Stealing Identities – Will the real Joel Landau of Rivington Please Take a Bow.

Dear Mr. Joel Landau (not Rabbi Landau):

At the risk of violating your attorney’s copyright claims, we did not use your picture. You might have wanted us to in this instance since it looks like your name is being used in multiple places. 

Dear Rabbi Landau (not Joel Landau of Rivington fame (notoriety):

Please submit a photo of yourself if you would like us to publish a clear and unequivocal distinction. We hope to be of some assistance in clearing this up for you. We did not even seek out a publicly available photograph since your identity appears to have been trampled on enough.

LM

https://therealdeal.com/2017/04/24/california-rabbi-says-hes-not-the-joel-landau-promoting-allure-group-online/

California rabbi says he’s not the Joel Landau promoting Allure Group online

Online posts use San Francisco man’s photo and bio to talk up shamed real estate firm

A California rabbi named Joel Landau says he has nothing to do with posts made online under that name promoting the Allure Group.

The San Francisco rabbi’s photo and biography were used to promote the Allure Group, run by a different Joel Landau, to promote the company online, the New York Daily News reported.

A post on the Times of Israel website, for example, talks about growth in the healthcare sector and points to Allure as a firm that “managed to position themselves as the best possible alternative for elderly patients, providing them with affordable quality care.”

The post then links to the website of Allure’s Landau, who played a key role in removing a deed restriction from the Lower East Side’s Rivington House before selling the property to Slate Property Group, China Vanke and Adam America Real Estate for $116 million.

The Landau based out of San Francisco said he had nothing to do with the posts.

“For some strange reason, someone is using me to blog,” the rabbi said. “Anyone who does a little bit of research on Allure sees that they’re embroiled in some less than savory things.”

“None of that is mine,” he added. “Absolutely, positively nothing. Zilch.”

Allure, which specializes in nursing homes, did not return a request for comment. In December, CABS Nursing Home filed a lawsuit against Allure, claiming the company forced out residents shortly after buying the property, and it ultimately led to the deaths of some of the facility’s residents.

 

The Brius Jet Watch – 40,000 Feet

 

http://briuswatch.org/jet-paper/

The Jet Papers

In February of 2017, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) published a report (“Misplaced Priorities at 40,000 Feet”) about a luxury jet operated by a Brius-related company for the benefit of Brius’ owner and CEO, Shlomo Rechnitz.

The following are links to many of the source documents used to prepare the report. All of the documents are public records obtained from state and federal government agencies including the Federal Aviation Administration, the California Secretary of State, and the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.

(1) “Aircraft Bill of Sale” (AC Form 8050-2) memorializing the purchase of the Gulfstream G-IV jet by SR Administrative Services, LLC. Dated September 20, 2013. Source: Federal Aviation Administration.

(2) “Aircraft Registration Application” (AC Form 8050-1) submitted by SR Administrative Services, LLC and signed by Shlomo Rechnitz. Dated September 20, 2013. Source: Federal Aviation Administration.

(3) “Aircraft Registration Renewal Application” (AC Form 8050-1B) submitted by SR Administrative Services, LLC. Dated July 12, 2016. Source: Federal Aviation Administration.

(4) Flight Data covering the period from September 2013 through July 2016, which the FAA provided in electronic “.xls” format. The hyperlinked spreadsheet contains two tabs: (1) “Sheet 1 – modified” and (2) “Sheet 2 – original”. Source: Federal Aviation Administration.

(5) “Loan and Security Agreement by and between Compass Bank and SR Administrative Services, LLC” signed by Shlomo Rechnitz and detailing a $3.628 million loan for the purchase of the jet. This document also describes the agreement by which SR Administrative Services, LLC leased the jet to SR Capital, LLC. See page 6 and various pages following the initial signature page, including an attachment entitled “Acknowledgment, Grant of Security Interest and Subordination Agreement by SR Capital, LLC.” Dated September 17, 2013. Source: Federal Aviation Administration.

(6) “Limited Liability Company Articles of Organization” (Form LLC-1) for “SR Administrative Services, LLC.” Dated June 3, 2013. Source: California Secretary of State.

(7) “Limited Liability Company Articles of Organization”(Form LLC-1) for “SR Capital, LLC.” Dated December 28, 2009. Source: California Secretary of State.

(8) “Statements of Information” (Form LLC-12) for “SR Administrative Services, LLC.” Dated November 9, 2015 and July 12, 2013. Source: California Secretary of State.

(9) “Statements of Information” (Form LLC-12) for “SR Capital, LLC.” Dated January 28, 2015 and October 6, 2015. Source: California Secretary of State.

(10) “Certificate of Status” for “SR Administrative Services, LLC.” Dated September 14, 2016. Source: California Secretary of State.

(11) “Certificate of Status” for “SR Capital, LLC.” Dated September 14, 2016. Source: California Secretary of State.

(12) “Certificate of Merger” (Form OBE Merger-1) for“SR Capital, LLC,” signed by Shlomo Rechnitz. Dated December 20, 2012. Source: California Secretary of State.

(13) Excerpt from Medi-Cal Cost Report Describing a Brius Nursing Home’s Transactions with SR Capital, LLC. This two-page excerpt is taken from a recent Medi-Cal Cost Report submitted by one of Brius’ nursing homes, Monterey Healthcare & Wellness Center (Rosemead, CA), to the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD). This excerpt offers an example of the kinds of financial transactions between “SR Capital, LLC” (the corporation that operates the jet) and individual Brius nursing homes. On the second page of the document, Monterey Healthcare & Wellness Center reports it paid $530,382 to SR Capital/YTR Capital during the 12-month period ended December 31, 2015. In addition, it shows that Monterey Healthcare & Wellness Center owed $4,327,952 to “SR Capital, LLC” at the end of 2015. Source: California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.

(14) Shlomo Rechnitz, SR Capital, LLC and SR Administrative Services, LLC. This notarized document is excerpted from the 54-page “Loan and Security Agreement by and between Compass Bank and SR Administrative Services, LLC,” which is available in its entirety on this page. It is excerpted here in order to document Rechnitz’ role atop SR Capital, LLC and SR Administrative Services, LLC, the corporations that operate and own the jet. For example, Rechnitz signed this notarized document which identifies him as the “CEO” and “Managing Member” of “SR capital, LLC, a California limited liability company, as the sole member and manager of SR ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES, LLC, a California limited liability company…” Multiple additional public records confirm Rechnitz’ positions.

Shlomo Rechnitz and Brius – Neglecting Patients for Financial Gain

http://briuswatch.org/brius/humboldt-county-brius-home-hit-another-wrongful-death-lawsuit/

Humboldt County Brius home hit another wrongful death lawsuit

A Brius-owned nursing home in Humboldt County evicted a 63-year-old patient suffering from dementia and left him alone in a hotel room where he died four days later, according to a lawsuit filed last month by an attorney for the man’s sister.

Alan Dewey had been living for nearly two years at the Eureka Rehabilitation & Wellness Center, which state regulators fined $160,000 earlier this year for substandard care that stemmed from chronic understaffing. The nursing home also has been named in two other wrongful death lawsuits since November.

Dewey was admitted to the  home in late 2014, according to his complaint filed by Amelia F. Burroughs of the law firm Janssen Malloy LLP. He had suffered a “significant brain injury in 1975 and a stroke, which affected his vision.” He also had “a seizure disorder and multiple complex medical problems.”

On Oct. 14, 2016, the nursing home “deposited” Dewey at the Clarion Hotel in Eureka with his medications, “a half-gallon of milk, instant noodles, and Velveeta macaroni and cheese,” according to the complaint, which described his hotel stay this way:

“Dewey could not see well enough to attend breakfast in the lobby of the hotel; could not see well enough to sort and take his medications appropriately, and could not see well enough to sort and take his medications appropriately, and could not see well enough to use the key card to enter his room or navigate his surroundings.”

He was found dead inside his hotel room on Oct. 18.

At the time that Dewey was allegedly dumped at the hotel, Rechnitz had announced his intention to close the Eureka nursing home and two others in Humboldt County in a move local officials said was a naked ploy to pressure them into once again boosting his reimbursement rates.

Dewey’s sister, Sherri McKenna, told Courthouse News she thinks her brother was discharged as part of Rechnitz’s effort to clear the nursing home given “the onerous requirements for resident transfers.”

The lawsuit names Brius CEO Shlomo Rechnitz, and several of his corporate entities as defendants for wrongful death and dependent adult abuse. “The facts are horrific,” Burroughs told the news outlet. “The corporate entities running the facility made decisions that I believe really hurt (Dewey).”

Burroughs’ firm is also representing the families of Ralph Sorensen and Randy Kruger. They both died after developing Stage IV pressure ulcers that became infected, according to lawsuits that also name Rechnitz among the defendants.

 

Download (PDF, Unknown) – Wrongful Death Lawsuit