NJ’s Granny Profiteers: Who are They? Do We Even Know – For-Profit Nursing Homes and Their Elusive Owners

Ambulance crews are parked outside Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center in Andover, N.J., on Thursday April 16, 2020. Police responding to an anonymous tip found more than a dozen bodies Sunday and Monday at the nursing home in northwestern New Jersey, according to news reports. The ownership has since changed hands and the facilities renamed Limecrest Subacute and Rehabilitation Center and Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey) APAP

What the Pandemic Revealed About This Country’s Nursing Home Owners – New Jersey

Published 5.13.21, last edit 5:32pm

Dear Reader:

The leap of faith necessary to contemplate the astronomical profit on the trafficked lives of the elderly in this country requires a simple review of the industry’s finances. How very easy it is to defraud Medicare, Medicaid and the healthcare insurance industry. It is even easier for those charged with accountability to look the other way.

Few will put it all together lest they have to confront the brutality that has been deemed acceptable by any humane standards. We, here, lose sleep over it all. There is no accountability in the nursing home industry. In fact, when we were all looking the other way, New York’s Governor Cuomo installed the Granny Killer Immunity Provisions, many states following suit. Governor Cuomo’s campaign was funded, in pertinent part, by nursing home owners, their attorneys, the healthcare lobby, the pharma lobby, the insurance industry, all a collective of accomplices in removing the light and thus increasing profits.

A conscience… huh? What is that?

Those who are willing to speak out are punished for their efforts. Attorneys have been disbarred for whistleblowing, called something else, as they attempt to uncover the inhumanity. Newspaper journalists have been and continue to be admonished or sued for shedding light on the hardcore truths about the industry. Public media wars have been waged on politicians trying to right an entirely skewed collective moral compass. It is an “open secret” in politics, we are told.

Ownership structures have been repeatedly scrambled to protect the wealthy. Money is regularly exchanged under cover of darkness. Programs have been defunded to avoid establishing a system of accountability. Nurses get sued for walking away. Underpaid healthcare workers demand better wages and many are denied, lest there be a reduction of Net Profits.

At its fundamental atomic level, the nursing home industry is nothing more or less than the exchange of money for human life. Full stop.

The criminal nature of the industry, at least under our 45, ran from the top down. We believe everyone in between was more than happy to look the other way, or offer a “distribution of…. relief funding.” US President 45 offered a commuted sentence to a nursing home magnate who defrauded his victims out of millions and millions in what is referred to as “unbounded greed”. Private equity firms and their attorneys, more than happy to “say nothing and hear nothing,” are profiting and profiteering. And the cycle continues.

There is a sheer and inexplicable cognitive dissonance of those who do not question this industry, its finances, its treatment of the elderly. For years we, along with our collective and small group of journalists, bloggers and activists have tried to scatter the puzzle pieces for anyone who might be willing to put them together.

The savagery coupled with the profit is really not rocket science to figure out.

It took a pandemic to show just how blurred the lines of that which is deemed acceptable in a humane society really are. The black and white of right and wrong were crossed a very long time ago. Perhaps a New Jersey law is a step in the right direction. Likely not. Until owners who have records of abusing the system are put permanently out of commission, no law will draw an impassable line. It is all just a distraction.

Pandemic revealed N.J. does not know who owns for-profit nursing homes. New law would change that.

Nursing home operators must reveal more information about their finances and their ownership and also pass a review evaluating their track record on safety and quality before state regulators will allow properties to be sold, under a new law Gov. Phil Murphy signed late Wednesday.

he legislation emerged from a series of recommendations the healthcare consultant Manatt Health made a year ago to improve how nursing homes operate, after the coronavirus killed 5,400 long-term care residents within two months. The death toll is at about 8,000 today.

Manatt concluded the industry was unprepared for the pandemic, in part because one-third of all facilities had been cited for infection control violations previously and staffing shortages were endemic.

The consultant also took issue with the Health Department for not aggressively monitoring the 370 nursing homes in the state, 74% of which are owned by for-profit companies that change hands often. Manatt recommended the state adopt a stricter system of reviewing operators’ finances before they are permitted to buy new facilities.

The law, A4477, requires nursing home operators to report the names, addresses and the organizational chart for the companies who intend to buy a facility, any lease or management agreements, a list of all facilities the buyer has owned in the last five years and financial audits from the last three years. The health department will use the information to identify facilities which may be in financial distress, according to the law. Applications for ownership transfers must be posted on the DOH’s website.

NJ.com, to continue reading click here.

First Amendment Activist is in Danger. Lakewood is a War Zone. Litvaks Attack Hassidim? A Load of Nonsense…

When Harming Another Becomes An Indoctrinated Acceptable Practice, Religious Belief Has Little Value

Published 5.13.21 10:33 am, edited 5.16.21 6:07pm

Dear Readers:

Before we begin, we had contemplated whiting out the faces of the children in the photos below. But they are published and we decided we would follow the lead of the publication. The children and parents, it would seem, take such pride in their behavior.

The story is not about the “Litvaks versus the Hasidim. That is a load of “Chara” put out as poor excuse to enshroud deeply violent behavior. The violence is against one family, that of First Amendment Activist. It is intended to shut him up. And, in our view, there is little difference between indoctrinating your children to violently terrorize a family or strapping a bomb to their waists and telling them to explode it where it can cause the most damage – all for a cause – religion.

We have relied on facts presented by First Amendment Activist, a fellow blogger and journalist looking out for the well-being of his friends, family and Jewish brethren in Lakewood, Toms River and Ocean County, New Jersey. A fact-check of FAA’s material is nothing if not accurate. Scary thing for a community that wants to keep its dirty laundry out of plain sight.

EVERYONE, bar none, should be thankful for his advocacy in New Jersey. What the protesters are doing is not a “great goal” as stated by a Rebbitzin in the article below. These children, encouraged by their parents, are treacherous savages trying to silence a blogger and activist.

First Amendment Activist is a deeply religious person, with a steady ethical and moral set of views and standards grounded in a belief in G-d, family and country. He should be declared a hero in his community. Instead, he is now being treated as a Pariah. Sadly, the hierarchy of police, government, the mayor, the governing bodies are doing nothing to assist him as he gets his house “egged” on a daily basis, as he gets ostracized and as his family gets threatened with violence. All in the name of G-d? No. All in the name of covering up crimes committed in the name of G-d. That is nothing if not G-dless.

The responsible parties of these children who find pleasure in violence, are parents who have taught their children that this behavior is okay, acceptable, if not encouraged. Religious, allegedly devout parents are teaching their children that violence is to be rewarded. The JNews which published this story has it all wrong. The “Litvaks versus the Hassidim” story is not the reason for these young thugs to behave as they are behaving.

Yes. The Litvaks and the Hassidim in Ocean County, generally and Lakewood, particularly, are not allied. They are engaged in their own version of a holy war. But the reality of the story has little to do with that battle. The story should have been focused on the utter savagery being imparted upon one family. It is covered under a shroud of this holy war. And that is a lie.

To the parents of the children pictured in the below, public clips, you should be ashamed of yourselves, teaching your children that “egging” houses, that calling someone a “moser” is okay. The children are dressed as G-d faring disciples. Sadly, the children suffer the sins of the parents and they are nothing, if not thugs and hoodlums bullying and endorsing violence.

NJ Advances Package to Combat Elder Abuse and it is all Fluff and Nonsense!

Dear Reader:

We have contended from the outset that the oversight agencies are ineffective, corrupt, complicit in or facilitators of abuse, neglect and exploitation. Full Stop. We have contended that many of the players within the elder-care guardianship and nursing home context are inextricably intertwined in wrongdoing, most with incestuous relationships with the oversight agencies. We have posited that there is no such thing as reporting if it is left to the good will of those entrusted with the care of the elderly. We maintain that too many people are making too much money for the nonsense legislation to have any substance.

Oversight agencies must be held accountable for their failures. Elder abuse MUST be accompanied by criminal penalties, whether to the guardians, the owners and operators, the magnates, the investors, the employees or the judges and politicians that allow the abuse to continue unchecked. Elder abuse MUST be deemed unacceptable. Full stop. Elders MUST have the power to decide their own destinies. Elders MUST be believed until their statements are proven unbelievable, if that is possible. An Elder’s human dignity MUST be respected before all else and not entrusted in the care of those who lack humanity and conscience.

New Jersey’s four-part legislation pays lipservice to intent but does none of that. It assumes unicorns and rainbows with respect to an industry which is no different that legalized human trafficking. When you build a beautiful house on a flawed foundation the house is doomed. So too is the fluff and nonsense legislation in New Jersey.

Assembly Panel Advances Murphy & Vainieri Huttle Bill Package to Combat Abuse, Neglect & Exploitation of Seniors and Vulnerable Adults

Assembly Panel Advances Murphy & Vainieri Huttle Bill Package to Combat Abuse, Neglect & Exploitation of Seniors and Vulnerable Adults

Measures to Modernize Conservatorships & Guardianships; Address Financial Abuse; and Strengthen Protections for Vulnerable Adults

(TRENTON) – The Assembly Aging and Senior Services Committee on Monday approved a package of four bills sponsored by Assembly Democrats Carol Murphy and Valerie Vainieri Huttle to protect elderly or vulnerable adults from facing abuse, neglect or exploitation.

About one in ten Americans over age 60 have experienced some form of elder abuse, including physical or emotional abuse or financial exploitation. Mental or physical impairments may make them more vulnerable to abuse, and many cases go unreported.

People with disabilities are also at a higher risk of abuse, neglect or exploitation. About 30 percent of individuals with disabilities who need assistance with daily care, maintaining their health and safety, and accessing their communities have experienced some form of mistreatment.

“As we age, many of us will need a support system to help manage our health, finances, transportation and other aspects of life. This is especially true for seniors with dementia or other cognitive impairments” said Murphy (D-Burlington). “Sadly, too often the person trusted with an elderly person’s care ends up taking advantage of them. We must ensure the people caring for our most vulnerable have their best interests at heart, and everyone knows how recognize and report elder abuse.”

“Every person deserves to age with dignity,” said Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen). “We may face illness, disability or physical decline, but we should never face abuse. By strengthening protections for older adults and our most vulnerable, we are helping to keep our elderly loved ones safe and safeguard our own futures.”

Two bills in the package would modernize existing laws regarding conservatorship and guardianship in New Jersey. The first measure (A-4615) would require proposed conservatees or someone already under conservatorship to have counsel throughout the course of all court proceedings. The court would be required to appoint a counsel if they were ever unrepresented. The counsel would personally interview the conservatee or proposed conservatee within 72 hours before each scheduled hearing focused on conservatorship.

Counsel must also be provided to individuals under guardianships, or wards, as part of the second bill (A-4618).

Insider NJ

Govs Murphy and Cuomo Pandering to Their Voting Bloc, Covid-19

Asbury Park Press Photo, click here.

BOTH GOVERNOR MURPHY AND GOVERNOR CUOMO ARE FOOLING THEMSELVES IF THEY THINK THE ASSURANCES OF COMPLIANCE ARE ANYTHING MORE THAN LIP SERVICE.

Last night we posted a poster in Yiddish requesting, nay demanding, that 100% healthy ultra-Orthodox Jews get tested at several available testing sights in Yeshivas and Community Centers in Williamsburg, New York. The purpose, by the very words of the flyer – to alter the statistical positive rate. In other words, play a game of numbers and fool government officials in New York into believing that the community [Satmar] is being respectful and that there is a low positive to testing rate.

This morning we posted a similar request in New Jersey – test healthy people. These communities are not run by fools. Nor, in our view, are they the leaders particularly pious individuals – but that’s another story. Pikuah Nefesh is a fundamental principal in Jewish law – protect human life, all human life. They are putting their own people at risk. Worst still, they are placing the rest of us at risk; and with that are increasing a legitimate resentment against Jews.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10164470322285078&set=pcb.10164470322370078

That is a tragedy marked by people more interested in ritual than religion with little care for the lives of others. That is a quintessential definition of wholly morally bankrupt behavior.

But condemnation of the leaders of these communities is not enough. That Governor Cuomo in New York and Governor Murphy in New Jersey are not putting their foot down and enforcing complete segregation and lockdowns,

limiting travel of members of these communities, jailing people if necessary is a testament to the power that the religious leaders have over government. They represent a powerful voting bloc, one that ingratiates governmental officials such that lawlessness is par for the course.

Lakewood, NJ, Healthy Ultra-Orthodox Urged to Get Tested for Covid

Hefkervelt

A voice for the Tzibbur by the Tzibbur- overcoming challenges. We take no responsibility for comments posted you are solely responsible for any comments you make and their accuracy. We take no responsibility and assume no liability for any comments posted by you or any third-party.

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Audio Message: Igud Harabonim for Corona Matters

https://vocaroo.com/embed/fjXt0Pk9aJO

“The govt has requested that everyone without sympyoms get tested. The Rabbonim advise this will help schools open after Yom Tov with no restrictions. There will be mobile testing units around Lakewood to make it easier and less waiting time.“

Another Ring in the Circus – Life Insurance on the Living and…Dead… Patients, Covid-19?

Lawsuit filed for, among other things, misrepresentations

[UPDATED 9.10.20]

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT NURSING HOME OWNERS AND MANAGERS ARE COLLECTING ON NEWLY PLACED LIFE INSURANCE POLICIES FOR THEIR PATIENTS WHO ARE ALREADY DEAD? WHERE IS THE INSURANCE COMMISSION ON THIS?

In the lawsuit against Louis Schwartz and his partner Chaim “Mutty” Scheinbaum and others, Paragraph 76 alleges:

“Defendants have also engaged in unconscionable consumer practices by intentionally suppressing or delaying the reporting of resident deaths to relevant authorities, family members, authorized representative and/or life insurance companies, intentionally withholding and refusing to disclose the vital information to family members and other authorized representatives, and concealing bodies of recently deceased residents, with the intent that said third parties, including the members of the Class and Plaintiff, rely upon their deceptive and misleading conduct in connection with the promotion of the Facilities’ services.“

As a point of full disclosure, if Schwartz and Scheinbaum were not storing bodies without reporting deaths; and if they were the beneficiaries of life insurance policies taken out on living patients, they were acting within legal parameters. This is industry standard.

It is our opinion, and the point of the article that follows, that we believe that the long-term care industry needs to be changed. There needs to be oversight. Families need guarantees that the last days, weeks months, years of the life of their loved ones will include some quality of life, humanity, decency and dignity. Covid-19, and every other failure in the nursing home industry should not be an excuse to rob people of their humanity.

This is not the first time we have heard about nursing homes and rehabilitation centers and the trafficking in human life with the prized death benefits waiting at the end of the rainbow. Death benefits are touted as an obviously cost-effective way to provide for long term care. We believe that should change.

Have the experts in the field of elder-care really considered the implications?

A fictitious applicant for life insurance versus the Nursing and Rehabilitation Resident:

In the State of New York, for example, a 45 year-old athletic and fit person goes through an arduous process to obtain life insurance including, but not limited to, medical screenings, blood tests, drug tests, urine tests, signing every manner of HIPAA regulated waiver and allowing insurance companies to delve excruciatingly deeply into past and present, including but not limited to history of family and relatives, including all manner of questions, excluding the style of underwear he or she wears and quality of sex life. That run-on sentence was intended and should be read out loud in a single breath.

And even those last two questions might at this juncture seem unsurprising for underwriters to ask. This fictitious person is a non-risk. He or she exercises regularly. He or she eats healthy. He or she is employed and married and has a family history of longevity.

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OJPAC and Over-Development: Pave Paradise and Put Up a….. Building – Or Be Labeled an anti-Semite.

Dear LM,

Please post this opinion piece.

Anonymous

OJPAC slams Orange County Community Preservation Act: Taking the Anti-Semitism Moniker Too Far in Regards to Environmental Protection/Preservation!

In February 2020, I came across an article in an Orange County, NJ newspaper, The Record Online titled “Orthodox Jewish group slams assembly bill aimed at land preservation”. Many regions like Orange County (and Central and Southern NJ as well) are seeing overdevelopment, diminishing open space, and reduction in agricultural lands.  This is lowering the quality of life as well as the character of their towns.  By preserving open space and farmland, the beauty of the land and opportunities for a strong recreation and park systems can be possible. This is for current and future generations to enjoy.  I do not know how any municipal or county government would develop a land conservation program to discriminate and prevent the growth of any community into that area!

However in their usual style when they do not get what they want, another Orthodox Jewish advocacy group is claiming that this bill is discriminating against the growth of their community in Orange County where there is anti-Hasidic sentiment.  In the article, Yossi Gestetner of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council says the proposed law “targets Jews” and a tweet posted by OJPAC stated “The bill is a direct result of local agitation in Orange County against Hasidim who buy properties”.  I rolled my eyes and thought, “there they go again!”

I cannot get over how the Orthodox leadership and Orthodox Jewish advocacy groups could care less about the long term environmental consequence in demanding their right to have uncontrolled high density housing. Do they not realize that natural resources, which include land and water, are limited and their supply will eventually dry out? What about the quality of life for OJ people who live in urban-like “shtetls “such as Lakewood, Kiryas Joel, Monsey? I am sure these individuals and their families feel suffocated in these enclaves though the majority will not say anything for fear of retribution. One can see Orthodox Jews in huge numbers frequent parks and beaches all over the Jersey Shore. They most likely need to get away from the nightmare that is Lakewood (concrete, traffic, no space) and breathe! And yet their leaders want to minimize open spaces and force compliance upon non-Orthodox and non-Jews in the process.

It was extremely disrespectful, unreasonable and inappropriate to label this bill as “anti-Hasidic growth”. These municipalities and counties are looking at the long term quality of life for ALL people to enjoy the beauty of nature by having open space and a robust parks and recreating system. My feedback to Mr. Gestetner and OJPAC: in this case you have taken labeling land preservation too far by calling it “anti-Hasidic growth”.

All of us, including your community, have the right to enjoy nature. There is nothing “anti-Semitic” about that!