NY nursing home owner agrees to $45M settlement after claims of mistreatment during COVID

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The owner and operator of four problem-plagued nursing homes agreed Thursday to pay $45 million to settle claims they mistreated or neglected elderly people in their care who missed meals or were forced to sit in their own urine and feces for hours, horrors exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The nursing homes in the Bronx, Queens, Westchester and Buffalo are managed by Centers for Care, whose owners failed to deliver adequate care, insufficiently staffed the nursing homes and continued to admit new residents even though they could not care for the existing ones, according to New York Attorney General Letitia James, who announced the settlement.

The attorney general's office alleged in a lawsuit that overburdened staff members were assigned to more residents than they could care for and often failed to help residents with the basic activities of daily living, such as using the bathroom, eating, and maintaining personal hygiene. Call bells regularly went unanswered, residents were forced to sit in their own urine and feces for hours, meals were not provided in a timely manner, and personal belongings, including hearing aids, dentures, and clothing, were often lost or stolen. Residents, visiting family members, and staff reported unsanitary conditions, including neglected food trays, vermin, flies, and persistent smells of human waste.

"Residents at these Centers nursing homes endured years of tragic and devastating mistreatment and neglect, while the owners made millions of dollars in profit," James said in a statement. "Centers' owners operated the nursing homes with insufficient staffing so that they could pocket tens of millions of taxpayer dollars meant for resident care. Residents suffered tragic harm and their families were often left in the dark or in despair about their loved ones."

Centers and owners Kenneth Rozenberg and Daryl Hagler will pay $45 million, including $8.75 million in restitution to the Medicaid and Medicare programs and $35 million to a Resident Care Fund to pay for improvements in care and staffing.

Court-appointed monitors, who have already overseen improvements at all four nursing homes, will remain.