The Attorney General of the state of Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit against the Grane Healthcare nursing homes company. The filed documents claim that the institution meant to provide care for the elderly and assist them in their daily lives did not have enough staff to provide basic patient care.
According to the consumer protection lawsuit filed on Friday, the accusations against the company also involve the fact that during a visit from the Department of Health inspectors, the company lied about its staff levels. Several patients and their needs were ignored for a high number of days, even weeks in some cases.
For example, a resident in one of the nursing homes administered by the company did not for two weeks and wasn’t able to wash his hair for almost a month. Additionally, the same patient required daily treatments of a medical cream which was skipped 19 times in just a month.
Grane Healthcare is based in the O’Hara Township near the city of Pittsburg, but the official lawsuit was filed at the Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg. This specific court deals with issues which involve a business that is regulated by the state, as is the situation of this case.
The company has released a statement in which they deny the claims as being completely unfounded. The company has suggested that this lawsuit is motivated partly by the fact that a new private law firm stands to gain financially by partnering with the state.
According to Bruce Beemer, the Attorney General of Pennsylvania, the state has ample evidence that the nursing homes were severely understaffed which led to a major decrease in the quality of the care provided if there was any at all. This situation happened despite Grane advertising as having a high staff-to-patient ratio. The reality of the situation, according to the state, is that when the inspectors were not there, the number of staff dropped.
The state also claims that the low levels of staff and other problems led to fraudulent billing. This is due to the fact that the patients did not receive the care paid by their healthcare insurance programs, either public or private. As such, the lawsuit seeks damages worth $1,000 per every violation of the consumer law of Pennsylvania, or $3,000 if the victim was 60 or older.
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