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Possible Medicaid, Medicare Funding Cut to Pomona Facility
December 18, 2007

For residents at Ember Health Care in Pomona who are dependant on Medicare to fund their nursing home stay, it's going to be a bleak 2008.

The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare have informed the facility that they are withdrawing federal funding. According to Medicaid and Medicare reps, it was the home's noncompliance with the stipulations of inspection reports that caused them to take this extreme measure.

This isn't the first time Ember Health Care has had trouble with Medicaid and Medicare. In 2006, the facility was placed in a special program that required nursing homes to make drastic improvements in their operations in order to continue to be able to be eligible for federal funding. At least three times during this period, the Pomona retirement home has faced the threat of cancelled funding. Each time surprisingly enough, the termination of funding was rescinded. In fact according to experts, a Medicare or Medicaid termination does not necessarily mean a whole lot, because they do tend to revise their decision to terminate and rescind as they deem appropriate.

Only last year, the company that previously owned the facility, Pleasant Care Corp., settled a $1.3 million lawsuit that alleged gross negligence and abuse of senior citizens at the facility. As many as 160 violations were found to have been made over a five year period. At that time, Pleasant Care said it would pay $1 million in fines and pay the state's investigation fee. To date, the company has paid just $675,000.

As a society, we get rattled when children are abused, as we absolutely should. Those at the other end of the age spectrum are equally deserving of our outrage when they are made to live out their golden years in less than sanitary conditions, or without the sort of care their age demands. The nursing home industry has taken on the ominous overtones of a greedy and callous corporate monster in recent years, more interested in healthy bottom lines than in the health of the patients they serve. It's a trend that needs to be stopped before more nursing home disasters occur.

If a loved-one has been the victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, contact the California personal injury lawyers at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

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