City says L.A. nursing home accused of ‘cover-up’ dumped elderly residents to take in more expensive COVID-19 patients
A Los Angeles skilled nursing facility accused of dumping elderly and seriously ill residents to take in COVID-19 patients who brought in higher Medicare reimbursements will pay a fine and comply with a court-ordered monitor after settling a lawsuit with the city.
The Lakeview Terrace Skilled Nursing Facility in Westlake agreed last week to the city’s demands for reforms and to pay $275,000 in penalties.
In a July lawsuit, City Attorney Mike Feuer accused the facility of committing numerous abuses, then orchestrating “a fraudulent cover-up to conceal its misconduct.” Prosecutors said Lakeview Terrace staff discharged elderly and seriously ill patients “onto the street or into lower level-of-care facilities that were unable to properly care for them.”
In doing so, the facility could bring in new patients who tested positive for COVID-19 “for up to an additional $600 a day,” according to the lawsuit.
The facilities staff was accused of moving patients before notifying patients’ families
The city has sued Lakeview Terrace before — a 2019 lawsuit installed a court-appointed monitor after similar allegations of patient dumping. But the facility’s “progress quickly stalled and then dramatically regressed,” according to the lawsuit. Prosecutors accused Lakeview of ignoring state and federal law since then, and “intentionally” disobeying and flouting the previous injunction.
Feuer on Monday said the new settlement will bring back that monitor with even more powers to oversee the facility’s operations.
“These changes are absolutely essential to ensure the well being of residents at this facility, and they point to what should be the standard for all facilities providing this level of care,” Feuer said.
The lawsuit described several disturbing incidents. In one, the city claimed the facility’s staff dumped an elderly patient — “a senior citizen with dementia and a history of wandering” — in 2020 during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The patient ended up in Van Nuys, 20 miles from where his family believed he was staying.
Another patient, disabled and with an HIV diagnosis, was dumped and resorted to sheltering in a friend’s backyard, city attorneys alleged.
Feuer also said Lakeview Terrace staff members failed to give some of their patients prescribed medication while falsely recording they had done so. Other incidents of neglect and abuse were found at the facility that went unreported, the city alleged.
Among other changes required by the granular lawsuit, the monitor will enforce how many hours per day the facility’s staff must spend on each patient. The monitor will be allowed to inspect the facility without notice, and will have access to all patient records 24 hours a day.
In a statement, DJ Weaver, the facility’s administrator, said Lakeview Terrace “disputes the underlying allegations,” but settled with the city regardless. Feuer said the facility cooperated with the city throughout its investigation.
“Lakeview Terrace takes resident care very seriously, and it is the cornerstone of everything our staff does,” Weaver said in the statement.
City News Service contributed to this story.