In addition, the home’s administrator was also allowed to work in the building, despite shortness of breath. The worker who handled the employee screening felt the aide shouldn’t be working but was overruled by management, according to inspectors.Īlso, the aide who was sick reportedly told inspectors she did not have a face shield to wear during the last four night shifts she worked while feeling ill. It alleges a nurse aide with a cough was allowed to work in the facility on three separate occasions last April before testing positive for COVID-19. The June 10, 2020, inspection report for the Dubuque home that’s published on the CMS website is a single-page document stating, “No health deficiencies found.” The actual inspection report, written by the state officials who conducted the on-site visit 12 months ago, is 10 pages long and lists a litany of serious regulatory violations related to infection control. “So much of the information they report on their Care Compare website is inaccurate,” she said. Toby Edelman, senior policy attorney for the nonprofit Center for Medicare Advocacy and a nationally recognized expert in nursing home oversight, said she’s surprised by CMS’ stance as it appears to contradict the agency’s past position of reporting fines once they were finalized and imposed. “Once this begins, the fine will be reflected on the Care Compare website,” the spokesman said. He said CMS’ “normal process” in cases of unpaid fines is to refer the matter to an administrative contractor who will initiate collection by offsetting Medicare payments owed to the home. This week, an agency spokesman in CMS’ Office of Communications said “human error” had caused the agency to post a false deficiency-free inspection report for the Dubuque home on its website, though he was unable to say how or why such a report was created.Īs for the website’s separate claim that the Dubuque home was never fined as a result of the June 2020 inspection, the spokesman attributed that assertion to the fact that “the facility has not yet begun to submit payments” toward the fine. The Iowa Capital Dispatch asked CMS about the discrepancy in April. In fact, state inspectors found numerous, serious violations, and CMS imposed a fine of $84,825, which was immediately reduced to $55,136 once the home agreed to forego an appeal. The federal agency overseeing nursing homes says it only informs the public of fines against those facilities if, and when, the owners choose to pay the fines.įor most of the past year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Care Compare website has falsely reported that the Dubuque Specialty Care nursing home in eastern Iowa had a perfect, deficiency-free inspection in June 2020.
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