Probe Singles Out Covenant Care of OC for Cutting Staff at Nursing Homes While Getting Millions From State Taxpayers


An Aliso Viejo-based chain stands out in an investigation by journalists who found 232 California nursing homes either cut staff, paid
lower wages or let caregiver levels slip below a state-mandated minimum after the state gave nursing homes $880 million in additional
funding to boost wages and hire more caregivers.
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“Of the homes that cut staffing, 13 owned by Orange County-based
Covenant Care stand out,” reports California
Watch
, a project of the nonprofit Center for Investigative
Reporting. “The homes pared caregivers even as they got $15 million in
additional funding.”

“The average profit at those 13 homes reached more than $900,000 in
2008–three times higher than the remaining 632 homes analyzed by
California Watch,” the watchdogs report.

The funds came courtesy of a 2004 state law intended to keep such homes from having to cut staffing and wages. Covenant Care's homes
are among those that made the cuts despite collecting about $236 million
through
2008, the last year of available data.

Meanwhile, the chain's chief operating officer testified last year in a
deposition that Covenant Care plans to house
more medically fragile patients, which would lead to higher
reimbursements and, according to critics, the higher possibility of dangerous patient conditions due to the lower staffing rates, since such patients require more care.

Such a business strategy has already led to at least one wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a man who was staying at Covenant Care's Royal Care Center in Long Beach.

“Since his death, the home's staffing level sank below the
state-mandated staffing minimum set in 2000,” California Watch reports. “Royal Care's total profits,
though, reached $540,000 in 2008 alone.”

And the chain's top administrators and
nursing supervisors were rewarded with bonuses based, in part, on how much profit each
home generated, the probe shows.

Around the time the bonuses were being doled out, California Watch reports, a family trust
associated with Covenant Care CEO Robert Levin paid $4.76 million to
purchase an Irvine estate, complete with a theater and outdoor living
room.

One Reply to “Probe Singles Out Covenant Care of OC for Cutting Staff at Nursing Homes While Getting Millions From State Taxpayers”

  1. Hola estaría bien q hiciera otra vez este reportaje x q aun siguen pagando una miseria de salario y siempre están faltos de CNA y son mas pacientes para ellos mientras q la administradora y la supervisora general de enfermería ganan muy bien esto es en la misma corporación pero en Oxnard

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