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Local Law Firms Home > Nursing Home & Elder Law Overview > Senior Fraud Elder or senior fraud in nursing homes can take many forms, but the causes are usually the same. A huge number of nursing homes have underpaid and overworked staff with not enough resources to look after and monitor each patient individually. When some fraud comes to light or someone files a compliant, state and federal investigations ensue and the nursing home is shut down. Apart from what the patients and their families pay, nursing homes also depend on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements and this leads to a lot of fraud and False Claims Act violations. Have you or a loved one become a victim of senior fraud while in a nursing home? If so, our nursing home abuse lawyers are here to help. Contact a nursing home abuse attorney in your area today for more information about pursuing monetary compensation in a nursing home abuse lawsuit. Listed below are the major types of senior fraud often reported in nursing homes:
Neglect includes lack of sanitation, food, medicines and other required medical care. Emotional abuse includes ridicule, isolation, threats and coercion. Physical abuse may include deliberate infliction of pain, punishments and unlawful restraints. Sexual abuse of any kind is very disturbing and abhorrent in a nursing home. The most rampant abuse, though, is financial abuse or fraud. The money that is meant to be spent on their care is pocketed by nursing home owners and employees in various ways. They may steal personal information and gain access to bank accounts and other assets from the elders in their care. It can be Medicaid or Medicare fraud, saving money through neglect and not hiring enough staff to look after all the residents properly. Did you know? Medicare and Medicaid fraud amounts to $70 billion. The combined annual cost of Medicare and Medicaid is between $800 billion to $900 billion. GAO (government accountability office) estimates that around $70 billion of this goes to senior fraud and other scams. |