CT AG Seeks Broader Powers To Recover State Money Nursing Homes

CONNECTICUT – Attorney General William Tong urged support for legislation empowering his office to recover state funds from seriously deficient long term care facilities causing harm to patients.

While the Department of Public Health has enforcement authority over violations of state and federal law concerning care of residents in long term care facilities, the state currently lacks authority to recover state funding, including Medicaid dollars, these facilities may receive while providing deficient care that harms or threatens to harm residents, according to Tong in a statement released Friday.

An Act Concerning the Office of the Attorney General’s Proposed Remedies for Deficient Long Term Care would empower the Office of the Attorney General to conduct investigations and bring civil actions in cases of harm or potential harm to patients, where DPH has issued orders or determinations that state or federal laws or regulations have been violated. The legislation would empower the AG's Office to recover up to three times the damages sustained by the state, in addition to civil penalties from $5,500 to $11,000 for each instance of a violation. The legislation would further empower the AG's Office to obtain injunctive and declaratory relief to prevent future violations and harm to patients.

"The state pays billions of dollars annually through Medicaid and other state programs for long term care for our most vulnerable residents. Remarkably, the state does not have an adequate remedy to recover the monies it spends when the care it pays for results in harm to long term care residents. This bill will permit my office to recover taxpayer funds spent on deficient long-term care that harms residents," Tong states in his testimony.