NJ's Worst Nursing Homes Get $103M In Medicaid Money Annually

NEW JERSEY — Taxpayer money flows into New Jersey's worst nursing homes at a rate of $100 million a year, a new state report found.

Last week, the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) released an investigation of the Garden State's consistently lowest-rated nursing homes. The Medicaid program pays an average of $103 million to these facilities annually, according to this report.

In the first month of every quarter, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rate long-term care facilities (LTC) in three main categories: health inspections, quality measures, and staffing. The long-term care facilities get ratings from one to five.

The 15 facilities on the state list had been rated one star for at least six of the eight previous quarters, the report said. The OSC said they conducted this research "as part of our oversight of New Jersey’s Medicaid program and the billions of dollars that New Jersey spends on Medicaid each year."

The comptroller's office is recommending the state to require one-star long term care facilities to improve if they want to stay in the Medicaid program.

All but one of these one-star LTCs are operated by for-profit companies, the report said. And, five of those companies operated at least two other one-star LTCs.

Laurie Brewer, the state's long-term care ombudsman, said the owners of these facilities should be held responsible.

“Since there are no financial consequences to being a one-star facility, it is simply built into the cost of doing business,” Brewer said. “It appears there’s been a business calculation made that one-star ratings are just fine. Owners of these chronically one-star facilities must be held to account.”

State data on each of these facilities is available here.

Kevin D. Walsh, the acting State Comptroller, said taxpayers should not have to fund nursing homes that have gotten repeated bad ratings.

“Close to two thousand New Jerseyans woke up this morning in these one-star nursing homes,” Walsh said in a news release. "New Jersey taxpayers should not be funding nursing homes that have failed to improve for years, appear unlikely to improve, and put residents in harm’s way.”

The following is a list of the nursing homes highlighted in the OTC report.

• Care One at Evesham, Marlton (Burlington County)
• Cedar Grove Respiratory and Nursing Center, Williamstown (Gloucester County)
• Complete Care at Fair Lawn Edge, Paterson (Passaic County)
• Cranford Park Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, Cranford (Union County)
• Forest Manor HCC, Hope (Warren County)
• Lakeview Rehabilitation and Care Center, Wayne (Passaic County)
• New Grove Manor (recently renamed Grove Park Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center), East Orange (Essex County)
• Oceana Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, Cape May Court House (Cape May County)
• Palace Rehabilitation and Care Center, Maple Shade (Burlington County)
• Riverview Estates, Riverton (Burlington County)
• Silver Healthcare Center, Cherry Hill (Camden County)
• South Jersey Extended Care, Bridgeton (Cumberland County)
• Sterling Manor, Maple Shade (Burlington County)
• Wardell Gardens at Tinton Falls, Tinton Falls (Monmouth County)
• Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center, Andover (Sussex County)