Ocean City Health Care Service's Employees Were Unqualified: Attorney General

Ocean City, NJ -- The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs is seeking to revoke the registration of an Ocean City an Ocean City health care service firm that allegedly put the care of patients that required the services of Certified Homemaker-Home Health Aides (“CHHA”) in the hands of unqualified employees.

Bergre Acquisitions, LLC, which did business as “Home Care Specialists,” also allegedly provided false documents to the state, among other violations, the Attorney General's Office announced Monday morning.

A $2,000 civil penalty will be assessed against Home Care Specialists, and its health care service firm registration will be provisionally revoked.

Home Care Specialists’ owner was not immediately available for comment Monday morning.

Home Care Specialists can request a hearing contesting the provisional revocation, penalties, and findings.

Home Care Specialists allegedly told the state it employed a registered nurse as its health care practitioner supervisor, but that person said in a sworn statement that she never worked for the company did not know it was using her name and licensing information. She said she had applied for a job, but was never hired.

It also allegedly assigned four employees to care for clients without first verifying their license or certification status; assigned uncertified employees with two clients who required the services of a CHHA; had no plan of care for five of its clients; didn’t perform a 30-day health care review for four clients; and didn’t perform a 60-day on-site, in-home evaluation for four clients.

The alleged violations were discovered during the division’s inspection of Home Care Specialists last year. During the inspection, the division reviewed the records of five randomly selected clients and four employees assigned to them.

The division provided the following advice for anyone seeking seeking assistance from a health care service firm for at-home client care:

• Contact the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs to ensure that the health care service firm is registered with the State, and whether it has been the subject of consumer complaints; and
• Ask the Division to verify whether individual nurses or CHHAs provided by the agency are licensed or registered by the State Board of Nursing.

Additional information can be found in the following documents on the division’s website:

• Consumer Brief
• Consumer Guide to Home Health Aides

Documents are available free of charge.