Attorneys for an embattled New York nursing home told a state Supreme Court judge that the facility will likely close if a request by the attorney general to appoint monitors is approved.
Lawyers for Cold Spring Hill Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation told Supreme Court Justice Lisa Cairo that the request for independent health and financial monitors are a “draconian remedy” that would give the monitors “unrestricted power,” according to court filings.
“The [Attorney General’s] proposal would put her candidates in nearly total control of every aspect of Cold Spring Hill’s operation,” the facility’s attorneys wrote in a Sept. 29 filing. “Instead of monitors, the AG effectively asks the court to appoint receivers for the facility. There is scant to nonexistent precedent for such a draconian remedy against a nursing home. … The specific relief the AG requests is that the court hand her the keys to CSH — through the proxy of ‘monitor’/operators who would effectively control the facility’s patient care and finances.”
The state Department of Health has also asked the court to appoint a caretaker to oversee while it is trying to revoke the facility’s license, per court documents. According to Care Compare, the 606-bed facility has a 2-star rating.
At the same time, State Attorney General Letitia James also requested that the court put sufficient funds into escrow so that the 440 employees continue receiving health benefits. On July 25, the National Benefit Fund of 1199SEIU sent a termination notice that employees’ benefits would cease due to a lack of payment. The facility made a partial payment, but records indicate that benefits will run out on Oct. 15. In August, employees planned to picket the facility to protest losing their benefits, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News reported.
James filed suit against the Woodbury, NY, facility in December 2022, claiming that the owners had siphoned off $22.6 million in Medicare and Medicaid funds through a “fraudulent network of companies that were used to conceal up-front profit taking.” The case claims that Philosophy Care Centers founder Bent Philipson used a series of straw owners — including his son, Avi, who has a 24% stake, according to Care Compare — to conceal his control of the nursing home.
