Connecticut lawmakers are pushing for an investigation into a nursing home operator accused of not paying 4.5% salary increases after receiving state funding to do so.
Lawmakers last summer approved a one-time Medicaid rate increase to support wage hikes for frontline nursing home workers in response to pandemic conditions. The increase was supposed to be effective by July 31, 2021, under new law.
About 100 employees at the Vanderman Place, a 124-bed skilled nursing facility in Willimantic, CT, were in line to receive extra salary totaling an estimated $250,000.
Representatives for the employees said they have not received the raise and that representatives of the owner, JACC Healthcare Center of Winham LLC, have ignored their questions, the CT Mirror reported. The operator also hasn’t paid several vendors, in addition to the wages, according to the report.
Efforts by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News to reach JACC Healthcare Tuesday were unsuccessful. A message left with Vanderman Place also was not returned by production deadline.
JACC representatives have denied receiving the funding and claim they don’t know where it is or went, according to a letter by lawmakers to the state’s Department of Social Services.
“In addition, it is to our understanding that Vanderman Place ignored attempts by your department staff to answer email inquiries regarding where the funds went and why it has not been paid to the facility employees,” the letter states.
The lawmaker group requested that the agency launch an investigation into Vanderman’s management — specifically what it did with the funding — and use the agency’s legal resources to pay the facility’s staff and employees the increase.
