Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation argues against state request for court to appoint outside monitors

Attorneys for the Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation in Woodbury have rejected the state's request for a Nassau judge to appoint independent health and financial monitors to oversee it, arguing the "draconian remedy" would provide watchdogs with “unrestricted power” and likely lead to the facility's closure, records show.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Letitia James' office Monday asked the court to order Long Island's second-largest nursing home to put in escrow enough money to continue providing health benefits to its 440 staffers — less than two weeks before those benefits are set to run out.

The developments come as the state Health Department seeks a caretaker to operate the embattled nursing home while continuing administrative proceedings to revoke the facility's operating permit.

The attorney general's office, which filed suit against the nursing home in December, asked state Supreme Court Justice Lisa Cairo to appoint monitors to oversee the nursing home's care and finances, citing the facility's low staffing and poor care.

But in court filings last week, attorneys for the facility said those proposed appointments "would very likely force CSH to close" its 588-bed nursing home.

"The AG’s proposal would put her candidates in nearly total control of every aspect of CSH’s operation," 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 filings argue that Cold Spring Hills is better staffed and with less turnover than the majority of nursing homes in the state, with care comparable to similar facilities across the region.

"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," argued attorneys for the facility, who did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

But state attorney general prosecutors contend in court filings that without judicial intervention, the facility's owners "will continue to exercise unfettered control over Cold Spring Hills to siphon its funds for themselves, worsen working conditions for staff, continue resident admissions, cause preventable neglect and suffering, and increase risks to residents."

The filings are part of ongoing civil litigation alleging that the owners and management of Cold Spring Hills diverted more than $22.6 million in Medicaid and Medicare funds for residents' care by using a fraudulent network of a dozen companies to conceal upfront profit taking. The parties are due back in court Oct. 10. 

Separately, Cold Spring Hills employees will lose their health benefits on Oct. 15 after the facility stopped making payments to the National Benefit Fund of 1199 SEIU, the union that provides benefits to nursing home employees.

The months-long dispute caused dozens of the nursing home's employees to resign or seek positions elsewhere and prompted the Health Department to seek a caretaker to manage the facility.

A Health Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the revocation process.

Meanwhile, Cold Spring Hills is due back in court Oct. 26 on a separate case, filed last year by Taylor Parbatie of Roslyn, the facility's former night shift nursing supervisor, who alleges she was terminated after writing up several employees for sleeping on the job, watching movies on their cellphone or failing to care for residents.

"These are older people so they need assistance going to the bathroom," said Kim Johnson, Parbatie's Smithtown-based attorney. "She would find residents trying to help themselves to the restroom, risking slips and fall."

Parbatie, who now works part-time at nursing homes in Huntington and Southampton, said the termination left her questioning her own instincts "because I'm afraid I will end up in the same situation again," and lose her job.

Cold Spring Hills' attorney in the case did not respond to a request for comment. In court filings, the facility denied Parbatie's allegations.