Long Island&#39;s second largest nursing home has been facing a financial battle,&nbsp;leaving residents concerned about their futures.

Business

COLDSPRINGNURSING_GALLERY

Robert Brodsky

The financially troubled Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing &amp; Rehabilitation plans to begin &quot;evacuating&quot; its more than 300 elderly and disabled residents as early as Friday as the facility can no longer afford to pay its staff, multiple sources familiar with the plan told&nbsp;Newsday. 
The move comes as the state Department of Health mulls an application for Eliezer&nbsp;Jay Zelman, who owns several nursing homes elsewhere in New York, to become Cold Spring Hills' <a href="https://www.newsday.com/news/health/woodbury-nursing-home-finances-t1n3nsl8" target="_blank">temporary receiver</a>,&nbsp;taking over all facility operations, including paying staff. 
If the application is approved in the coming days, the &quot;temporary evacuation&quot; of the facility’s more than 330 residents could be halted, according to a source familiar with the receivership plan.&nbsp; 
Health department spokeswoman Monica Pomeroy said the department has not received every necessary document for the &quot;change of ownership application from Mr. Zelman, nor have we received the required receivership documents from the operator’s counsel, despite our attempts to secure this required information.&quot; 
If the receivership plan is rejected, Long Island’s second largest nursing home will permanently close its doors, the&nbsp;source said. 
In a letter&nbsp;to staff&nbsp;Tuesday night, Cold Spring Hills Administrator Edline Joseph said the nursing home would close on Dec. 31 “although we are diligently attempting to reopen the facility under new ownership or postpone the closure.” 
<h2>Inability to pay staff</h2> 
The facility is owned by embattled nursing home magnate Bent Philipson and his family, records show. 
&quot;A temporary evacuation is something that would happen in event of an emergency, like a hurricane or catastrophic loss of power, or, in our case, the inability to staff the facility, because we're not going to be able to pay nurses past this week,&quot; the source told Newsday Tuesday. &quot;What we would be doing is moving all of the patients to other facilities that are willing and able to take them in for a temporary period until such time as the facility can run safely again. And that would be as soon as the receiver is appointed. It could be days; could be longer.&quot; 
Zelman,&nbsp;Joseph and Linda Wickens-Alteri, the nursing home's&nbsp;court-appointed independent health monitor, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 
In September, Cold Spring Hills attorneys asked the state health department to appoint a receiver — confirmed by three sources as Zelman — to operate the nursing home&nbsp;before potentially purchasing the facility. 
The&nbsp;department sought additional information on the plan last month and had multiple meetings with nursing home attorneys and Zelman. 
Financially distressed nursing homes occasionally are put into a receivership, a remedy that allows a third party to operate the facility, most often during periods of litigation or financial distress. 
Pomeroy said the office has yet to receive or approve a relocation plan for Cold Spring Hills' residents. 
&quot;If the operator determines the need to relocate residents and submits the required documents, the department will oversee the process to ensure the residents’ health, safety and well-being is the top priority and is protected,&quot; she said. 
Jonathan Nolan said his older brother, Peter Nolan, 75, has been a resident at Cold Spring Hills for two years, where he's bedridden&nbsp;and has&nbsp;Parkinson's disease.&nbsp; 
&quot;My stomach is turning just thinking about it,&quot; Jonathan Nolan, 63, of Halesite, said of an emergency evacuation.&nbsp;&quot;It's just a nightmare. I'm just trying to help my brother out.&quot; 
Richard Mollot, executive director of the Manhattan-based Long Term Care Community Coalition, which advocates for nursing home residents, said emergency evacuations of nursing homes &quot;are extremely rare. To me this reflects a serious breakdown in the safeguards that exist to protect residents and the integrity of the use of public funds which pay for most nursing home care.&quot;&nbsp; 
<h2>&nbsp;Staff layoffs expected</h2> 
On Tuesday, Joseph told&nbsp;all nonessential employees, including administrative workers and&nbsp;recreation program staff, they'd be laid-off on Dec. 23, according to several employees who attended the meeting. The rest of the nursing home staff would be let go, assuming the receivership is not approved, once the last resident is moved out, officials said. 
The majority of Cold Spring Hills employees are members of&nbsp;1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. 
Union president George Gresham said the nursing home’s owners are forcing more than 300 &quot;vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities out of their home during the holidays, while laying off hundreds of workers. We are focused on doing everything possible to assist our members, residents, and their families during this transition.&quot; 
For several weeks, the cash-strapped nursing home has been piecing together its $1.14 million weekly payroll either using private capital or through a court-restrained account with money owed to the company from compensation for Medicaid and Medicare services provided to residents. On Dec. 10, state Supreme Court Justice David Cohen permitted the company to utilize the funds on a one-time basis to pay staff. 
A&nbsp;transcript of the hearing, provided to Newsday, provides previously unreported details about the scope of the facility's financial troubles. 
Paul Kremer, an attorney for the nursing home, told Cohen that Cold Spring Hills owes approximately $50 million to various creditors, including roughly $6 million to the union benefit fund. 
&quot;We do not have enough cash to continue operating for any significant period of time and make good on the full $6 million,&quot; Kremer said. &quot;To say nothing of the other debt that we owe to other creditors. … We are not able to pay our debts as they come due. In the conventional sense, we are insolvent. We have been for a long time.&quot; 
In April,&nbsp;state Supreme Court Justice Lisa Cairo <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cold-spring-hills-woodbury-nursing-home-suit-health-care-monitor-attorney-general-vgz5eivo" target="_blank">appointed</a> Wickens-Alteri as part of the resolution of a lawsuit&nbsp;— which also included a more than&nbsp;$2 million financial penalty —&nbsp;between state Attorney General Letitia James and Cold Spring Hills. James <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/cold-spring-hills-owners-accused-neglect-fraud-wern9r48" target="_blank">charged in the suit</a> that the facility neglected resident care and skirted state laws through a fraudulent business setup designed to enrich its owners. 
Last year, the nursing home got one of the <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/woodbury-nursing-home-cold-springs-hills-wzwvjhpw" target="_blank">largest federal financial penalties</a> in the country for jeopardizing patient safety.

Long Island

Nassau

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Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation can't pay staff, plans 'evacuation' of 330 residents as early as Friday, sources say

Financially troubled Woodbury nursing home prepares 'evacuation' of residents, sources say

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The ownership&nbsp;of the financially struggling Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing &amp; Rehabilitation has&nbsp;asked the New York State Health Department to put the Woodbury facility&nbsp;under&nbsp;receivership,&nbsp;a move that would allow&nbsp;a new operator to take temporary control of Long Island's second largest nursing home,&nbsp;according to the state&nbsp;agency. 
A court-ordered report, released late Tuesday by the nursing home's independent health monitor, said the proposed receiver is an individual who is considering purchasing the nursing home. 
&quot;The potential new owner has submitted an application to be appointed as the receiver of Cold Spring Hills while the full change of ownership application is submitted for review,&quot; wrote&nbsp;Lisa Wickens-Alteri, the independent health monitor, who declined to comment on the move. 
Experts said a move to&nbsp;another&nbsp;party controlling the facility's operations and finances&nbsp;could provide a potential lifeline for the nursing home, which court records show&nbsp;has been on the brink of economic collapse for months during the search for a new owner.&nbsp; 
Last year, it got <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/woodbury-nursing-home-cold-springs-hills-wzwvjhpw" target="_blank">one of the&nbsp;largest federal financial penalties</a> in the country for jeopardizing patient safety. 
A health department spokeswoman declined to disclose the identity of the &quot;specific receiver&quot; requested by the current ownership.&nbsp;Cold Spring Hills' attorneys didn't&nbsp;respond to requests for comment. 
&quot;The department received documents from the operator’s counsel on Sept. 27 requesting the appointment of a specific receiver and subsequently requested additional information that was submitted to the department on Nov. 5,&quot;&nbsp;said health department spokeswoman Monica Pomeroy. &quot;The department is reviewing the documents.&quot; 
Pomeroy declined to provide copies of the documents and said a decision on approving the receivership request hasn't&nbsp;been made. Newsday&nbsp;filed a Freedom of Information Law&nbsp;request Monday seeking the documents. 
Financially distressed nursing homes occasionally are put into a receivership, a remedy that allows a&nbsp;third party to operate the facility, most often during periods of litigation or financial distress, industry experts said. 
For example, in July, the Massachusetts attorney general placed three nursing homes&nbsp;under temporary receivership, citing a litany of payroll issues and concerns about resident care, according to court&nbsp;filings from the agency. 
Receivership often allows an individual or company to control the nursing home's business operations, including admissions, staffing and building improvements, experts said.&nbsp;It's not clear if a&nbsp;Cold Spring Hills&nbsp;receiver would be paid or receive a share of any&nbsp;business profits.&nbsp; 
David Lawlor, president and chief executive of Connecticut-based Long Hill Company, which specializes in stabilizing troubled nursing homes, said &quot;receiverships can take all different forms&quot; and that &quot;nursing homes are in such trying times that it takes a lot of creativity to allow facilities to be stabilized.&quot; 
In some cases, Pomeroy said,&nbsp;receivers are selected by the department or by the court but Cold Spring Hills has asked for a specific individual&nbsp;to take over operations. Separately, the nursing home has yet to submit the certificate needed to facilitate an official change of ownership, she said. 
State law stipulates the owner of a nursing home can ask the department for the appointment of a receiver &quot;to take charge of the facility under whatever conditions as shall be found acceptable by both parties.&quot; It says the&nbsp;receivership would terminate at a date agreed upon by all parties.&nbsp; 
Newsday reported last month that Cold Spring Hills in April submitted a proposed plan to the state for closing the facility, a move that prompted regulators to halt new admissions to the facility.&nbsp;But when the nursing home failed to finalize the plan, health officials withdrew the proposal. Admissions are expected to resume before the end of the month, Wickens-Alteri wrote Tuesday. 
Shutting the doors of Cold Spring Hills would have left more than 330 elderly and vulnerable residents immediately needing a new place to live. 
In September, an attorney for the ownership&nbsp;said in court that if a buyer isn't&nbsp;identified,&nbsp;the facility would be shuttered,&nbsp;Newsday&nbsp;also reported. 
Richard Mollot, executive director of Manhattan-based Long Term Care Community Coalition, which&nbsp;advocates for nursing home residents, said the &quot;specific receivership&quot; application&nbsp;raises concerns. 
&quot;If the operator is failing to meet its obligations to residents, families&nbsp;and taxpayers, it should not have influence over who takes control of the facility to address and correct the issues,&quot; Mollot said. 
In April, Nassau State Supreme Court Justice Lisa Cairo <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cold-spring-hills-woodbury-nursing-home-suit-health-care-monitor-attorney-general-vgz5eivo" target="_blank">appointed</a>&nbsp;Wickens-Alteri&nbsp;as part of the resolution of a lawsuit between New York Attorney General Letitia James and Cold Spring Hills. 
James had <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/cold-spring-hills-owners-accused-neglect-fraud-wern9r48" target="_blank">charged in the suit</a> that the facility neglected resident care and skirted state laws through a fraudulent business setup designed to enrich its owners. 
Court records show the family of Bent Philipson has at least a controlling interest in the facility's ownership, but it's unclear if others maintain a minority interest.

News

Health

liNURSING241112

State officials: Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation seeks temporary takeover

State officials: Troubled Woodbury nursing home seeks temporary takeover

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The financially troubled Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing &amp; Rehabilitation in April submitted a proposed plan to the state for closing the facility, preventing Long Island's second-largest nursing home for months from taking on new residents whose placements could have provided revenue for the&nbsp;struggling operation, records show. 
When&nbsp;the Woodbury nursing home never finalized the closure plan, a state health official told the facility's administrator in a September letter that the document was &quot;considered withdrawn.&quot; 
&quot;If Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing &amp; Rehabilitation wishes to move forward with a closure, then a new submission is required,&quot; Stephanie Paton, a health department director, wrote in a letter Newsday recently obtained from the state. 
News of the proposed closure hasn't&nbsp;been public until now, with many court documents in the case containing redactions.&nbsp;Federal regulations prevent nursing homes from accepting new residents while a closure plan is under consideration, records show. 
Shutting the doors of Cold Spring Hills would have left more than 330 elderly and vulnerable residents immediately needing a new place to live — in many cases uprooting them from the only home they had&nbsp;known for years. Many of the residents at Cold Spring Hills, records show, suffer from dementia, while others have substance abuse disorders and mental health concerns.&nbsp; 
&quot;A nursing home closure poses significant risks to residents and can have far-reaching impacts on families, staff, and the broader community,&quot; said&nbsp;Richard Mollot, who&nbsp;advocates for nursing home residents as executive director of&nbsp;Manhattan-based Long Term Care Community Coalition.&nbsp;&quot;Residents may experience 'transfer trauma,'&nbsp;marked by severe emotional distress and a decline in physical health. It can even result in resident death.&quot; 
<a href="https://www.health.ny.gov/facilities/adult_care/dear_administrator_letters/acf_closure_guidelines.htm" target="_blank">Closing a nursing home</a>&nbsp;in New York requires&nbsp;a 120-day notice to the state health department,&nbsp;state officials' approval of the closure plan and prior notification to each resident, their next of kin and physician, according to state officials. 
For months, the owners of Cold Spring Hills&nbsp;have been trying to sell the facility,&nbsp;which last year got <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/woodbury-nursing-home-cold-springs-hills-wzwvjhpw" target="_blank">one of the largest federal financial penalties&nbsp;in the country</a> for jeopardizing patient safety.&nbsp;It remains unclear whether the owners intend to take on new patients while seeking a buyer. 
Adding more residents would generate much-needed revenue that potentially could be used to repair the aging building and its numerous physical and mechanic woes, according to&nbsp;Lisa Wickens-Alteri, the&nbsp;nursing home's court-ordered independent health monitor. 
An Oct. 16 report from Wickens-Alteri&nbsp;indicated&nbsp;that &quot;once a new medical director is confirmed, admissions will begin after admission policies and protocols are reviewed and compliant.&quot; The facility's medical director resigned earlier this month. 
It is unclear if the health monitor has the power to dictate accepting new admissions or if she&nbsp;only can recommend it. 
A Nassau judge appointed Wickens-Alteri as an independent health monitor for the nursing home&nbsp;in April as part of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cold-spring-hills-woodbury-nursing-home-suit-health-care-monitor-attorney-general-vgz5eivo" target="_blank">resolution of a lawsuit</a> between New York&nbsp;Attorney General Letitia James and Cold Spring Hills that included a more than $2 million financial penalty for&nbsp;the nursing home's owners. 
James had charged in the suit that the facility neglected resident care and skirted state laws through a fraudulent business setup designed to enrich its owners. 
The nursing home's population has dropped by more than 13%, from 388 residents in May to 336 by the end of September, Wickens-Alteri wrote in her court-ordered reports. The population&nbsp;decline, Wickens-Alteri said, has led to a decline in daily revenue.&nbsp; 
While Cold Spring Hills now is permitted to accept new residents, it's unclear if the facility's ownership is on board with such a&nbsp;plan. 
During a Sept. 19 court proceeding, Paul Kremer, an attorney for Cold Spring Hills,&nbsp;suggested&nbsp;facility co-owner Bent Philipson isn't&nbsp;interested in adding residents while seeking a buyer. 
In Philipson's view, &quot;a better, more viable way to keep the facility on an even keel while we search for a new buyer is to continue operating at the somewhat lower census levels,&quot; Kremer said, according to a court transcript. 
Brian Steinwascher, a lawyer for James' office, told the court Cold Spring Hills' ownership was&nbsp;using the facility's economic woes as &quot;leverage&quot;&nbsp;to justify closing its doors or to force a sale. 
&quot;They like that they're losing money,&quot;&nbsp;Steinwascher said, according to the court transcript. 
Kremer, Wickens-Alteri and the state attorney general's&nbsp;office didn't respond&nbsp;to requests for comment. 
By early September, a&nbsp;potential buyer had begun touring the nursing home and a decision on the <a href="https://www.newsday.com/news/health/cold-spring-hills-nursing-home-sale-q20ryurw" target="_blank">sale of the building was&nbsp;expected &quot;soon</a>,&quot; Newsday previously reported. 
The state health department said Cold Springs Hills has yet to submit a certificate that is necessary for a proposed change of ownership.&nbsp; 
But Kremer indicated in court that the facility either would be sold or closed. 
&quot;One way or another ... there will be an approved buyer or there won't be a facility,&quot; Kremer said, according to the court transcript from Sept 19. 
When it comes to Cold Springs Hills' future, Mollot called it&nbsp;&quot;very troubling to have a facility faced with significant allegations of substandard care and fraud failing to take the steps necessary to stabilize basic ownership and operational issues.&quot; 
While the nursing home has been <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cold-spring-hills-nursing-home-finances-eybtzktw" target="_blank">hemorrhaging cash</a>, officials there also have been dealing&nbsp;for months with the resignations of dozens of staff members. 
The health monitor's October report said that while staff departures have slowed somewhat, &quot;Daily operational and financial issues&quot; that include fixing the leaky roof and a broken elevator and settling past due invoices with vendors &quot;demand immediate attention.&quot; 
State and federal regulators have issued more than $600,000 in fines and penalties — the most of any Long Island nursing home — to Cold Spring Hills in the past three years.

liNURSING241026

State records: Woodbury nursing home owners sought to close troubled facility, but didn't finalize plans

State records: Woodbury nursing home owners sought to close troubled facility, but didn't finalize plans

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State records show the owners of&nbsp;Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing &amp; Rehabilitation&nbsp;in Woodbury&nbsp;tried to close the facility, but didn&#39;t finalize the plans.&nbsp;

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Records show Woodbury nursing home owners tried to close facility 

Woodbury

Newsday

'The question is what happens next if there's no buyer?'

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Health monitor: Troubled Cold Spring Hills nursing home sale expected 'soon'

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The Woodbury nursing home state prosecutors sued&nbsp;last year for fraud has stacked up&nbsp;more than $600,000 in federal fines in three years, including what records show was among&nbsp;the biggest federal financial penalties issued nationwide&nbsp;last year for jeopardizing resident&nbsp;safety.&nbsp; 
The documents show a resident who went into respiratory distress at Cold Spring&nbsp;Hills Center for Nursing &amp; Rehabilitation <a href="https://profiles.health.ny.gov/nursing_home/poc_inspection_detail/MJOD" target="_blank">died in March</a>&nbsp;while waiting for an ambulance after a nurse ignored a doctor's order to call&nbsp;911. 
They also reveal&nbsp;another resident at the private facility, Long Island's second-largest nursing home, suffered facial burns in February after smoking a cigarette while using a nasal cannula, a device that delivers extra oxygen through a tube. 
Newsday obtained&nbsp;records on the health citations&nbsp;from&nbsp;the&nbsp;Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services and the New York State Department of Health. They show CMS, a federal regulatory agency that provides health coverage to more than 160 million Americans,&nbsp;fined the facility&nbsp;a total of $182,095 in April after state officials uncovered both incidents&nbsp;during a&nbsp;March&nbsp;inspection. 
Records also show that&nbsp;penalty to Cold Spring Hills followed a fine of more than $400,000&nbsp;last summer, the 13th&nbsp;highest out of more than 9,300 penalties&nbsp;the federal agency meted out across the country in 2023. 
Attorneys for Cold Spring&nbsp;Hills declined to comment. Edline Severe Joseph, the facility's administrator, didn't&nbsp;respond to requests for comment.&nbsp; 
<h2>Deadly wait for ambulance</h2> 
The resident's death at Cold Spring Hills in March happened during a delay for emergency care that lasted more than an hour and a half, records show. 
<a href="https://profiles.health.ny.gov/nursing_home/poc_inspection_detail/MJOD">State inspectors wrote</a>&nbsp;the ventilator-bound resident, whose name wasn't disclosed in records, was experiencing &quot;respiratory distress,&quot; including a rapid heartbeat, fast breathing and excessive sweating. 
But a nurse, whose name also wasn't disclosed, ignored a&nbsp;nursing home physician's order for the resident to immediately be transferred to a hospital and called for an nonemergency ambulance service instead of calling 911. 
The service told Cold Spring Hills it would take two hours for an ambulance to arrive, inspectors wrote. 
More than an hour after the initial diagnosis, the resident's family intervened and demanded a call to 911, the report said. Even then, the nurse waited another 20 minutes to make the call, leading to a 93-minute total delay in the arrival of EMS personnel, inspectors said. The resident died waiting for the ambulance. 
The nurse, who told inspectors the resident was &quot;stable&quot; enough to wait for a nonemergency ambulance service, was fired, records show. 
Richard Mollot, executive director of the Manhattan-based Long Term Care Community Coalition, an advocacy group for nursing home residents, called the March patient death&nbsp;&quot;nothing short of horrifying.&quot;&nbsp; 
He added: &quot;The fundamental purpose of a nursing home is to ensure the safety of our most vulnerable individuals. Instead, according to the state's report, facility staff displayed a gross indifference to their residents' well-being.&quot;&nbsp; 
Inspectors said the facility didn't&nbsp;have a written policy addressing &quot;if or when Emergency Medical Services should be notified&quot; but&nbsp;later established such a policy. 
&quot;It's astounding that this facility, after these and other significant failures to meet minimum standards, is just now developing a policy on when to call an ambulance,&quot; Mollot said.&nbsp; 
During the same March inspection, state health officials&nbsp;found a Cold Spring Hills resident &quot;with a history of unsafe smoking&quot; had suffered serious burns to his&nbsp;cheeks, nose and mustache a month earlier while smoking a cigarette in a courtyard unsupervised while on oxygen therapy. The records indicate the&nbsp;resident needed&nbsp;emergency room treatment for his&nbsp;injuries. 
<h2>Wave of problems</h2> 
The nursing home&nbsp;has faced a wave of problems in recent years, threatening&nbsp;its ability to stay open. 
At the heart of the turmoil was a&nbsp;2022 lawsuit from New York&nbsp;Attorney General Letitia James' office&nbsp;that argued the facility's owners&nbsp;neglected resident care and skirted state laws through a fraudulent business setup&nbsp;to enrich themselves. 
In March,&nbsp;State Supreme Court Justice Lisa Cairo ordered the facility's owners to pay $2.65 million in restitution and in April appointed an <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cold-spring-hills-nursing-home-judge-independent-monitor-sysysl3c" target="_blank">independent health monitor</a>&nbsp;to oversee resident&nbsp;care. 
In the subsequent months, <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/cold-spring-hills-nursing-home-potential-new-owner-t9mv5zqe" target="_blank">dozens of employees resigned</a> after&nbsp;the facility <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cold-spring-hills-nursing-home-finances-eybtzktw" target="_blank">eliminated its union-funded health care coverage</a>, according to a report health monitor Lisa Wickens-Alteri issued this&nbsp;month. 
In addition, the report&nbsp;said state regulatory agencies&nbsp;had approved a potential buyer for the facility, which was &quot;at a critical point&quot; with &quot;growing staff concerns,&quot; and included some details about&nbsp;recent federal fines. 
The potential buyer that has expressed interest in acquiring Cold Spring Hills, though there’s no deal at this point, has been officially approved by the state in its purchase of a different nursing home. 
The most recent fine for $182,095 came less than a year after CMS&nbsp;fined Cold Spring Hills&nbsp;$408,105&nbsp; last August,&nbsp;after state inspectors issued 40 health and safety code citations&nbsp;during a 10-day mandatory routine inspection. 
Among&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.health.ny.gov/nursing_home/poc_inspection_detail/092T" target="_blank">findings</a>&nbsp;last summer, health inspectors said the facility failed to ensure&nbsp;that one&nbsp;resident with serious bedsores received treatment and failed to ensure that&nbsp;another resident got&nbsp;required pain medication. Other violations&nbsp;included a lack of sufficient nursing staffing and residents with unapproved medication or not receiving&nbsp;physician-ordered wound treatment. 
Records show Cold Spring Hills challenged its August&nbsp;fine — the second-largest penalty CMS issued to a New York nursing home in&nbsp;the last three years. CMS&nbsp;then reduced the penalty&nbsp;to $165,558. 
CMS also imposed a 2&frac12; -month &quot;denial of payment&quot; period on Cold Spring Hills, in which the government halts Medicare or Medicaid payments to a nursing home until citations are corrected. The federal agency lifted that period&nbsp;in January. 
<h2>'A drop in the bucket'</h2> 
Since June 2021, CMS has fined Cold Spring Hills a total of $614,177 — more than any nursing home on Long Island and second in the state&nbsp;to Bishop Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Syracuse, which has a designation as one of the nation's poorest performing nursing homes. 
John Dalli, a Mineola-based elder care attorney who has several negligence cases pending against Cold Spring Hills, said its owners&nbsp;view state and federal fines&nbsp;as the price of doing business. 
&quot;They're repeat offenders,&quot; Dalli said. &quot;The fines they're receiving reflect that, although they've been admonished and been told they need to increase staffing and have more appropriate care plans in place, they haven't heeded any of those warnings. That's why you see these larger fines. But, in reality, that amount of money is a drop in the bucket to these guys.&quot; 
Of the fines, CMS said in a statement that the agency is&nbsp;&quot;committed to improving the quality of care and quality of life for all nursing home residents.&quot; 
The agency said it can impose penalties &quot;when there's a serious health or fire safety citation or if the nursing home fails to correct a citation for a long period of time.&quot; 
Besides the two large fines, CMS fined Cold Spring Hills three other times in the last three years, records show. 
In May 2022, CMS <a href="https://www.newsday.com/news/health/nursing-home-state-inspections-2022-kgm0hoxk" target="_blank">fined Cold Spring Hills $22,340</a> after&nbsp;staffers mistakenly believed a resident who stopped breathing had a &quot;Do Not Resuscitate&quot; order and failed to perform potentially lifesaving care. The resident died, Newsday previously reported. State health officials separately&nbsp;fined the nursing home $10,000, the maximum allowed for a single incident. 
CMS also fined Cold Spring Hills $987 in January 2022 and $650 in November 2021 for failing to properly report information about COVID-19 cases. 
Court records show the 588-bed nursing home now has 367 residents — down from 388 a month ago&nbsp;— needs massive physical repairs and saw the departure of 53 staffers, including 26 nurses, in the past month. 
With Anastasia Valeeva

LINURSING240720

Records: Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation fined more than $600G for jeopardizing resident safety 

One resident died after a 911 call delay; another suffered burns. Their LI nursing home was fined $600G

A potential&nbsp;buyer for the financially troubled Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing &amp; Rehabilitation has been approved by state regulatory agencies,&nbsp;providing the Woodbury nursing home with a possible lifeline as it&nbsp;struggles with resignations and departures of dozens of staff members, according to a new court-mandated report. 
The report, from Lisa Wickens-Alteri, Cold Spring Hills' court-appointed independent health monitor, does not identify the name of the buyer and indicates that an agreement for the sale of the facility — Long Island's second largest nursing home — has not been reached.&nbsp; 
But Wickens-Alteri wrote July 5 that the nursing home is &quot;at a critical point&quot; with &quot;growing staffing concerns,&quot; including&nbsp;26 nursing resignations and 27 other employee departures&nbsp;in the past month alone, along with Cold Spring Hills' ongoing financial struggles. 
&quot;A new potential owner is interested in Cold Springs, has been in communications with the union, and has the financial ability to invest in the corrections of the physical plant and operations, with proven success in similar situations in the past,&quot; Wickens-Alteri wrote in her second report to Nassau State Supreme Court Justice Lisa Cairo.&nbsp; 
The potential buyer, Wickens-Alteri wrote, was recently approved by the state Health Department and its Public Health and Health Planning Council to purchase and operate a nursing home in New York State, &quot;demonstrating they passed&nbsp;character and competence reviews.&quot; 
Wickens-Alteri and a state Health Department spokeswoman each declined to comment on the report or about the identity of the potential buyer. Attorneys for the nursing home did not respond to requests for comment. 
Meanwhile, a separate nonprofit operator has indicated interest in taking over Cold Spring Hills, Wickens-Alteri wrote. That operator, however, does not appear to be as far along in the process in trying to purchase the facility. 
She also warned that the nursing home's labor agreement with 1199SEIU &quot;is one of the richest contracts in New York, posing further financial burdens for such a large facility. The union contract needs to be addressed before the change of ownership to ensure any operator can demonstrate the facility has a future and financial viability.&quot; 
Rose Ryan, a spokeswoman for the union, said: &quot;Despite the many challenges facing Cold Spring Hills, 1199SEIU continues working to find a solution that will protect the residents and the caregivers.&quot; 
The wave of departures, Wickens-Alteri&nbsp;wrote, come&nbsp;in part&nbsp;after the more than 400 Cold Spring Hills staff members were moved to a new<a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cold-spring-hills-nursing-home-finances-eybtzktw" target="_blank"> employer-funded insurance plan</a> that union officials say provides fewer — and more expensive — benefits than what was previously offered. 
Wickens-Alteri, however, said staffing remains &quot;stable&quot; because of the declining number of residents living at Cold Spring Hills. 
The 588-bed nursing home now has 367 residents — down from 388 just one month earlier — and needs massive physical repairs, including replacement elevators and a new roof for its Brookville building, which has since been shuttered to residents, the report states. 
In April, <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cold-spring-hills-nursing-home-judge-independent-monitor-sysysl3c" target="_blank">Cairo appointed Wickens-Alteri</a>,&nbsp;president of Capital Health Consulting LLC in Albany, as Cold Spring Hills' independent health care monitor, focused on improving resident care, maintaining sufficient staffing and ensuring that management follows state and federal guidelines.&nbsp;Wickens-Alteri, who began the role in May, is mandated&nbsp;to issue monthly reports about the condition of the facility. 
Cairo, who sits in Mineola, ordered the installation of the health care monitor as part of the resolution of a contentious lawsuit between State Attorney General Letitia James' office and Cold Spring Hills that also included a <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cold-spring-hills-woodbury-nursing-home-suit-health-care-monitor-attorney-general-vgz5eivo" target="_blank">more than $2 million financial penalty</a> to the nursing home's owners. James charged in the suit that the facility neglected resident care and skirted state laws through a fraudulent business setup designed to enrich the owners. 
James had asked the court&nbsp;to penalize the nursing home&nbsp;tens of millions of dollars, install&nbsp;a financial monitor and have&nbsp;one of its owners, Bent Philipson, removed — all of which were rejected by the judge. 
In her initial June 6 report, Wickens-Alteri said she expected her work would not be publicly released &quot;as there are a number of items included that could cause anxieties for some.&quot; 
Newsday last week asked Cairo to release Wickens-Alteri's reports, prompting the judge to seek input from the AG's office and from the nursing home. Cold Spring Hills lawyers took no position on the request. James' office said it had no objections to releasing the report as long as certain undisclosed redactions were made. 
On Wednesday, Cairo released the reports with significant redactions&nbsp;that appeared to be&nbsp;related to the long&nbsp;term financial viability of the facility. 
In court records, Paul Kremer, an attorney for Cold Spring Hills, has discussed the facility's struggling finances. 
&quot;Resident census is down, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements have been held up, doctors and hospitals have stopped making referrals, and creditors (including the union benefits funds) are circling in the water,&quot;&nbsp;Kremer wrote in an April 22 letter to the court.

LINURSING240719

Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation has potential new owner, court monitor says

Potential new owner may be lifeline to financially struggling Woodbury nursing home, report says

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An as-yet unidentified potential buyer has expressed interest in the financially troubled&nbsp;Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing &amp; Rehabilitation in Woodbury. NewsdayTV&#39;s Virginia Huie reports.

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Possible new owner for troubled nursing home 

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'The place is in dire financial straits'

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Health care benefits for nearly 500 union employees at Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing &amp; Rehabilitation in Woodbury lapsed&nbsp;this week, as the financial condition&nbsp;of&nbsp;Long Island's second-largest nursing home&nbsp;appears on the brink of disaster, court records show. 
The records indicate that while the nursing home tried to raise the $2.65 million in health care benefits, a nursing home attorney told the court: “We have failed.” 
Meanwhile, nursing home management gave&nbsp;staff until Tuesday to sign up for a new employer-funded insurance&nbsp;plan that union officials say&nbsp;provides fewer — and more expensive&nbsp;— benefits than what was previously offered.&nbsp; 
Ownership of Cold Spring Hills has&nbsp;failed&nbsp;to make the court-ordered payment&nbsp;to the 1199SEIU National Benefit Funds, which represents the nursing home workers.&nbsp; 
On Tuesday, those benefits lapsed and staff at the nursing home, who come into daily contact with sick individuals who&nbsp;require constant medical attention,&nbsp;have&nbsp;been working without health&nbsp;insurance. Staff that&nbsp;sign&nbsp;up to the facility's new MagnaCare plan would have their benefits backdated&nbsp;to April 23. 
Mike Needham, of Farmingdale, speaking of his wife, Erin Needham, who has worked for 20 years at Cold Spring Hills as a dietitian, said staff members are “panicking” for fear “the nursing home is going to go under.” Some workers, he said, have left, while others are calling in sick or utilizing vacation time.&nbsp; 
“No one really knows what's going to happen,” said Needham, adding that his wife signed up for the new plan, despite the higher deductibles and copays. “And that's the frustrating part.” 
A nursing home attorney declined to comment Friday.&nbsp; 
Patricia Wilson, vice president of the 1199SEIU unit that includes Cold Spring Hills, said ownership “clearly violated”&nbsp;the labor contract by failing to make the benefit&nbsp;payment and not providing “comparable” health insurance to staff. She said&nbsp;the union is seeking “legal avenues.” 
The health care battle stems&nbsp;from a&nbsp;legal fight between Cold Spring Hills and State Attorney General Letitia James,&nbsp;who filed suit against the nursing home in December 2022, arguing that its ownership neglected resident care and skirted state laws through a fraudulent business setup designed to enrich themselves. 
In March, State Supreme Court Justice Lisa Cairo ordered&nbsp;the facility's owners to <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cold-spring-hills-woodbury-nursing-home-suit-health-care-monitor-attorney-general-vgz5eivo">pay more than $2 million in restitution</a>&nbsp;and to install an <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cold-spring-hills-nursing-home-judge-independent-monitor-sysysl3c">independent health care monitor </a>to oversee patient care.&nbsp;Cairo has repeatedly ordered Cold Spring Hills to make the $2.65 million payment, but Avi Philipson, primary owner of the nursing home,&nbsp;told the court&nbsp;the facility&nbsp;lacks the resources to comply. 
When the deadline passed for Cold Spring Hills to make the payment, Cairo held the facility in <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cold-spring-hills-center-for-nursing-and-rehabilitation-contempt-nassau-judge-e45hvfop">contempt</a>&nbsp;and later fined its owners&nbsp;an <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/state-supreme-court-justice-lisa-cairo-b2hd07w0">additional $250</a>.&nbsp; 
At the heart of the dispute is the financial health of the nursing home, which has more than 500&nbsp;residents. 
In court records, Paul Kremer, an attorney&nbsp;for Cold Spring Hills, has&nbsp;discussed the facility's struggling finances and said it has&nbsp;tried&nbsp;unsuccessfully to find a new owner. 
“Resident census is down, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements have been held up, doctors and hospitals have stopped making referrals, and creditors (including the union benefits funds) are circling in the water,” Kremer wrote in an April 22 letter to the court, in support&nbsp;of a Newsday motion to unseal an April 18 court transcript.&nbsp; 
Portions of the letter, and other recent court filings, were heavily redacted in&nbsp;parts&nbsp;discussing&nbsp;the long-term health and operating status of the nursing home.&nbsp; 
In the unsealed transcript, Kremer said Cold Spring Hills has “undertaken substantial efforts” to raise the money needed for the benefit payment. 
“We have failed,” he said. “In the past, Cold Spring Hills has had its bacon saved by others. Those others …&nbsp;are no longer in a position where they wish to put their money into a proceeding that does not bear any&nbsp;signs of resolving in their favor.” 
Wilson&nbsp;said her members are “angry” and “confused” by the situation but are continuing to provide care to residents. 
“They've been through a number of fights over the years,” she said, “ … but I absolutely believe [Cold Spring Hills] can still be saved.”

LINURSING240427

Cold Spring Hills nursing home in financial trouble, court records show

Cold Spring Hills nursing home on brink of financial collapse, records show

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A Nassau County judge has issued a $250 fine&nbsp;against the owners of Long Island's second-largest nursing home for ignoring&nbsp;a contempt order and failing to make a $2.65 million payment toward the health care benefits of the facility's roughly 440 employees. 
In her order, issued late Friday, State Supreme Court Justice Lisa Cairo reiterated her previous directive for the&nbsp;owners of Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing &amp; Rehabilitation in Woodbury, and managing member Avi Philipson, to make the&nbsp;health care payment to the&nbsp;1199SEIU National Benefit Funds, which represents the nursing home workers.&nbsp; 
The judge also directed Cold Spring Hills to make the payment by&nbsp;Wednesday&nbsp;at the latest. In addition to the $250 fine, which must be paid to the benefit fund, Cairo ordered Cold Spring Hills to&nbsp;pay administrative and attorney fees.&nbsp; 
Employees at the nursing home, which has more than 500 residents,&nbsp;are set to lose their medical, prescription, dental and disability benefits as early as Monday, the union said. 
In the order, Cairo said she was legally limited in how large a fine she could impose,&nbsp;despite Cold Spring Hills' “utter disregard for the court's orders directing payments to the Fund.” 
“The law limits the penalties for contempt to ascertainable, established damages or the above noted statutory fine,” Cairo continued. “Actual damages have not been established. The ultimate effects of CSH's actions will undoubtedly be felt by employees of the facility but evidence of a numerical figure of damage has not been adduced.” 
Officials with the nursing home as well as state Attorney General Letitia James' office, which sought the contempt order on behalf of the benefit fund, <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cold-spring-hills-nursing-home-closed-courtroom-penalties-iam3xkkx">appeared in court Thursday</a> after Cold Spring Hills failed to meet Cairo's previously set deadline of last Wednesday to make the court-ordered payment. 
It was&nbsp;unclear&nbsp;if the payment will be made before the employee benefits are set to expire Monday. Owners of the privately operated nursing home, who have been seeking — unsuccessfully —&nbsp;a buyer, have argued they do not have the resources to make the payment. 
A Cold Spring Hills attorney declined to comment, while union officials did not respond to requests for comment. 
The nursing home has appealed the contempt order to the Appellate Division, which&nbsp;ordered all parties to return to court on April 26 to argue the merits of the appeal.

LINURSING240422

Judge fines Cold Spring Hills nursing home for ignoring contempt order

Judge fines LI nursing home for ignoring contempt order

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A Nassau judge Thursday said she was considering additional&nbsp;penalties against the owners of Long Island's second largest nursing home after the facility ignored a contempt order&nbsp;for&nbsp;failing to make a $2.65 million payment toward&nbsp;health care benefits of the facility's more than 400 employees. 
The announcement, by state Supreme Court Justice Lisa Cairo, capped an unusual day in Mineola in which all but three minutes of the legal proceedings were kept secret from the public. Ostensibly, the subject of the court appearance was&nbsp;whether the owners of&nbsp;Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing &amp; Rehabilitation should be forced to make the health care benefit payment and if workers there could lose their health care&nbsp;by Monday. 
The nursing home and State Attorney General Letitia James' office, which sought the contempt order on behalf of&nbsp;1199SEIU National Benefit Funds, appeared in court after Cold Spring Hills failed to make&nbsp;Cairo's Wednesday deadline to make the court-ordered payment. 
Cold Spring Hills,&nbsp;which has more than 500 residents, this week appealed the contempt order to the Appellate Division, which <a href="https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docIndex=kt1DpTLbqD6zY3Sd0QxEmw==">denied its request</a> for an emergency stay. The Appellate Division ordered parties to return April 26 to argue the merits of the appeal. 
For nearly two hours Thursday, attorneys for the nursing home and the Attorney General's Office&nbsp;met with Cairo in the judge's chambers. 
When they finally emerged, Cairo ordered the courtroom sealed and told spectators, a Newsday reporter and labor union members to leave.&nbsp; 
Shortly before 1 p.m., Cairo reopened the courtroom, where she said the court had heard arguments about whether Cold Spring Hills should receive additional penalties for failing to comply with the contempt order.&nbsp; 
“That's the only arguments that were heard by the court today,” Cairo said. “ … I have reserved decision on my ruling with respect to whether a fine should be incurred.” 
A copy of the order sealing the court&nbsp;—&nbsp;a highly unusual&nbsp;move typically reserved for cases&nbsp;such as those involving a minor&nbsp;— was provided to&nbsp;Newsday by the court and&nbsp;shows the request was made by James' office. 
“Based on the argument of the State and balancing the critical health care interests at stake, the court has determined sealing of the contempt proceedings and associated transcripts to be warranted,” Cairo wrote in the sealing order. 
The court cited state law that says sealing is permitted if there is “a compelling interest that likely would be harmed by granting public access.” 
The Attorney General's Office and attorneys for Cold Spring Hills declined to comment when asked by Newsday if the topic of the closure of the financially troubled nursing home, which has been actively seeking a buyer, was discussed during the closed proceedings. 
The Attorney General's Office&nbsp;declined to comment on why it sought the order. Cold Spring Hills lead attorney Paul Kremer also declined to comment. 
Meanwhile, the roughly 440 employees at Cold Spring Hills could lose their health benefits Monday if the payment is not made. 
“We are disappointed that Cold Spring Hills management has chosen yet again to jeopardize the health benefits of close to 500 caregivers and their families,” union spokeswoman Rose Ryan said. “Management still has time to make their contractually required payments to the workers’ health fund — and we hope that they will do the right thing for the staff and the residents.”

LINURSING240419

Judge mulls penalties against Cold Spring Hills nursing home after closing courtroom to public

Judge considering penalties for Cold Spring Hills nursing home after sealing courtroom

A Nassau judge said she was considering additional&nbsp;penalties against the owners of Cold Spring Hills nursing home&nbsp;after the facility ignored a contempt order&nbsp;for&nbsp;failing to make a $2.65 million payment.

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Cold Spring Hills nursing home could see additional penalties

On the hook for at least $2.6M

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An Albany-based consultant who used to help oversee nursing homes statewide&nbsp;will serve as an independent health care monitor at Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing &amp; Rehabilitation, managing patient care at the troubled Woodbury facility. 
Meanwhile, the ownership of Cold Spring Hills, Long Island's second-largest nursing home, has until Wednesday to make a <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cold-spring-hills-center-for-nursing-and-rehabilitation-contempt-nassau-judge-e45hvfop">court-ordered $2.6 million payment</a> after a Nassau judge found the facility&nbsp;in contempt last week for failing to make employee health care payments&nbsp;to a union benefit fund. Union officials confirmed Tuesday the payment still has not been made. 
On Friday, state Supreme Court Justice Lisa Cairo <a href="https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docIndex=JCHXE7ugxRDQeG_PLUS_YWzWlaQ==">named&nbsp;Lisa Wickens-Alteri</a>, president of Capital Health Consulting LLC, as Cold Spring Hills' independent health care monitor, focused on improving resident care, maintaining sufficient staffing and ensuring that management&nbsp;follows state and federal guidelines.&nbsp; 
Cairo, who sits in Mineola, ordered the <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cold-spring-hills-woodbury-nursing-home-suit-health-care-monitor-attorney-general-vgz5eivo">installation of the health care monitor</a> last month as part of the resolution of a contentious lawsuit between New York State Attorney General Letitia James and Cold Spring Hills&nbsp;that also included a more than $2 million&nbsp;financial penalty to the nursing home's owners. James charged in the suit that the facility&nbsp;neglected resident care and skirted state laws through a fraudulent business setup designed to enrich the owners.&nbsp; 
The facility had risked being penalized tens of millions of dollars, the installation of a financial monitor and having one of its owners, Bent Philipson, removed — all of which were rejected by the court. 
Wickens-Alteri will be provided access to the facility's electronic medical records, staffing data, internal surveys, accident and investigation reports, along with the nursing home's books, payroll records and cost reports, according to Cairo's order.&nbsp;All hiring decisions and potential staff layoffs need to be approved by Wickens-Alteri, Cairo wrote. 
Wickens-Alteri starts Wednesday and is required to be at the 588-bed facility&nbsp;a minimum of 10 days per month.&nbsp;Her compensation has yet to be established with the nursing home, she said. 
“My mission is to just make them a good, quality facility and to fix any of the issues that are there,” Wickens-Alteri told Newsday on Tuesday. “I start by talking to staff that are already there; hear them out because they have the best insight into the issues that need to be fixed. It's also important to talk to the residents and start listening to them.” 
The attorney general's office said it had recommended Wickens-Alteri for the position, and the judge made the final selection. 
Attorneys for Cold Spring Hills, which <a href="https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docIndex=ocNE/lWZt/xuArfA2n7Taw==">appealed Cairo's ruling</a>, declined to comment on&nbsp;Wickens-Alteri's appointment&nbsp;or whether it will make the employee health care payment. 
<a href="https://www.capitalhealthconsulting.com/lisa">Wickens-Alteri</a>, a former registered nurse at an upstate nursing home, spent eight years as deputy director of the Office of Health Systems Management, the policy, regulatory, surveillance and enforcement arm of the State Health Department,&nbsp;which has oversight of nursing homes and assisted living facilities.&nbsp; 
In 2016, Wickens-Alteri was appointed&nbsp;independent health care monitor at Medford Multicare Center as part of the <a href="https://www.newsday.com/news/health/li-nursing-home-fined-10-000-in-death-of-elderly-patient-e01666">settlement of a&nbsp;lawsuit</a> with then-Attorney General&nbsp;Eric T. Schneiderman, stemming from the 2012 death of a resident. The female resident died after employees failed to connect her to a ventilator overnight and ignored alarms that indicated she had stopped breathing, officials said. 
The independent health care monitor role, Wickens-Alteri said, can become adversarial, such as when she makes unpopular decisions about hiring or terminating staff.&nbsp; 
“The whole goal is to try and come up with ideas to make sure that people are held accountable,” said Wickens-Alteri, who has yet to speak with the nursing home's ownership. “I don't think anyone goes into this wanting to do poor care.” 
Meanwhile, the nursing home's owners&nbsp;have until Wednesday to pay 1199SEIU National Benefit Funds $2.65 million — the amount needed to continue providing health care through May 22 to Cold Spring Hills' roughly 440 employees.&nbsp;Health benefits for employees at Cold Spring Hills, which have remained in effect during the&nbsp;dispute over the payments, are set to expire April 22.&nbsp; 
In October, Cairo <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/nursing-home-health-insurance-y90yg7sm">ordered Cold Spring Hills</a> to “make all required payments in a timely manner” to ensure staff benefits remain available. 
“1199SEIU caregivers continue to provide quality care to the nursing home’s residents despite concerns that they may lose health insurance for themselves and their families in a few days,” union spokeswoman Rose Ryan said Tuesday. “We remain hopeful that Cold Spring Hills’ management will do the right thing and make their contractually required payments to the workers’ health benefit fund by close of business tomorrow.” 
Avi&nbsp;Philipson, one of the for-profit facility's co-owners, <a href="https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docIndex=rvduHzOCf7WW5ESWpNYoUA==">contends in court records</a> that the facility&nbsp;“is running at a significant loss” and efforts to sell the nursing home have been unsuccessful. 
If the payment is not made,&nbsp;the nursing home's attorneys, which have appealed the contempt order, are due back in court Thursday, where Cairo said “an appropriate penalty would be considered.”

LINURSING240417

Cold Spring Hills nursing home gets independent monitor to oversee patient care

Judge appoints independent health care monitor to Cold Spring Hills nursing home

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A Nassau judge has held Long Island's second largest nursing home, Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing &amp; Rehabilitation, in contempt&nbsp;for failing to make court-ordered employee health care payments to a union benefit fund, <a href="https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docIndex=gNwukWGZPWIzqm7sVwhvAw==">court records</a>&nbsp;show.&nbsp; 
State Supreme Court Justice Lisa Cairo on Tuesday also gave ownership of the Woodbury nursing home until April 17 to pay 1199SEIU National Benefit Funds $2.65 million — the amount needed&nbsp;to continue providing health care&nbsp;through May 22 to Cold Spring Hills' roughly 440 employees.&nbsp; 
“We welcome the court’s decision requiring Cold Spring Hills’ management to make their contractually required payments to the workers’ health benefit fund,”&nbsp;1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East said of the judge's actions. 
“A stable workforce is critical for quality resident care&nbsp;and protecting employees’ health insurance is key to retaining the nursing home’s skilled caregivers,” the statement said. 
The judge's ruling comes after she ordered the nursing home's owners last month to make&nbsp;financial restitution to the facility and have independent oversight of patient care. 
Paul Kremer, a Manhattan-based attorney&nbsp;for Cold Spring Hills and its owners, declined to comment on Tuesday's&nbsp;order. 
On Oct. 20, <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/nursing-home-health-insurance-y90yg7sm">amid a long-running dispute</a> between the nursing home and the union regarding health insurance payments, and in the wake of <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cold-spring-hills-protest-nursing-n8csgv38">an 11-day informational picket</a>&nbsp;by facility employees, Cairo ordered Cold Spring Hills to “make all required payments in a timely manner” to ensure that benefits remain available.&nbsp; 
Health benefits for employees at Cold Spring Hills, which have remained in effect during the dispute, were set to expire April 22. 
In her Tuesday ruling, Cairo said that “CSH was under a court order to make timely payment to continue benefits to union employees and it failed to do so.” 
State Attorney General Letitia James, who has been engaged in a lengthy legal battle with the leadership of the nursing home,&nbsp;<a href="https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docIndex=VkQuBXZBBYw10caGPoC4Qw==">sought the contempt</a> order last month, arguing the behavior of co-owners Avi Philipson and Joel Leifer was “contemptuous and requires action to protect the vulnerable residents of Cold Spring Hills.”&nbsp; 
James said&nbsp;in&nbsp;a statement Wednesday: “The members of 1199SEIU provide critical care and support every day to the residents of Cold Spring Hills. Shortchanging them is unconscionable, and this court order that my office secured will help provide them with the benefits they have worked hard to earn.” 
In a <a href="https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docIndex=rvduHzOCf7WW5ESWpNYoUA==">March 26 affidavit</a>, Philipson denied that he had violated Cairo's October order, contending&nbsp;that health payments were not yet necessary, and that “even if payments to the Funds are technically past due, benefits are rarely terminated as a result.” Cold Spring Hills, he said, was prepared to “pay out of pocket” to obtain replacement insurance coverage for its unionized members if the current benefits were terminated. 
Philipson told the court that Cold Spring Hills lacks the adequate cash reserves to cover the $2.6 million payment and the facility is running at a significant loss, in part, because of the long-running legal battle with James.&nbsp;But court records show that between October 2023 and January 2024, an entity owned 99% by Philipson transferred $2.5 million to Cold Spring Hills' operating account. 
Mathew Varghese,&nbsp;who owns several nursing homes in Florida and Pennsylvania, recently withdrew his application to take partial ownership of Cold Spring Hills, Philipson said in the affidavit. 
James filed suit against Cold Spring Hills&nbsp;in December 2022, arguing that its ownership&nbsp;neglected resident care and skirted state laws through a fraudulent business setup elaborately designed to enrich themselves.&nbsp; 
Last month, Cairo ordered&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cold-spring-hills-woodbury-nursing-home-suit-health-care-monitor-attorney-general-vgz5eivo">the nursing home's owners</a> to provide more than $2 million in restitution to the facility and install an independent health care monitor to oversee patient care. The ruling was a partial victory for Cold Spring Hills, which&nbsp;risked&nbsp;tens of millions of dollars in penalties, having a financial monitor installed and having one of its owners&nbsp;removed — all of which were rejected by the court. 
With Jim Baumbach

LINURSING240411

Judge holds owners of Woodbury nursing home in contempt for nonpayment

Nursing home owners held in contempt for failure to make court-ordered payments

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Why LI nursing homes were fined $148G in 2023

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The owners of&nbsp;Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation must provide more than $2 million in restitution to the facility and&nbsp;install an independent health care monitor to oversee patient care, a Nassau&nbsp;judge ruled Friday. 
The decision ends&nbsp;a contentious lawsuit between&nbsp;Long Island's second largest nursing home operator and the state attorney general's office. 
The ruling, by&nbsp;state Supreme Court Justice Lisa Cairo, represented a partial victory for&nbsp;Cold Spring Hills. The facility had been at risk of&nbsp;being penalized tens of millions of dollars,&nbsp;having a financial monitor installed and having one of its owners, Bent Philipson, removed&nbsp;— all of which were rejected by the court. 
“The court’s order to appoint an independent health care monitor at Cold Spring Hills will substantially improve residents’ care and quality of life,” the attorney general's office said in a statement. “While we continue to review the decision and determine next steps, protecting our most vulnerable New Yorkers and ensuring nursing homes are held accountable remain our top priorities.” 
The court must still determine the scope of the health care monitor's duties while the attorney general's office indicated it could ask the court to reconsider damages. 
The judge did agree&nbsp;with the attorney general that Cold Spring Hills failed “to meet the standard of care” required&nbsp;by the state&nbsp;and did not “adequately contradict allegations of extreme neglect.” 
The state Health Department, which was seeking revocation of the facility's operating license and the appointment of a temporary manager&nbsp;to run the nursing home, declined to comment.&nbsp; 
Attorneys for Cold Spring Hills and for Philipson, a nursing home magnate&nbsp;who purchased the Woodbury facility&nbsp;in 2016, along with partner Benjamin Landa, did not respond to requests for comment. 
Attorney General Letitia James <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/cold-spring-hills-owners-accused-neglect-fraud-wern9r48">filed suit </a>against owners and operators of&nbsp;Cold Spring Hills in December&nbsp;2022, arguing the 588-bed facility neglected resident&nbsp;care and skirted state laws through a fraudulent business setup elaborately designed to enrich themselves. 
The complaint alleged Cold Spring Hills owners&nbsp;profited by diverting $22.6 million in government funding away from resident care&nbsp;while repeatedly cutting staff,&nbsp;including in the weeks before the pandemic, leading to nightmarish end-of-life scenarios. 
The lawsuit sought the removal of Philipson from any involvement in the facility’s operations and a court order that Philipson and his partners pay an unspecified amount of restitution.&nbsp;Philipson and Landa amassed by 2020 — along with their family members — interests in 163 nursing facilities across 18 states, according to Medicare records. 
In her ruling, Cairo rejected many of James' central arguments, including that Cold Spring Hills ownership engaged in “repeated and persistent” financial&nbsp;fraud, unapproved equity withdrawals and&nbsp;“unjustly enriched” themselves&nbsp;at the expense of facility operations.&nbsp; 
Cairo, however, found Cold Spring Hills&nbsp;did engage&nbsp;in “misleading” facility financing and mandated&nbsp;four ownership entities pay a combined $2.015 million in restitution to the nursing home. 
The court, Cairo wrote, will&nbsp;select an independent health care monitor, in consultation with both sides, before March 29. The monitor, which will oversee daily operations, would report directly to the court. 
“We appreciate that Judge Cairo recognized that sufficient staffing levels are required to safeguard resident care at nursing homes,” said 1199 SEIU, the union represents more than 400 Cold Spring Hills employees. “We still believe that new management is required at the facility — both for the residents and the workers.” 
Richard Mollot, executive director of the&nbsp;Long Term Care Community Coalition, which advocates for nursing home residents, called the appointment of an independent health care monitor “a major win” for residents and their families. 
“However, the best solution would be to force a sale of this facility to ensure that residents are safe and that taxpayer money — which funds most nursing home care — is used with integrity,” Mollot said. “ …&nbsp;Perhaps most importantly&nbsp;and most troubling&nbsp;is that the judge repeatedly ignored&nbsp;the growing body of evidence showing that nursing homes are making significant profits and that most of these profits are hidden in related-party transactions.” 
Families who lost loved ones at the facility&nbsp;<a href="https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/coronavirus-cold-spring-hills-nursing-home/">in the early days of the pandemic </a>said the ruling was&nbsp;insufficient. 
Thomas Granito, of Huntington Station, whose 99-year-old mother, May Granito, was one of six residents to die&nbsp;of COVID-19 at Cold Spring Hills during a single weekend in&nbsp;April 2020, said ownership “is getting off very easy.” 
Debra Garofalo, of Wantagh, whose&nbsp;mother, Julie Toves, died that same weekend at Cold Spring Hills, called $2 million “a slap in the face” to families. 
“I know there was gross neglect and understaffing during that period,”&nbsp;Garofalo said. “This is not a great resolution to the case at all.” 
With Jim Baumbach 
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LINURSING240319

Cold Spring Hills nursing home owners ordered to install independent health care monitor to oversee patient care

LI nursing home ordered to install independent monitor, pay $2M

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Under a judge&#39;s order, the&nbsp;owners of Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation will have to implement changes designed to improve patient care, and&nbsp;pay $2 million in restitution.

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LI nursing home ordered to make big changes

Goal is to improve patients' quality of life

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Attorneys for the Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing &amp; Rehabilitation in Woodbury&nbsp;have rejected the state's request&nbsp;for a Nassau judge to appoint independent health and financial monitors to oversee it, arguing the &quot;draconian remedy&quot; would provide watchdogs with “unrestricted power” and likely lead&nbsp;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&nbsp;to put in escrow enough money to continue providing health benefits to its 440 staffers&nbsp;— less than two weeks before those benefits are set to run out. 
 The developments come as the state Health Department seeks a <a href="https://www.newsday.com/news/health/cold-spring-fzdpaqs9">caretaker to operate the embattled nursing home</a> 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&nbsp;to appoint monitors to oversee the nursing home's care and finances, citing&nbsp;the facility's low staffing and poor care. 
 But in court filings last week, attorneys for the facility&nbsp;said those proposed appointments &quot;would very likely force CSH to close&quot; its 588-bed nursing home. 
 &quot;The AG’s proposal would put her candidates in nearly total control of every aspect of CSH’s operation,&quot; attorneys wrote in a Sept. 29 filing. &quot;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.&quot; 
 The filings argue&nbsp;that Cold Spring Hills is&nbsp;better staffed and with less turnover than the majority of nursing homes in the state, with&nbsp;care comparable to&nbsp;similar facilities across the region. 
 &quot;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,&quot; argued attorneys for the facility, who did not respond to requests for comment Monday. 
 But state attorney general&nbsp;prosecutors contend in court filings that&nbsp;without judicial&nbsp;intervention, the facility's owners &quot;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.&quot; 
 The filings are part of ongoing civil litigation&nbsp;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.&nbsp; 
 Separately, Cold Spring Hills employees will lose their health benefits on Oct. 15 after the facility stopped making&nbsp;payments to the National Benefit Fund of 1199 SEIU, the union that provides&nbsp;benefits to nursing home employees. 
 The months-long dispute caused&nbsp;dozens of the nursing home's employees to resign or seek positions elsewhere and prompted&nbsp;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. 
 &quot;These are older people so they need&nbsp;assistance going to the bathroom,&quot; said Kim Johnson, Parbatie's Smithtown-based attorney. &quot;She would find residents trying to help themselves to the restroom, risking slips and fall.&quot; 
 Parbatie, who now works part-time at nursing homes in Huntington and Southampton, said the termination left her questioning her own instincts &quot;because I'm afraid I will end up in the same situation again,&quot; 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&nbsp;Parbatie's allegations.

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

Woodbury nursing home attorneys say state's request for court-appointed monitors will lead to center's closure

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The state Health Department has asked a Nassau judge to appoint an emergency caretaker&nbsp;to operate Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing &amp; Rehabilitation in Woodbury, Long Island's second-largest nursing home, as the state&nbsp;seeks to revoke its operating permit, citing&nbsp;conditions that are “dangerous to the life, health, or safety of residents,&quot; according to court filings. 
 The state's request, the first in 15 years,&nbsp;according to records,&nbsp;comes as 440 Cold Spring Hills employees face the loss of their health care benefits by Oct. 15 as the nursing home has refused to make permanent payments to a National Benefit Fund — a move that has spurred more than 130 workers at the already understaffed facility to seek new jobs, quit&nbsp;or retire, records show. 
 In a Sept. 8 court filing, Health Department Commissioner James McDonald said the state has begun&nbsp;administrative proceedings to revoke the facility's operating certificate, adding&nbsp;that a caretaker, or temporary manager, must be put into place to operate the&nbsp;588-bed, for-profit facility, improve resident care and&nbsp;pay its staff, including all health care benefits. 
 The filing is part of&nbsp;ongoing civil litigation, initiated by State Attorney General Letitia James in December, alleging that the owners and management of Cold Spring Hills <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/cold-spring-hills-owners-accused-neglect-fraud-wern9r48">diverted more than $22.6 million</a> in Medicaid and Medicare funds for residents' care by using a fraudulent network of a dozen companies to conceal upfront profit taking. 
<a class="p-smartembed" data-onecms-id="contentid/YjJkMjhmZjgtODMzZi00" data-onecms-type="weblink" href="javascript:window.parent.actionEventData({$contentId:'contentid/YjJkMjhmZjgtODMzZi00', $action:'view', $target:'work'})" polopoly:contentid="contentid/YjJkMjhmZjgtODMzZi00">WEBLINK: Newsday Investigation: Crisis, care and tragedy on LI </a> 
 Cold Spring Hill's refusal to fully fund its employees' benefits plan &quot;create(s)&nbsp;a present instability of its labor force that threatens the health and safety of its residents&quot; and constitutes conditions &quot;which are dangerous to the life, health, or safety of residents,&quot; McDonald wrote.&nbsp; 
 James' lawsuit includes affidavits from loved ones of the nearly 600 residents living at Cold Spring Hills who&nbsp;allege&nbsp;care has dropped precipitously in recent months. 
 A Halesite man, whose brother has Parkinson's disease and has lived at Cold Spring Hills since 2021, wrote&nbsp;that staffing is the lowest he's ever seen it. 
 &quot;Due to lack of staff, my brother sits in a dirty diaper for most of the day,&quot; he wrote, adding that his brother went without a shower for two weeks over the summer because of a lack of hot water. &quot;He is supposed to be changed every three hours.&quot; 
 State Supreme Court Justice&nbsp;Lisa Cairo scheduled an Oct. 2 hearing on the Health Department's application, along with a request by the attorney general for the court to appoint both an independent health care and financial monitor to oversee the facility's finances until a permanent operator is installed. 
 Attorneys for Cold Spring Hills&nbsp;did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 
 The last time&nbsp;the state sought receivership of a nursing home was in 2008 during a monthslong strike at&nbsp;Kingsbridge Heights Care Center in the Bronx, records show. 
 Richard Mollot,&nbsp;executive director&nbsp;of the&nbsp;Long Term Care Community Coalition, an advocacy group for nursing home patients, said a temporary caretaker at Cold Spring Hills is needed desperately.&nbsp; 
 &quot;This facility has a history of substantial violations of minimum care standards and basic resident rights,&quot; Mollot said. 
 It's not immediately clear what type of entity could be selected as a caretaker,&nbsp;although experts said it likely would not be a for-profit institution.&nbsp; 
 A Health Department spokeswoman declined to comment. 
 Shortly after James' office filed its lawsuit last year, Cold Spring Hills <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/nursing-home-health-insurance-y90yg7sm">stopped making payments</a> to the National Benefit Fund of 1199 SEIU, the union that provides health care benefits to nursing home employees. Cold Spring Hills has made a series of partial payments to the fund, most recently $500,000&nbsp;on Sept. 14, extending the termination of benefits date to Oct. 15. 
 Cold Spring Hills has refused to provide assurances of future payments, officials said, prompting at least 30 employees to quit and more than 100 others to seek new jobs, said Timothy Rogers, vice president of the union's Nursing Home Division. 
 &quot;We would hope and plan that any potential receiver coming in is going to work with the union to secure the benefits for&nbsp;workers,&quot; Rogers said. 
 The company continues to owe&nbsp;more than $4.2&nbsp;million to the fund, and is obligated to make monthly payments between $920,000 and $1.1 million, court records and union officials state. 
 &quot;The remaining staff is facing, and will continue to face, a heavier workload and increased stress from worrying about whether they will have health and related benefits, depressing morale, and reducing the ability of the staff to care for residents,&quot; Brian Steinwascher, special assistant attorney general, wrote in a Sept. 18 court filing. 
 &quot; …&nbsp;Respondents’ conduct thus will directly result in additional staffing shortages — and likely a staffing emergency. As the nursing home’s staff is already overburdened, respondent's conduct is substantially increasing the risk of harm to the nearly 600 vulnerable nursing home residents,&quot; Steinwascher wrote. 
 In another affidavit in the lawsuit, a&nbsp;Locust Valley man told the court that his mother, who has&nbsp;multiple sclerosis, uses a wheelchair and has&nbsp;lived at Cold Spring Hills since 2015, was left in her bed for an entire weekend in August because of a lack of staff. He wrote that she no longer consistently receives her medication on time and that in May was&nbsp;left on the toilet for 80 minutes &quot;because there was not enough staff to help her get up.&quot; 
 The attorney general's suit, <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/cold-spring-hills-owners-accused-neglect-fraud-wern9r48">filed in December,</a> named more than a dozen defendants, including&nbsp;Bent Philipson and Benjamin Landa,&nbsp;longtime nursing home magnates who&nbsp;had amassed by 2020 — along with their family members — interests in 163 facilities across 18 states, including the purchase of Cold Spring Hills in 2016, according to Medicare records.&nbsp;Also named were Philipson’s son Avi and Landa’s daughter Esther Farkovits, who the suit alleges were “straw owners, put in place to conceal their fathers’ control.” 
 The lawsuit came&nbsp;28 months after Newsday’s investigation exposed the impact of the pandemic on the Cold Spring Hills residents, families and staff. The investigation also revealed the facility’s place in the owners’ collection of profit-making nursing homes. 
<ul> 
</ul>

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State seeks emergency caretaker for Cold Spring Hills, revocation of nursing home license

State seeks emergency caretaker for Cold Spring Hills nursing home

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Ted Phillips

Dozens of health care workers lined the road in front of a Woodbury nursing home on Friday to demand that their employer pay its health insurance bill&nbsp;before they lose coverage. 
 Union organizers said Friday that the Cold Spring&nbsp;Hills Center for Nursing &amp; Rehabilitation has not made contractual payments to the health insurer for three months. The 443 workers represented at the facility by 1199 SEIU will lose their health insurance on Aug. 25 if payments are not made to the insurer, Timothy Rodgers, vice president of the union’s nursing home division, said. 
 “Healthcare workers, as we see COVID ticking up again in New York State, cannot go without health insurance,&quot;&nbsp;Rodgers said. 
 Cold Spring Hills’ administrator Josef Simpser referred questions to an outside attorney, Ari Weiss of the law firm Morris Tuchman,&nbsp;who did not respond to requests for comment Friday. 
 The company pays a union insurer, the 1199 National Benefit Fund, which is a separate legal entity from the union, Rodgers said. “This employer is obligated under the contract to provide health insurance and to make payments to the National Benefit Fund and if they cannot do that and&nbsp;they cannot effectively operate the facility, then we need the state to step in.” 
 Rodgers said the union wants the state to appoint an emergency receiver to manage the facility if the owners won’t pay for health insurance. 
 The owners of the facility, which is Long Island’s second-largest nursing home, also face a civil lawsuit brought by State Attorney General Letitia James in December that alleges they had engaged in fraudulent practices to divert $22.6 million of government funding away from resident care to enrich themselves. 
 The attorney general’s lawsuit came 28 months after <a href="https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/coronavirus-cold-spring-hills-nursing-home/">Newsday’s investigation</a> — “Crisis, Care and Tragedy on LI” — exposed the impact of the pandemic on the facility and revealed the 588-bed facility’s place in the owners’ collection of profit-making nursing homes. 
 Friday’s worker action was the first day of a planned 11-day “informational picket,” organizers said. The workers are not allowed to strike under their contract but will use their lunch breaks and other breaks to demonstrate on the road outside the facility while they continue to report to work, spokeswoman Jenna Jackson said Friday. 
 Jackson said in a text message that the company owes &quot;around $4.6 million in arrears&quot; for union members' insurance&nbsp;including&nbsp;health, dental, vision, prescription, disability and paid family leave benefits. 
 About 70 workers chanted “Shame on you Cold Spring Hills!” and “What do we want? Benefits!” as cars passing by honked their horns in support around noon Friday. 
 Some workers said they have been rushing to see doctors and get prescriptions filled in recent days to make sure they had supplies of medications or that they received medical treatments before benefits are cut off&nbsp;later this month. 
 “I’m trying to beat the deadline,” said Judith Patterson-Djalo, 60, a program aide in adult day care, from Valley Stream. “No one can continue to work without going to the doctor, getting their medication that’s just a part of work.” 
 Patterson-Djalo said she had scheduled multiple medical appointments and was making sure she had a 90-day supply of prescription medicine in anticipation of losing health insurance. 
 Edward Ferguson, 57, an occupational therapist from Bay Shore, said if he loses his health care, he’ll have to pay for medication out of pocket for himself and his son who is on his health care plan. 
 “I’m a diabetic,” Ferguson said. “I’m on maintenance drugs and I’ve got to live.”

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Cold Spring Hills nursing home workers face health insurance cutoff, union says

Workers protest Cold Spring Hills nursing home over possible health insurance cutoff

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A Nassau County judge has denied a motion by&nbsp;Long Island’s second-largest nursing home to dismiss a lawsuit by State Attorney General Letitia James accusing&nbsp;the facility's leadership of&nbsp;enriching&nbsp;themselves by diverting millions in government funding away from resident care. 
 In a decision released Monday, State Supreme Court Judge Lisa Cairo found that the 28 entities&nbsp;named in the lawsuit had failed to prove that they were not part of a self-dealing scheme to skirt state laws. 
 &quot;Knowingly funneling funds through corporate entities does not insulate a recipient of ill-gotten gains from liability,&quot;&nbsp;Cairo wrote in the 15-page decision, which allowed the lawsuit to proceed. 
 The <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/cold-spring-hills-owners-accused-neglect-fraud-wern9r48">186-page complaint</a>, filed by James'&nbsp;office in December, alleges&nbsp;that the owners and management of Cold Spring Hills&nbsp;Center for Nursing &amp;&nbsp;Rehabilitation in Woodbury&nbsp;diverted more than $22.6 million in Medicaid and Medicare funds for residents' care by using a fraudulent network of a dozen companies&nbsp;to conceal upfront profit taking. 
 Named in the lawsuit&nbsp;are&nbsp;Bent Philipson and Benjamin Landa, longtime nursing home magnates who, according to Medicare records, had amassed by 2020 — along with their family members —&nbsp;interests in 163 facilities across 18 states, including the purchase of Cold Spring Hills in 2016.&nbsp;Also named were 10 individuals, including Philipson’s son Avi and Landa’s daughter Esther Farkovits, who the attorney general’s office has said&nbsp;were “straw owners, put in place to conceal their fathers’ control.” 
 Attorneys for Cold Spring Hills and several of the respondents did not respond to requests for comment&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The lawsuit alleges, Cold Spring Hills deliberately neglected the care of residents, repeatedly cutting staff at the 588-bed facility in the weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to &quot;heartbreaking and inhumane conditions&quot;&nbsp;that endangered lives. 
 The suit contends that a female resident,&nbsp;recovering from a stroke and with limited communication ability, was given just one shower in five months because&nbsp;staff did not have the appropriate chair. The suit also cited&nbsp;a resident&nbsp;in his 70s with reduced mobility after a car accident. He&nbsp;lost 30 pounds in less than four months and eventually was hospitalized due to dehydration and severe protein malnutrition, according to the suit. 
 In another case cited by the attorney general, a diabetic resident who had difficulty walking was given a wheelchair that did not have footrests, requiring him to drag both of his feet on the floor to use it. The resident developed sores on his right foot and he later had to have part of his toe amputated because of the severity of his infections, according to the lawsuit. 
 It seeks the removal of Philipson from any involvement in the facility’s operations and a court order that he&nbsp;and his partners pay an unspecified amount of restitution.&nbsp; 
 The suit also seeks an independent health care monitor to oversee residents' care, and a financial monitor. 
 In court filings seeking the case’s dismissal, one respondent called the complaint a “publicity stunt disguised as a lawsuit” while another accused James&nbsp;of “obfuscation and poorly conceived sleight of hand.” 
 In an April 14 response, John Martin, a Great Neck attorney representing Cold Spring Hills, said if the lawsuit&nbsp;is successful, the nursing home would likely be forced to shutter its doors. 
 “The sudden relocation that will be required will be a logistical nightmare,” Martin wrote. “But the AG is happy to destroy the facility immediately, with little care or forethought about the consequences of her actions.” 
 The attorney general’s lawsuit comes 28 months after<a href="https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/coronavirus-cold-spring-hills-nursing-home/"> Newsday’s investigation — “Crisis, Care and Tragedy on LI”</a> — exposed the impact of the pandemic on the Cold Spring Hills residents, families and staff. The investigation also revealed the&nbsp;facility’s place in the owners’ collection of profit-making nursing homes.

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Judge rejects Cold Spring Hills nursing home's motion to dismiss NY suit

Judge rejects Woodbury nursing home's motion to dismiss NY suit

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State AG accuses Cold Spring Hills nursing home owners of neglect, fraud

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Newsday Investigation: Crisis, care and tragedy on LI

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Complete coverage of Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation in Woodbury

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Complete coverage: Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation in Woodbury

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