CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Nursing home owner loses US funding after Ida evacuations

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A nursing home owner in Louisiana who lost the state licenses for his seven facilities after moving hundreds of residents to a poorly equipped warehouse as Hurricane Ida approached has now been barred from federal health care programs.

State officials found residents from Bob Dean’s homes in “inhumane and squalid contitions,” the Department of Health and Human Services noted in a news release Monday. As a result, the department’s Office of Inspector General has excluded Dean’s nursing homes from federal health programs, which include Medicaid and Medicare.

“Inspectors noted residents sleeping on floor mattresses less than a foot apart near standing water, some were partially undressed or completely naked, and others were calling for help or left alone with full diapers,” Monday’s release said. “The building smelled of urine while trash and dirty linens were piling up.”

In the days after Ida hit, last Aug. 29, the state reported the deaths of seven people who had been evacuated to the warehouse in the town of Independence. Five were classified as storm-related.

Dean’s attorney, John McLindon, told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate on Monday that Dean is appealing the state license revocations and will be reinstated for the federal programs if the appeals are successful.

The nursing homes were River Palms Nursing and Rehab and Maison Orleans Healthcare Center in New Orleans; South Lafourche Nursing and Rehab in Lafourche Parish; Park Place Healthcare Nursing Home, West Jefferson Health Care Center and Maison DeVille Nursing home of Harvey, in Jefferson Parish; and Maison DeVille Nursing Home in Terrebonne Parish.