New Jersey’s Office of the State Comptroller has accused two nursing home owners of fraudulently receiving $134.8 million in Medicaid funds between 2019 and 2024, $92 million of which was funneled into the owners’ related businesses. The state is seeking $124 million in compensation, plus penalties.
The owners — Daryl Hagler and Kenneth Rozenberg — own or are otherwise associated with nursing homes in New Jersey, New York, Kansas and Missouri, according to a Dec. 10 news release from the comptroller.
Centers Healthcare, the pair’s New York nursing home operation, recently settled a lawsuit with the state of New York for $6,063,500 after being charged with defrauding the New York Medicaid program of more than $80 million in 2023.
According to the OSC, the financial fraud occurred as nursing home residents living at the Hammonton (N.J.) Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare and the Deptford (N.J.) Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare experienced a “grim reality,” the release said.
During the OSC’s 146-day review period, the facilities failed to meet minimum staffing requirements for all but two days and were designated as “special focus facilities” by CMS, a category reserved for “nursing homes that have had a history of serious quality problems.”
Residents experienced neglect, often leading to hours spent in pain or in their own urine and feces. Two Hammonton residents were sexually assaulted and one Deptford resident died of asphyxiation after being served solid food by mistake, the OSC report said.
Read the full OSC report here.
