Nursing home CEO indicted on federal fraud charges in Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis. (WBAY) – A senior dwelling facility CEO has been indicted in Wisconsin on federal costs that he dedicated fraud in opposition to the federal government and workers and his alleged crimes led to a decline within the high quality of take care of sufferers at nursing properties.

A grand jury within the Western District of Wisconsin returned a 12-count indictment in opposition to Kevin Breslin, 56, managing member and CEO of KBWB Operations, LLC doing enterprise as Atrium Well being and Senior Residing. The corporate had expert nursing services in New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Atrium operated the next areas in Wisconsin and Michigan:

• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Appleton, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Black River Falls, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Bloomer, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Chetek, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Chilton, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Ellsworth, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Kewaunee, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Lancaster, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Little Chute, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Marshfield, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Menominee, Michigan;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Mineral Level, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Neenah, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of New Holstein, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Oconto Falls, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Plymouth, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Shawano, Wisconsin, at Birch Hill,
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Shawano, Wisconsin, at Evergreen,
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Shawano, Wisconsin, at Maple Lane,
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Stevens Level, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Two Rivers, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Weston, Wisconsin;
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Williams Bay, Wisconsin; and
  
• Atrium Submit Acute Care of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin
  

“The defendants licensed that they’d function their Wisconsin SNFs with enough staffing, provides, surroundings, and ancillary providers, which they didn’t do. The defendants licensed that they’d function their Wisconsin SNFs in a way that may improve the resident’s high quality of life by offering them providers and actions to realize and keep the very best practicable bodily, psychological, and psychosocial well-being of every resident in accordance with a written plan of care, which they didn’t do,” reads the indictment. “As an alternative of utilizing their Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement funds to deal with the residents of their Wisconsin SNFs, and make sure that the Wisconsin residents attained or maintained the very best practicable bodily, psychological, and psychosocial well-being, as required by Title 42, the defendants diverted these funds for different functions.”

The indictment alleges defendants diverted funds from the expert nursing services to assured funds to Atrium house owners totaling $37 million; assured month-to-month return-on-investment funds to investigators who had invested over $20 million to finance new SNFs in New Jersey; and building prices on three new services in New Jersey.

The indictment says funds had been diverted to private bills together with funds to the IRS for unpaid taxes, mortgage repayments, and mortgage money owed.

It’s alleged that the scheme to defraud brought about inadequate staffing of Licensed Nursing Assistants and services failed to satisfy the standard of care requirements that led to mattress sores, ulcers, rashes, dirty linens, and “lack of dignity” for sufferers.

The indictment additionally says lack of meals deliveries to unpaid distributors led to the necessity to purchase alternative groceries and dietary wants weren’t monitored by a registered dietician as required.

The indictment alleges there have been, “Durations of time when there was no cellphone and fax service. This prevented workers from acquiring prescriptions/ orders faxed in from medical doctors. Door alarms didn’t work throughout the disruption of cellphone providers. Workers needed to monitor exit doorways to protect in opposition to weak residents leaving the ability … Durations of time when there was no Web service. Because of this, workers couldn’t readily entry the digital medical information system to replace resident information or readily entry residents’ remedy lists to disb·ibute remedy … Durations of time when there was no trash pickup leading to unsanitary circumstances.”

“Roofs and home windows leaked. Water got here into residents’ rooms and brought about ceiling and wall harm, in addition to mildew within the buildings. Pails had been put in residents’ rooms to gather the water. Mildew was present in resident room partitions and home windows, in addition to in air ducts.”

The defendants are accused of making an attempt to cover the standard of care from state investigators by “artificially growing the staffing” throughout state surveys and proposing plans of correction they couldn’t pay for.

Defendants are additionally accused of defrauding Atrium workers. The grievance states he withheld medical health insurance premiums from Wisconsin workers however didn’t pay them to the third-party administrator for paying well being claims.

The administrator stopped paying claims in March 2018, leaving workers answerable for these prices. The indictment states the workers thought they’d medical health insurance protection.

The indictment additionally alleges the defendants withheld 401K retirement financial savings from worker paychecks however by no means paid the funds over to the pension administrator.

The defendants are additionally accused of scheming to defraud distributors by getting providers on credit score and failing to pay.

Defendants are accused of scheming to evade paying Wisconsin worker state revenue tax withholdings to the Wisconsin Division of Income for the primary three quarters of 2018.

Breslin was a 20 p.c proprietor of Atrium. He began with Atrium in June 2014 and was fired in August 2018. He was in control of accounting, finance, treasury, payables, payroll, budgeting, and staffing, based on the indictment.

In 2018, the Wisconsin and Michigan services had been positioned into receivership.

Atrium generated income from expert nursing services by means of personal pay, personal insurance coverage, Medicare, and Medicaid.

From January 2015 by means of September 2018, Atirum’s Wisconsin SNFs billed Medicare over $189 million in providers and obtained over $49 million. The SNFs billed Medicaid over $218 million in providers and obtained over $93 million.

No court docket date has been set for Breslin, a resident of Hoboken, NJ.

“If convicted, Breslin and Atrium face penalties of 5 years in federal jail on the conspiracy to commit tax fraud cost, and 20 years on every well being care fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, and conspiracy to commit cash laundering cost. The conspiracy to commit tax fraud cost and every of the well being care, wire and mail fraud costs carry a $250,000 wonderful; the cash laundering cost carries a $500,000 wonderful,” reads an announcement from the federal government.

Copyright 2023 WBAY. All rights reserved.