43
CMS terminates Cedarcreek’s provider agreements
By Kalea Hall
WARREN
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has terminated Cedarcreek Health and Rehab’s Medicare and Medicaid provider agreements because the facility failed to comply with the programs.
The termination is effective today.
CMS terminated the facility’s agreements after a Feb. 3 inspection of the facility by the Ohio Department of Health found the health and safety of the residents was in “immediate jeopardy.” The areas of deficiency were treatment to prevent/heal pressure sores and maintaining nutrition status unless unavoidable.
The department recommended the termination to CMS, in addition to the transfer of residents and denial of payment for new admissions effective Feb. 8, which CMS all enforced.
“In response to the survey findings, CMS is imposing the remedy requiring the transfer of all Medicare and Medicaid residents on or before Feb. 18,” states a Feb. 10 letter from CMS to Robert Kennedy, interim administrator, owner and operator of Cedarcreek.
A team from the local ombudsman program, the Area Agency on Aging 11 Inc., has been in place to help the residents relocate to other facilities.
Beverley Laubert, state long-term care ombudsman and chief, elder-rights division for the Ohio Department of Aging, said there were 12 residents at the facility, at 4121 Tod Ave. NW., on Wednesday morning. She expected all but three residents to be out Wednesday night.
She said she believed the last three residents will have a new home today.
The facility is owned by New Beginnings Care of Tennessee, which also owned the now shuttered Campus Health Care Center at 196 Colonial Drive in Liberty.
Campus, which housed 44 residents, was shut down by the company after the state department of health said it would revoke the facility’s license for violating the Ohio Revised and Ohio Administrative codes.
New Beginnings filed for bankruptcy in January in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. The company claimed to have 100 to 199 creditors, assets of $0 to $50,000 and liabilities of $1 million to $10 million.
The company did not respond to multiple requests to comment for this story.