Owners of nursing home company that closed 2 here lived well as patients suffered

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.

The co-founders of a Hixson nursing home business paid themselves six-figure salaries and drove company-financed Porsches while failing to pay employees, utility bills, taxes and creditors, according to court documents.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that since December, eight nursing homes operated by New Beginnings Care have flunked inspections. Six have closed, including a nursing home in Youngstown, Ohio, where inspectors found residents in adult diapers “saturated” with urine or feces. Inspectors said the home was understaffed because workers had quit over not being paid.

Nursing homes closed in the Youngstown area are Campus Health Care Center, 196 Colonial Drive, Liberty Township, and

CedarCreek Health and Rehabilitation in Warren.

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.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services terminated Cedarcreek Health and Rehab’s Medicare and Medicaid provider agreements because the facility failed to comply with the programs 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.”

Two in Tybee Island, Ga., owned by real estate investment trust ADK Georgia.

were part of a master lease with a third nursing home in Jeffersonville, Ga., which is due to close in early March after state inspectors found “squalid” conditions including overflowing toilets in a locked unit for Alzheimer’s patients.

Trent Tolbert and Debbie Jones founded New Beginnings in 2011. They previously held executive positions at two Chattanooga-area nursing home businesses: Grace Healthcare and Life Care Centers of America. At New Beginnings, Tolbert paid himself $36,000 a month. Jones earned another $24,000 a month.

Read more about the situation in Sunday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.