In the News
Scott Administration Failed Again in Looking Out for Florida Seniors
Rick Scott’s health care administration “failed to verify that nursing homes properly corrected deficiencies,” according to the News Service of Florida citing a report issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services inspector general’s office.
These revelations follow multiple reports of failure by the Scott administration to crack down on nursing homes providing poor care that came to light after Scott, in the hours before the tragic deaths of 12 seniors, failed to respond to calls for help he had promised nursing home administrators. The Scott administration then deleted the voicemails and Scott has ducked responsibility for his inaction.
Florida Democratic Party spokesman Sebastian Kitchen: “Rick Scott’s record of not looking out for Florida’s seniors is appalling and unacceptable with his administration failing to crack down on nursing homes that failed to provide adequate care to some of our most vulnerable citizens. He personally failed seniors when he did not respond to multiple calls for promised help in the hours before the tragic death of 12 seniors. Scott is a self-serving politician who has repeatedly failed to ensure the well-being of seniors, instead ducking responsibility while continuing to look out for himself.”
The key points from the News Service of Florida report:
- “The state Agency for Health Care Administration failed to verify that nursing homes properly corrected deficiencies cited by agency staff in 2015, according to a report issued Friday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services inspector general’s office.”
- “Based on those findings, the Office of Inspector General estimated that the state agency failed to obtain evidence of corrections for 455 of 2,381 deficiencies cited at facilities that participated in Medicare and Medicaid.”
- “Moreover, the report estimated that the state didn’t provide sufficient evidence that corrections had been properly made for another 130 deficiencies.”
- “But according to the report released Friday, a state official told a federal auditor that AHCA’s practice for less-serious deficiencies was to accept the nursing homes’ correction plans as confirmation of substantial compliance.”