Former Employee at New Mexico Nursing Home Indicted for Theft and Forgery
A New Mexico county grand jury recently indicted a 57-year-old former employee of a nursing home after it was discovered that she had been stealing money for more than five years from a resident suffering from dementia in the facility. It is estimated that the woman stole over $80,000.
The charges under the indictment included exploitation, forgery, unlawful use of a debit card, identity theft, and falsification of documents. The woman has also been charged with three counts of falsifying Medicaid documents, 11 counts of unlawful debit card use, two counts of forgery, one count of conspiracy to commit identity theft, and one count of exploitation of a resident’s property.
The case was investigated and will be prosecuted by the Office of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Division.
The woman is scheduled to be arraigned on July 29.
Compliance Perspective
Failing to prevent an employee from gaining access to residents’ private healthcare information, debit card, and banking information may be deemed abuse, neglect, misappropriation, and exploitation and be considered provision of sub-standard quality of care in violation of HIPAA, state, and federal regulations.
Discussion Points:
- Review policies and procedures regarding safeguarding of access to residents’ personal financial resources. Ensure that systems are adequate to prevent abuse and misappropriation of residents’ funds and limit access to residents’ private healthcare information.
- Train staff about mandatory compliance with abuse, neglect, misappropriation of residents’ personal financial assets, and HIPAA regulations protecting the private healthcare information of residents.
- Periodically audit personal trust funds and related documentation maintained by the facility related to resident monies to ensure there is no misappropriation occurring. Interview residents or their responsible parties to determine if they have any concerns that funds and private healthcare information may be misused.
