California Armenian Home Health Care Fraud

Every politician moans that entitlement spending is out of control, so it ought to be easy at least to stop blatant fraud and abuse. Evidently not, says the Wall Street Journal.
The scene of this crime is Medicaid; it turns out that states have been goosing their financing arrangements to maximize their federal payouts and dump more of their costs onto taxpayers nationwide. The swindle works like this, says the Journal:

• A state overpays state-run health-care providers, such as county hospitals or nursing homes, for Medicaid benefits far in excess of its typical rates.
• Then the federal government reimburses the state for "half" of the inflated bills.
• Once the state bags the extra matching funds, the hospital is required to rebate the extra money it received at the scam's outset.

Cash thus makes a round trip from states to providers and back to the states -- all to dupe Washington. The right word for this is fraud. A corporation caught in this kind of self-dealing -- faking payments to extract billions, then laundering the money -- would be indicted. In fact, a new industry of contingency-fee consultants has sprung up to help states find and exploit the "ambiguities" in Medicaid's regulatory wasteland. All the feds can do is notice loopholes when they get too expensive and close them, whereupon the cycle starts over.
A reform alternative would be for the government to distribute block grants, rather than a set fee for every Medicaid service, says the Journal. That would amputate Washington from state accounting and insulate taxpayers from these shakedowns. States would have an incentive to spend more responsibly, and also craft innovative policies without Beltway micromanagement.
Source: Editorial, "Medicaid Money Laundering," Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2008.
For text:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121115735476802403.html

Remember that this sham of a nursing home exists on 85% from Medicaid or California (MediCAL)
The Millions that go into this facility are staggering and so is the salaries of Yuba and her circle of pals.   Too bad there is no support from the Armenian Community any more.  They have other REAL charities they are donating to.  Besides most don't use the California Armenian Home anymore, they do home health care instead.   Yuba came back in 2007, after there was a "scandal" of missing funds.  Yuba doesn't have what it takes to build the home up as she has no clout or respect from the Armenian community who once was 100% behind the place.
To those of us who had families that built the place and put in time, sweat and hard work it's time to tell the board to take the word "Armenian" off the sign and stop exploiting the word  "Armenian"

Yuba is 67 years old and needs to take a hike or learn some professionalism.  We hear they are interviewing people, Yuba cannot sustain the home forever. 
The word is that they are going through extensive repairs and upgrades then will sell to a corporation to take it off the hands of the aging board.  

We have no interest any more, after we have had to deal with the decline over the last 20 years.  It's not the pride of the Armenian Community, the new generation and immigrants see right through the fact the facility has nothing to do with Armenians.  In name only.  We won't be exploited.
Yuba you don't like the Armenian community, we certainly don't like you.  

Start packing Yuba.

California Armenian Home and the depression and mental illness of Nursing Home Employees

This Harvard University study explores the high strees and mental illness of nursing home employees.  Their low wages of the lower employees (LVNs and CNAs) who actually do all the work while the higher paid RNs and others don't carry near the load of these lower end wage earners.
Thus this explains the high turnover at Nursing Homes and the California Armenian Home.  80% of the employees have been there under 4 years and this is typical with lower wage nursing home employees. 
There are very few of the 100 California Armenian Home employees that have been there over 10 years, there is about 8% of the employees.  Typically, the employees last 1-2 years and move on.  But it is difficult finding people that are steady and show up for their shifts.
Many drink to self-medicate and openly boast about drinking.  Here are a few of the California Armenian Home employees out at a sleezy bar that has cheap shots and openly boasting about getting wasted.  Well at least it beats stealing the medication of the patients and mixing it with the alcohol.  The working environment and company culture of the California Armenian Home is riddled with politics.  Anyone talented enough will leave and find a job at the VA Hospital and make more money plus Federal Benefits. 

Sassanah (CNA)  Tammy (LVN)  Mary-Ann (LVN) and the famous Lori "gun toting psycho" Quinn (LVN)
Out getting wasted is this to mask their mental illiness or are they celebrating having a job?

According to Harvard School of Public Health researcher Cassandra Okechukwu, the prevalence of depression is common among low-wage nursing home workers -- who also experience higher levels of stress than other workers.

"The high burden of work-family stress and depression in this group has important public health implications for the workers and their families as well as for the quality of care delivered to nursing home residents," said Okechukwu.

452 workers, mostly women, were surveyed to investigate the link between depression and stress at home and work. Participants were asked about stressors such as financial hardships, lack of food and whether they worried about work-related issues during non-work hours. Investigators found that these stressors were double the rate in nursing home workers than other professions.

According to the report, nursing home workers are a growing part of the workforce who may face higher rates of household food insufficiency, financial strain, and work-family spillover. Among nursing assistants-the biggest work group in nursing homes, and among the lowest paid-the proportion of women is estimated to be 80% to 90%; most are single mothers and are thus the primary wage earners for their families. Nursing home workers are more likely to be recent immigrants who may not be aware of or eligible for government benefits. A majority of these low-wage earners are also members of racial/ethnic minority groups.

The implications are serious.

Depression leads to absenteeism and turnover among workers, which in turn translates to poorer care for residents in direct care settings. Because improvement in care quality at nursing homes is an important public health priority, reducing workers' depressive symptoms and their associated effects may have positive results for both workers and nursing home residents.

Food insufficiency is a household-level stressor that has been associated with overweight, behavioral problems, and poor mental health in children and adolescents. This has further implications for obesity in this group because several studies have reported a seemingly paradoxical relation between food insufficiency and obesity whereby those who report food insufficiency also report obesity. My guess, people resort to dollar meals at fast food restaurants, which is typically an unhealthy choice.

Financial strain, food insufficiency, and symptoms of depression were common in our multi-ethnic sample of nursing home workers. For primary wage earners, household food insufficiency was associated with tripled odds of depressive symptoms-the leading cause of disability worldwide.

I have often said that the resident experience starts with the employee experience. And an employee cannot just be viewed in the context of how we know them at work. Progressive organizations take the time to really know their employees. And when they do, they uncover the real issues that are affecting the work environment. They then seek to address them at the very least instilling self-esteem in workers that can carry back to the home.

We talk about being culturally sensitive to long-term care residents. It would seem we first need to do that with employees.

http://assistedliving.about.com/b/2012/03/05/depression-common-among-low-wage-nursing-home-staff.htm

 



 

California Armenian Home and the most professional of employees!!

Armenians no longer manage this home and in fact, have nothing to do with it.  The Ani Guild, Home Guild and Board of Directors are older and have no interest from the younger Armenian Business communities. 
There is no Armenians in the Administrative staff Yuba has made sure of this.
The patient population of the California Armenian Home is not Armenian.

Isn't it time that they remove the word "Armenian" off the sign?
Stop trying to entice anyone to donate just because the sign has the word "Armenian" in it. 

Take it off the sign, sell the place and let these barnyard animals operate the home.  

 

Yuba, your group of professionals (snickers, giggles) cannot find a job anywhere else.  While they hate working for you they will stay because they have no where else to go. 

 

Laughable Losers!!!  

Meanwhile the old bags of the board, cannot get anyone interested in the Armenian Home to be on the board.  Sell the home and keep these Barnyard Animals to operate it.  The home declines year after year in professionalism and donations.  

The home is subsidized 85% by MediCAL and Medicare.  Take off the word "Armenian" and have the State operate it.   

 

These poor old bags are tired. 

 

 



16x9 - The Reel Truth: Senior's home abuse caught on camera

California Armenian Home- The TRUTH WINS a lesson in self-dealings, and unprofessional conduct $$

L & J Telesmanic Rehab Systems has the contract for the California Armenian Home.  Public Records – 990 IRS Tax docluments 2011 show that they are compensated $967,818.00 per year ($1 million dollars)

The owners of this rehab company is Luciano and Joanne Telesmanic (Tel  se man ich) yes that is right Luciano and Joanne are of Croatian descent as Yuba or Lubjica Radojkovich, the Administrator is. 

While Armenian businesses are no longer used at the California Armenian Home, and there is roughly 3 Armenians employed there in menial positions and NO ADMINISTRATIVE positions.  What is it that Yuba is afraid people will find out- is it the *self dealing?  In fact, Yuba Rottenbitch has kept Armenian physicians from becoming the medical director while pushing non Armenian physicians.  This also includes the Unit Dose pharmacy no longer handled by Armenian owned Model Drug but by PharmAmerica.  Instead Yuba keeps employees in positions that are unemployable elsewhere so they will hide her secret *self dealings.

When discussing the use of non-Armenian business to service the California Armenian Home.  Most businesses seem relieved they don’t have to deal with the Crazy Croatian Witch aka The Black Snake anymore.  Other Armenian businesses after reviewing the 990 Tax returns have never made the kind of money Yuba and her cronies make and resent being asked for donations year after year.  As it is not an Armenian facility (in name only) anyone that visits the inside on a regular basis knows this to be true. 

The Armenian owned businesses who once serviced the home are relieved to no longer have to deal with Yuba Radojkovich.  Yuba is no liked by members of the Armenian community, and from Yuba’s anti-Armenian behavior and remarks the feelings are mutual.  Another sore subject is ownership of the AACL building which was mistakenly put into the ownership of the home when it was 100% Armenian and needed the money.  Now that it is largely a government subsidized home let us take back our AACL building and cut the ties with the word “Armenian”

The residents of the California Armenian Home are not Armenian, Armenians represent only 15-20% of the total 120 beds (roughly anywhere from 16-20) and will never have a higher population than 20 at any given time.  The word is out on Yuba and the California Armenian Home, the home has nothing to do with Armenians except for 3 employees, an Armenian board and an occasional Armenian meal. 

But boy oh boy does Yuba like getting that Armenian money donated to her.  Private donations has dwindled year after year to $749,970.00 (reported in 2011) one time was over $1 million a year.  With total revenue being $11,665.801.  Operational money is- 80% is from Government Medicaid and Medicare, roughly 15 % is private insurance and donations, the rest is private pay.  The price tag for human warehousing on the skilled nursing side is $5,900 per month ($70,000 per year) 

The Kings Canyon Rd.,  sign continues to abuse the word “Armenian” to induce some older Armenians to donate just because the sign says “Armenian” means nothing.  Just as the Hospital got a 4 star rating means nothing it is not a country club or hotel.  Although we all know that they are working hard on the image and it’s an upill battle as less and less people are interested in being on the board (which has nothing to do with the daily operation of the home)  nor the stack of audits from the last 12 months that will prevent Yuba from getting her $20,000 bonus.  Why should Yuba get a kick back for doing her job? Or sorry, the compliance work is done by the staff not Yuba Rottenbitch.

Yuba, demands full control of operations and the board merely sits in the background approving or making “recommendations”.  Many people have left the board in disgust because they have no say in anything.  Additionally the Ani and Home Guild only work on beautification projects and are no longer a young group willing to make any changes.  In fact, no one under the age of 50 cares anymore, as they realize they don’t have an obligation to care for people and the original intent of the home has been abused and exploited while GREED has set in. 

As the home moves to the next generation (who care less) the old timers like Lucy, Julie, et al will have no say.  They have told people in the community they want to leave the California Armenian Home in good shape than it is the next generations job to care for it.  That is why there is a rush for improvements, many feel they should sell the facility.  

It has been suggested that Yuba’s self-dealings indirectly benefit her own pocketbook.  Is the Croatian company L & J Rehab giving Yuba a kick back of some of this $1 million in fees?  

                http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-dealing

          *Self-dealing is the conduct of a trustee, an attorney, a corporate officer, or other fiduciary      that consists of   taking advantage of his position in a transaction and acting for his own interests rather than for the interests of the beneficiaries of the trust, corporate  shareholders, or his clients. Self-dealing may involve  misappropriation or usurpation of  corporate assets or opportunities. Self-dealing is a form of conflict of  interest.

Political scientists Ken Kernaghan and John Langford, in their book “The Responsible Public Servant”, define self-dealing as “a situation where one takes an action in an official capacity which involves dealing with oneself in a private capacity and which confers a benefit on oneself."

Michael McDonald, Ph.D, Chair of Applied Ethics at The University of British Columbia provides examples based from this book: “You work for government and use your official position to secure a contract for a private consulting company you own” or “using your government position to get a summer job for your daughter”.

Where a fiduciary has engaged in self-dealing, this constitutes a breach of the fiduciary relationship. The principal of that fiduciary (the person to whom duties are owed) may sue and both recover the principal's lost profits and disgorge the principal's wrongful profits

 

                  

90% Nursing Homes Employ Ex-Cons- California Armenian Home

California Armenian Home - Home in Sarasota, FL points to problems with oversight

Sarasota, FL - Harmony Healthcare under investigation 56000 sq ft, oddly looks like the California Armenian Home
which has had their share of audits, some substantiated some not.  Unfortunately the governing arms have little oversight. 

SARASOTA - Two men imprisoned for health care fraud in the late 1970s slipped by a state agency's screening when they opened a Sarasota nursing home.

The Harmony Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center later became one of the nation's prime examples of what can go wrong in senior housing before it was shut down by state regulators for failing basic safety measures and not accounting for the disbursement of narcotics.

The state Agency for Health Care Administration approved a 2004 application from a company owned by brothers-in-law Benjamin Gelbtuch and Neil Ellman, each of whom was sentenced to three years in prison in 1979 for Medicaid fraud in New York.

Six years after the pair opened Harmony Healthcare in 2006, the skilled nursing home on Courtland Street in Sarasota was shuttered after the death of a patient revealed widespread problems with the center's care.

With the building now lost to foreclosure and the company run by Gelbtuch and Ellman in bankruptcy, advocates for seniors say the nursing home is a poster child for the sort of problems that can arise from a lack of government oversight.

Meanwhile, state legislators are pushing to further loosen regulation of the nursing home industry and erode the recourse consumers might have, a move opponents fear will open the floodgates for problems like those identified at Harmony.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130421/ARTICLE/130429959/-1/sports?Title=NEW-Sarasota-nursing-home-case-points-to-problems-with-oversight