A Tangled Web of Greed and Deceit
My next three entries will discuss the exploits and complaints against OmniCare, Mariner, SavaSeniorCare, and Murray Foreman, Rubin Schron, and Leonard Grunstein who own and operate hundreds of nursing homes through a complex maze of corporate shenanigans, and were finally caught gaming the system to make millions and deprive our loved ones of the necessary care they deserve. Our taxes are going into the pocket of these greedy corrupt men.
There have been numerous articles on these cases and I will try to organize, summarize, and paraphrase most of them in the next three days. It is interesting that none of the article discusses Murray Foreman and Leonard Grunstein's ownership of Fundamental Long Term Care Company that owns and operates hundreds of other nursing homes using the THI name.
The Wall Street Journal wrote geriatric pharmacy company Omnicare Inc. will pay $98 million to settle charges that it engaged in several kickback schemes with drug makers and nursing homes. The Justice Department alleged that Omnicare regularly paid kickbacks to nursing homes in order to induce the homes to refer their patients to Omnicare for pharmacy services. Separately, the department said it was intervening in a lawsuit alleging that two nursing-home chains, Mariner Health Care Inc. and SavaSeniorCare Administrative Services, accepted kickbacks from Omnicare in return for pharmacy-service contracts.
Reuters had an article that added additional facts. DOJ filed a complaint against two large nursing home chains, Mariner Health Care Inc. and SavaSeniorCare Administrative Services LLC, both of Atlanta, and their principals, Leonard Grunstein, Murray Forman, and Rubin Schron, for accepting a kickback from Omnicare in return for pharmacy services contracts. The company allegedly solicited and received kickbacks in exchange for agreeing to recommend that physicians prescribe Risperdal, a dangerous antipsychotic drug, to nursing home patients.
The government further alleged that Omnicare regularly paid kickbacks to nursing homes by providing consultant pharmacist services at rates below the company's cost and below the fair market value of such services in order to induce the homes to refer their patients to Omnicare
for pharmacy services.
The United States alleges that Omnicare, Mariner Health Care, SavaSenior Care, Grunstein, Forman, and Schron conspired to arrange for Omnicare to pay the nursing home chains $50 million in exchange for the right to continue providing pharmacy services to the nursing homes, which together constituted one of Omnicare's largest customers. Defendants attempted to disguise the $50 million kickback as a payment to acquire a small Mariner Health Care business unit that had only two employees and was worth far less than $50 million.
After they became aware of the government's investigation, Grunstein, Forman, and Schron allegedly created false backdated documents in a further attempt to hide the kickback. These
allegations are detailed in a separate complaint that was unsealed recently. Read the Complaint here.
More to come tomorrow.
