A business that operated a Concord nursing home has settled for $2.3 million with the Department of Justice over allegations that it submitted false medical billing claims and offered "grossly" substandard nursing home services, U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds announced on Tuesday.
Tranquility Incorporated did business in Concord as the San Miguel Villa, a 190-bed assisted care facility.
The DOJ alleges that from 2012 to 2017, San Miguel submitted, or caused to be submitted, claims to the Medicare and Medi-Cal programs for payments of its services that failed to meet minimum required standards of skilled nursing care in multiple ways.
The government alleges that San Miguel overmedicated its residents with psychotropic drugs, had an excessive amount of resident falls and that residents experienced other mental and physical harm. The DOJ also alleges that residents were exposed to resident-on-resident altercations as well.
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California Attorney General Rob Bonta hailed the settlement on Tuesday, calling out San Miguel for allegedly being understaffed, rendering the number of its services "useless."
"Corporate profits should never be placed above patients' needs and care," said Bonta in a statement.
Bonta's office said that in June of 2017, the DOJ's Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse division responded to a report involving allegations of overmedication of people living at San Miguel. Due to understaffing, the DOJ alleges that San Miguel overmedicated residents to render them "more manageable."
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Tranquility Incorporated could not immediately be reached for comment.
