Category: MIL-OSI

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The United States has intervened and filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania under the False Claims Act (FCA) against ProMedica Health System, Inc. (ProMedica) and various affiliated entities including HCR ManorCare Inc. and four nursing homes located in Pennsylvania, Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia (the defendants). ProMedica is a nonprofit corporation that is headquartered in Toledo, Ohio. From 2018 to 2023, it owned and controlled the following four nursing homes: ProMedica Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation – Pottstown (Pennsylvania), ProMedica Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation – Riverview (Ohio), ProMedica Skilled Nursing, Rehabilitation – Greenville East (South Carolina), and ProMedica Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation – Imperial (Virginia).

In its complaint in intervention, the United States alleged that the four nursing homes provided non-existent, grossly substandard skilled nursing facility care or services that otherwise failed to meet the required standards of care under the Nursing Home Reform Act. The United States alleged that, from 2017 to 2023, the defendants failed to develop or follow individualized care plans for their residents. Specifically, in many cases, the facilities failed to provide adequate wound care to prevent pressure ulcers, failed to maintain residents’ hygiene and to provide showers as required, and failed to provide residents with appropriate assistance with feeding, which led to severe weight loss in many cases. To conceal their provision of grossly substandard care, in some cases, defendants falsely documented in resident medical records that care and services had been provided to residents when it had not been.

“The Justice Department is committed to protecting the most vulnerable members of our society, including elderly and infirm individuals who depend on nursing homes for safe and dignified skilled nursing care,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Grossly substandard care places nursing home residents at serious risk of harm and this suit sends a clear message that we will pursue health care providers who fail to meet their legal obligations to provide required care and who betray the trust of the residents they are meant to serve.”

“An increasing number of older adults and persons with disabilities are residing in long-term care facilities. These residents are often particularly vulnerable to inadequate assessment and treatment of their needs,” said U.S. Attorney David Metcalf for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. “Beginning almost 30 years ago, the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania filed some of the first False Claims Act complaints and reached some of the first settlements in the United States to focus on quality of care in the nursing home environment. Today’s complaint again serves notice to the nursing home industry that a failure to provide adequate nursing home care will not be tolerated. Public funds expended for nursing home residents must result in appropriate care, which is what the government pays for, and the law requires.”

The complaint in intervention is the result of a coordinated effort by the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, with assistance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General. This matter is being handled by Fraud Section attorneys Susan C. Lynch, Robbin O. Lee, and Samuel P. Robins, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Degnan and Gerald B. Sullivan for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The case is captioned United States, et al., ex. rel. Compton v. HCR ManorCare, Inc., et al., No. 16-cv-0851 (E.D. Pa.). 

The claims asserted in the complaint are allegations only. There has been no determination of liability.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The United States is challenging Illinois laws providing in-state tuition and scholarships for illegal aliens. These laws unconstitutionally discriminate against U.S. citizens, who are not afforded the same reduced tuition rates or scholarships, in direct conflict with federal law. On Tuesday, Sept. 2, the Department of Justice filed a complaint in the Southern District of Illinois against the State of Illinois, Governor Pritzker, the State Attorney General, and the boards of trustees of state universities in Illinois seeking to enjoin the State from enforcing the Illinois laws and bring them into compliance with federal requirements.

In the complaint, the United States seeks to enjoin enforcement of Illinois laws that requires colleges and universities to provide in-state tuition rates for all aliens who maintain Illinois residency, regardless of whether those aliens are lawfully present in the United States. Federal law prohibits institutions of higher education from providing benefits to aliens that are not offered to U.S. citizens. The Illinois laws blatantly conflict with federal law and are thus in conflict with the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “This Department of Justice has already filed multiple lawsuits to prevent U.S. students from being treated like second-class citizens — Illinois now joins the list of states where we are relentlessly fighting to vindicate federal law.”

“Illinois has an apparent desire to win a ‘race to the bottom’ as the country’s leading sanctuary state. Its misguided approach mandating in-state tuition, scholarships, and financial aid to illegal aliens plainly violates federal law,” said U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft for the Southern District of Illinois. “This policy treats illegal aliens better than U.S. citizens living in other states and incentivizes even more illegal immigration, all on the taxpayer’s dime. Illinois citizens deserve better.”

This lawsuit follows two executive orders signed by President Trump that seek to ensure illegal aliens are not obtaining taxpayer benefits or preferential treatment. The first, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders” orders all agencies to “ensure, to the maximum extent permitted by law, that no taxpayer-funded benefits go to unqualified aliens.” The second, “Protecting American Communities From Criminal Aliens,” directs relevant officials to “take appropriate action to stop the enforcement of State and local laws, regulations, policies, and practices favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens that are unlawful, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable, including State laws that provide in-State higher education tuition to aliens but not to out-of-State American citizens.”

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) today filed a motion for summary judgment in its challenge to the State of New York’s “Climate Change Superfund Act,” which imposes $75 billion in liability on foreign and domestic energy companies for their alleged past contributions to climate change. The complaint was filed in May, along with a complaint against the State of Vermont for its similar statute, to advance President Donald J. Trump’s executive order to protect American energy from state overreach.

As the Justice Department explains in its motion, “New York has declared war on those responsible for supplying our Nation with reliable and affordable energy, and it is trampling over federal law in the process.” Further, the motion says, “the Court should end New York’s lawless overreach by granting the United States’ motion for summary judgment, declaring the Superfund Act invalid and unenforceable, and permanently enjoining Defendants from taking any actions to implement or enforce it.”

“New York has overstepped its authority in trying to impose crippling financial penalties on the world’s largest energy providers,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of ENRD. “Individual states have no authority to regulate nationwide and global greenhouse gas emissions. The courts must put a stop to New York’s brazen disregard of federal law, the Constitution, and binding precedent, not to mention our Nation’s energy needs.”

Chief of Staff and Senior Counsel John Adams and Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General Riley Walters of ENRD filed the motion.