Lawmakers Push to Protect Against Nursing Home Thefts

In response to an October USA Today article revealing employee thefts from nursing home residents’ trust funds, several congressmen seek to develop oversight requirements that would protect the funds of this frail population, USA Today reports.

A previous article from October detailed a USA Today investigation that  found “thousands of nursing home residents have had their savings stolen or misused while held in the trust accounts” intended to safeguard residents’ savings.

Upon following up on this report, Senators Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) are urging for greater federal oversight in the managing of these trust funds to better protect and identify when suspicious spending activity is taking place. 

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The USA Today investigation uncovered nursing home staff had siphoned “huge sums of money” from residents’ trust funds, using the money in a number of ways, including shopping sprees, gambling and household expenses.

The investigation also revealed that in more than 1,500 cases, federal records showed that nursing homes failed to pay interest on the funds, could not account for their holdings, or didn’t have adequate insurance in place to protect the money from loss or theft.

Read the USA Today article.

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Written by Jason Oliva