CODEY URGES DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TO HALT SALE OF WANAQUE CENTER FOR NURSING AND REHABILITAION PENDING AN INVESTIGATION INTO POTENTIAL BUYERS                

LIVINGSTON – In a letter to the Commissioner, Senator Richard J. Codey today called on the Department of Health to halt the transfer of the license for the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation until a full investigation is made into the new owners’ track records.

“Very serious charges have been brought against the potential co-owners, and it would be irresponsible to move forward with the approval process,” Senator Codey stated. “It seems absurd that anyone with this kind of record would be entrusted with the care of more patients. I urge the Department of Health to get to the bottom of these reported concerns before granting the transfer. We need to ensure that this isn’t the same kind of company that puts profits before patients”

The application has been made by Bent Philipson and Abraham Kraus.  Mr. Philipson is a principal of SentosaCare, New York’s largest for-profit nursing home company – one that has a history of dangerous violations and fines.  Both SentosaCare and Mr. Philipson are also named in a class action suit brought by a group of nurses, claiming that they violated human trafficking laws in their recruitment and employment practices.

Mr. Kraus holds an ownership stake in numerous other facilities in New Jersey.  These nursing homes also have a rocky history of sub-par care.  One in particular, the Sinai Post-Acute Nursing and Rehab Center in Newark, was recently ordered to pay $130,000 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to 174 employees for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

“We need to be sure that we aren’t jumping from the frying pan into the fire,” Codey said. “Patients at this facility and their families have dealt with so much in the past year.  We owe it to all current and future patients to make sure that the new owners of this facility are capable of meeting their responsibilities both professionally and ethically.”

The Center was the location of last fall’s deadly outbreak of adenovirus which took the lives of 11 children and sickened more than 30 others.  A federal report on the Center, issued recently by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, cited the lack of an infection control plan and poor leadership by administrators in responding to the outbreak. The rehab center was fined $600,000 by the federal government.