ALJ Error – Citation and Penalty

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Neighbors Rehabilitation Center, LLC. v. United States Department of Health and Human Services, et al.

Case No.: 18-2147

Officials: BAUER, ROVNER, and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: ALJ Error – Citation and Penalty

Neighbors Rehabilitation Center is a skilled nursing facility participating in Medicare and Medicaid. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) assessed a civil monetary penalty against Neighbors after concluding that Neighbors inadequately addressed sexual interactions between three cognitively impaired residents.

CMS determined that Neighbors’ failure to act put the residents in “immediate jeopardy,” and, as a result, issued Neighbors a citation and an $83,800 penalty. After a hearing, an administrative law judge affirmed the citation and penalty, and the Department of Health and Human Services Departmental Appeals Board upheld the ALJ’s decision. Neighbors seeks review of the citation, the immediate jeopardy categorization, and the amount of the penalty. We conclude that substantial evidence supports the Agency’s determinations and we therefore affirm.

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.