Another Nursing Home With Uncorrected Health, Safety Issues Forced To Shut Down As Feds Terminate Medicare/Medicaid Reimbursement Contracts; State Steps In To Oversee Relocation Scramble For About 150 Residents

In Hagerstown, Maryland, the Herald-Mail reports:

• The relocation of about 150 residents from NMS Healthcare of Hagerstown is progressing, with about half of them already moved out, according to a Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene official.
  
  The relocation of residents comes after officials at the nursing home at 14014 Marsh Pike in the city's North End announced on June 6 that they are closing the facility.
  
  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said previously that NMS Healthcare of Hagerstown had been out of compliance with Medicare requirements since Dec. 6. Medicare payments were terminated to the facility on June 6.
  
  It also lost its ability to receive Medicaid payments, state officials said.
  
  Medicare officials said there were dozens of deficiencies at NMS Healthcare of Hagerstown, including 14 found during a Feb. 24 survey that "posed immediate jeopardy to resident health or safety."
  
  The state contracted with Pennsylvania-based LW Consulting Inc. to manage the relocation of residents from the facility.
  
  Brittany Fowler, deputy director of communications for the state health department, said Tuesday that the relocation process is progressing with "good cooperation of all parties."
  
  As of June 6, about half of the facility's residents had been relocated, Fowler said.
  
  Asked when the process might be completed, Fowler referred to a May 19 letter from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to NMS Healthcare.
  
  For patients admitted to the Hagerstown facility prior to Feb. 26, Medicare payments may continue to be made for a maximum of 30 days for services furnished on or after June 6, providing that NMS is making reasonable efforts to relocate residents.
  
  Repeated attempts to reach NMS officials about the relocation of patients and the closure process were unsuccessful.
  
  Hagerstown resident Rhonda Schwartz said her parents shared a room at NMS Healthcare.
  
  Her mother went to the facility about three years ago, and her father followed her last year, Schwartz said.
  
  Officials at the facility have worked on the relocation of her parents. At one point, there was discussion of moving them to an NMS facility in Annapolis, she said.
  
  "They're not going there," said Schwartz, noting that she enjoys being able to visit her parents at the local facility four or five nights a week.
  
  Schwartz is working on getting her parents — who have recently ended up at Meritus Medical Center for different conditions — into a nursing home in Mount Airy, Md., she said.

Source: Patients being moved from closing Hagerstown nursing home.