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Failing Skyline Threatened to Discharge SD Nursing Home Residents

How bad did Skyline Healthcare owner Joseph Schwartz and his family let things get at the nursing homes they operated in South Dakota? So bad that Debbie Menzenberg, the exec they put in charge of their South Dakota subsidiary Black Hills Healthcare, was sending e-mails to the state saying Schwartz was threatening to kick residents out:

According to court documents filed this week, Menzenberg emailed several people, including at the state health department, labeling the message “URGENT” and of “High” importance.

“I again have not gotten any information from Skyline!!! I just had a call from Louis Schwartz – he says STATE has to do something – there is no money – he told me to discharge residents????”

“I need water paid at Bella Vista and Prairie Hills today or it will be SHUT OFF — Skyline is SILENT!!!!”

“I need Electric paid at Prairie Hills or shut off — Skyline is SILENT!!!

“Disconnect notice came today for Pierre May 8 electric.

I NEED HELP!!!!”

The reference to “Pierre” is about the Care and Rehab Center, formerly the Golden Living Center, on Park Avenue.

Bella Vista and Prairie Hills are Skyline facilities in Rapid City, also former Golden Living centers [Stephen Lee, “With Patients at Risk South Dakota Judge Orders Pierre Nursing Home Put in Receiver’s Hands,” Pierre Capital Journal, 2018.05.02].

Skyline ran 19 facilities in South Dakota:

  • Arlington Care and Rehabilitation Center, Arlington.
  • Armour Care and Rehabilitation Center, Armour.
  • Bella Vista Care and Rehabilitation Center, Rapid City.
  • Black Hills Care and Rehabilitation Center, Rapid City.
  • Clark Care and Rehabilitation Center, Clark.
  • Covington Care and Rehabilitation Center, Sioux Falls.
  • Groton Care and Rehabilitation Center, Groton.
  • Ipswich Care and Rehabilitation Center, Ipswich.
  • Lake Norden Care and Rehabilitation Center, Lake Norden.
  • Madison Care and Rehabilitation Center, Madison.
  • Meadowbrook Care and Rehabilitation Center, Rapid City.
  • Milbank Care and Rehabilitation Center, Milbank.
  • Mobridge Care and Rehabilitation Center, Mobridge.
  • Park Place Care and Rehabilitation Center, Milbank.
  • Pierre Care and Rehabilitation Center, Pierre.
  • Prairie Hills Care and Rehabilitation Center, Rapid City.
  • Redfield Care and Rehabilitation Center, Redfield.
  • Salem Care and Rehabilitation Center, Salem.
  • Watertown Care and Rehabilitation Center, Watertown.

Hughes County Circuit Court has transferred control of those facilities to Black Hills Receiver, LLC, an entity apparently so new that it’s not in the Secretary of State’s online corporate database yet. President of the receiver is registered nurse Wanda Prince, VP of clinical operations for Golden Living Centers, which ran the facilities in question before Skyline leased them. Prince’s Twitter says she’s from Batesville, Mississippi.

10 Comments

  1. Nick Nemec 2018-05-04 08:59

    Where is the State of South Dakota? Does the State do nothing to assure nursing homes are on financial solid ground? Is the end result of the laissez-faire attitude South Dakota takes toward all aspects of regulation?

    Welcome to South Dakota. Caveat emptor.

  2. Jenny 2018-05-04 09:20

    Good lord – what a mess! I would be very upset if I had a loved one in one of these nursing homes. Keep investigating Cory, we know SD will try to keep this under wraps.

    Greatest healthcare system in the world.

  3. jerry 2018-05-04 10:13

    Dennis Daugaard was proven guilty of neglect by violating the civil rights of people with disabilities and mental illness by the Justice Department in 2016. I am not trying to give cover to the owners of these places, but when the state shoves these folks into nursing homes, it does add to reimbursed costs.

    Since he became emperor after Little Napoleon Rounds, Daugaard and the cabal of republican legislators have been after nursing homes, by cutting operating money from them to force them into closing. ”

    PIERRE — South Dakota long-term health care leaders say they are concerned Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s proposed 10 percent budget cuts could affect the state’s senior citizens.

    Members of the South Dakota Health Care Association, an organization that represents long-term care facilities in South Dakota, said the cuts would be only negative.

    “This cut would be devastating to nursing homes across the state,” said Mark Deak, executive director of the South Dakota Health Care Association.” https://www.capjournal.com/news/cuts-may-hurt-long-term-care/article_0b988209-d6d6-52f9-811c-498c76985e08.html

  4. jerry 2018-05-04 10:16

    Sorry, the link to the May 4, 2016 New York Times does not come up. You can access it though as it does describe the Department of Justice and the threat to sue the State of South Dakota for wrongdoing.

  5. Jenny 2018-05-04 11:09

    Nick, the state Is blaming the feds, like they do with everything else. According to keloland , the state is blaming it on CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services) forallowing skyline to buy up all these nursing homes.
    Always convenient to blame it on the feds when it comes to South Dakota state government.

  6. jerry 2018-05-04 15:28

    Daugaard and the failed state republican legislators will blame a ham sandwich for their failures. CMS cannot dictate who can buy these nursing homes as Cory indicates with the new receivership in a company that is not even a company listed to do business yet. The state gives millions of tax payer dollars each year to corporate nursing homes listed on Wall Street and they do not have a clue on where and how that money is being utilized. Nursing homes are big business and when they are big business, there must be a profit. See Corporate Stategy:

    “Corporate Strategy
    Mr. Floyd was appointed as the new CEO of Beverly Enterprises Inc in 2001. As the largest for-profit chain in the US, Beverly faced serious financial problems at that time, like many other nursing home chains. In spite of efforts to turn around the company, Beverly faced a large number of lawsuits alleging neglect of residents and deaths in states like Arkansas, California, and Florida. The company was subject to a US Health and Human Services Department and US Department of Justice Corporate Integrity (oversight) Agreement from a 2000 settlement agreement for poor quality of care. As a result of these problems, Beverly company stock fell dramatically to less than $2 per share.

    As the company’s financial status and its stock prices improved in the following years, it became the target of a “hostile and secret acquisition of shares” by private investment firm Formation Capital. In 2005, Beverly’s board of directors therefore announced an auction process “to maximize value for all of the company’s stockholders as soon as practicable through a sale of the company.” In March 2006, private equity firm Fillmore Capital acquired Beverly Enterprises Inc, which was then renamed Golden Living. The ownership change was accompanied by a newly appointed 3-member board of directors, with Fillmore President Mr Silva as the new chairman. Mr Churchey was named CEO and was replaced by Mr Kurtz in 2008. For the pre- and postpurchase period, many strategies were continued and reinforced, while the private equity owners also applied some new strategies (see Table 2).” http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0046958017742761

    Nursing homes should be government run because in the end, we taxpayers are footing the bill. Cut out the corporate middleman and regulate nursing homes at the state and federal level.

  7. jerry 2018-05-04 15:41

    Pull up these nursing homes on this site and you can see their score. https://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/search.html?
    You will note that there is nothing about financial stability. Even if there was, those nursing homes could be on the sales block by Monday. There is no real oversight on them as it is private equity for the most part, that own them.

    If the state of South Dakota is trying to blame this on CMS, they are as delusional as trump is trying to explain campaign financial crime.

  8. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2018-05-05 08:50

    This fed-blaming comes from the same Republicans who blame the feds for getting in the way of business. Hard to take them seriously.

  9. Jason 2018-05-05 09:59

    The blame goes to Skyline.

Comments are closed.