Technically, it's known as involuntary discharge, and in 2015 it brought in more than 9,000 complaints. Now, a couple of states are looking for ways to hold nursing homes accountable for unnecessary evictions.
One of those states is Maryland.
Brian Frosh, the state's attorney general, says that, in Maryland, more than half of all involuntary discharges have come from just one small chain of nursing homes run by Neiswanger Management Services, or NMS Healthcare.
"Your odds of getting evicted from an NMS nursing home are about a hundred times what they are of any other nursing home in the state," says Frosh.
Maryland is now suing NMS for Medicaid fraud. The suit alleges that the company charged the state for services it didn't deliver, specifically for discharge planning. Nursing homes are supposed to make sure a resident has a safe place to go. But Frosh says that NMS sent residents with complex medical needs to homeless shelters or to unlicensed board-and-care facilities.
For example, according to the complaint, a woman with severe dementia was dropped off in front her son's home. Someone from NMS "just opened the car door and let her out and drove away," says Frosh. "Her son found her wandering around several hours later when he came home from work."
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NPR: As Nursing Homes Evict Patients, States Question Motive
It's hard to believe that eviction is the number one complaint with all we hear about abuse.
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