PHOTOS (L-R): The Foleys' home in Newport, estimated to be valued at $14M (Newport Tax Assessor) and file photo.
In Rhode Island, one of Foley’s nursing homes was recently hit with a penalty totaling as much as $500,000 for deficiencies impacting elderly patients, and this is far from the first time this home has been cited. Across his corporation, his nursing homes have been cited for hundreds of violations.
Foley owns about 20 nursing homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut under the name Apple Rehab, and it has many other companies in both states, including one of Newport’s entertainment hot spots.
If that was not enough, Foley and his wife were also tied to one of New England's biggest political corruption cases.
Hundreds of Thousands of Fines at One Rhode Island Nursing Home
The amount of the latest fine is disputed. ProPublica reports the Westerly nursing home, Apple Rehab Clipper, was assessed with penalties totaling $562,495 for its most recent violations since May.
The Rhode Island Department of Health had slightly different numbers for the violations. It says the most recent penalties totaled $491,815.
Michael Landi, Vice President of Operations for the nursing home chain, told GoLocal that the most recent fine for the Westerly nursing home is $270,940.
Landi said the company is appealing the fines. "The most important thing to say at the outset, though, is we have multiple appeals pending," said Landi in a phone interview with GoLocal last week.
He added that one factor in the assessment of the penalty had to do with the sprinkler system. "The last thing to get fixed is used in the calculation method of the per day fine and the last thing to get fixed was a sprinkler repair," said Landi.
Further, Landi claims, "We're disagreeing with the scope and severity assigned. There was no there was a significant lack of any substantiation of any resident being harmed by a finding during survey."
In the last three years, Foley’s Westerly nursing home has been cited with — not including the most recent fine — 28 violations and another $132,826 in penalties.
A number of the deficiencies were deemed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as dangerous. In one inspection, the violations “Level of Harm - Immediate jeopardy to resident health or safety.”
According to that report, “During a surveyor
interview with Resident ID #1 on 1/25/2023 at approximately 1:25 PM,
s/he revealed s/he was discharged home on 1/20/2023 with 9 bubble packs
of medication that belonged to another resident, in addition to her/his
own medications. The resident further revealed that s/he did not receive
discharge instructions or education by the nurse. The resident further
revealed that s/he called the facility to inform them that s/he has
someone else medications.”
In another discovery by an inspector in 2023, the Westerly facility was found to have improperly trained nurses. "Based on record review, resident, and staff interview, it has been determined that the facility failed to ensure that licensed nurses have the specific competencies and skill sets necessary to care for residents' needs, as identified through the plan of care for 1 of 5 residents reviewed for discharge services, Resident ID #1." This violation was also deemed to put patients in "jeopardy."
GoLocal reviewed hundreds of pages of reports citing violations and raising significant concerns about the Westerly facility.
The Westerly nursing home has been fined a total of $695,000, according to reports from CMS as reported by ProPublica.
READ MORE about the Westerly nursing home violations on the Medicare.gov website.
Connecticut Nursing Homes Cited for More Than 550 Deficiencies
Foley’s Connecticut nursing homes in the past three years have been cited for hundreds of violations.
Fourteen of the homes have been hit with a total of 569 deficiencies — an average of 40.6 per home.
Those facilities have been heavily fined. In the past three years, ten of those Apple Rehab nursing homes have been fined cumulatively $667,722—an average of $67,772 per home.
In just three years, eleven of Foley’s nursing homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island have been fined more than $1.2 million.
Back in Newport at the Blues Cafe, Mansion, and Newport Brewing Company
In Newport, Foley has been rocking out to the music at the nightclub he owns in Newport — the Blues Cafe on Thames Street. That club is just one of a number of Rhode Island corporations under his name.
Foley and his wife's Newport mansion on the water has nearly 5,500 square feet of living space and an inground pool, and according to Zillow, it is estimated to be worth as much as $14 million.
The Foley's next-door neighbor is comedian Jay Leno.
In addition, Foley is the owner of Newport Brewing Company, according to Rhode Island Corporation documents.Full Article & Source:
Two Worlds: He Owns Nursing Homes Hit With Fines & Lives in a $14M Mansion in Newport
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