A group of nursing home residents and their families asked the 11th Circuit Court earlier this month to revive a 2018 class action suit accusing the operator of several skilled nursing facilities in Florida of racketeering. Nursing home operator Michael Bokor faces $900 million in damages from his company’s alleged omission of key details from licensing applications.
A district court dismissed the charges on March 21, 2021, according to court records, but the case now is coming before the appellate court for the 11th District.
As McKnight’s Long-Term Care News previously reported, three residents or their estates claim that Bokor, owner of the nursing homes’ management companies, supplied incorrect information on the licensing applications of the three SNFs where they stayed, as well as 19 others in Florida. They alleged that Bokor and earlier co-defendants schemed to sell the properties before the state’s licensing agency realized any issues.
In an amended complaint filed as part of the lawsuit, the plaintiffs outlined their theory that Bokor committed wire and mail fraud through the companies’ submission of claims to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. They also alleged that he failed to uphold his fiduciary responsibility to residents/patients.
Mary Perry, attorney for the plaintiffs, affirmed in oral arguments this month that “we did allege that there’s an enterprise going where nursing home licenses were obtained by making misrepresentations as to management companies and individuals involved in the nursing home chain that had had significant problems in the past.”
“They change the names, they file things with the relevant state agencies, with Medicare and with Medicaid. This information, we contend, was knowingly not accurate,” Perry said.
“It was knowingly not accurate, and I think that would set up mail fraud and wire fraud.”
Defense attorney Diane Evans argued that the appellate court should uphold the lower court’s ruling, arguing that the plaintiff’s allegations failed to show a pattern of behavior rising to the level of racketeering.
The appellate panel took the case under advisement with no date for an expected ruling. One issue, according to the judges, is whether the “who, what, why and when” of the case rise to the level of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, charges.
See additional coverage of the lawsuit here.
