The American Health Care Association was quick to respond to an announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice on the creation of 10 Regional Elder Justice Task Forces set to pursue substandard care at nursing centers.  In a statement released on March 30, AHCA President and CEO Mark Parkinson said, “We support any effort to improve overall care and weed out bad actors, but today’s announcement mistakenly conveys that quality is on the decline. It is a smokescreen aimed at finding cost cutting measures that would threaten life-improving post-acute and long term care services for millions of seniors.”  Click here to read his full statement.

According to the DOJ press release, the task forces are intended to “coordinate and enhance efforts to pursue nursing homes that provide grossly substandard care to their residents.”  AHCA has pointed out that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) data shows that deficiencies are down, signaling a rise in quality outcomes.

Virginia is not among the targeted areas.  Regions covered by the new task forces include the Northern District of California, Northern District of Georgia, District of Kansas, Western District of Kentucky, Northern District of Iowa, District of Maryland, Southern District of Ohio, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Middle District of Tennessee and the Western District of Washington.