State’s regulators under fire for not imposing ‘meaningful’ punishment on operators

State’s regulators under fire for not imposing ‘meaningful’ punishment on operators
McKnight’s Senior Living
December 4, 2023
If provider punishments in Maine ramp up in the near future, operators won’t need to look far for the catalyst. A ProPublica investigation into what it calls the failures of the state’s oversight agencies is creating a lot of heat in and around the sector. ... In partnership with The Maine Monitor, ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network shined a spotlight on the state’s health department for citing dozens of resident rights violations and hundreds of other deficiencies between 2020 and 2022 but imposing only the “lowest intervention possible, even for some of the most serious abuse and neglect incidents.” ... Long-term care advocates said that a lack of regulatory enforcement essentially encourages bad behavior. Industry representatives called for increasing nursing hours and requiring on-site medical directors in assisted living rather than imposing sanctions.