California Attorney General Rob Bonta, alongside a coalition of District and City Attorneys led by Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer, announced a $3.25 million settlement with Tennessee-based Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. (Brookdale), the nation’s largest senior living operator. The settlement resolves allegations that Brookdale’s ten California skilled nursing facilities failed to adequately notify and prepare residents for both transfers and discharges and misrepresented its quality of care to the public by reporting false information, including over-reporting the number of hours that nurses provided care to residents, to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS). The false information that Brookdale provided to CMS was used to award “star ratings” to each of Brookdale’s California facilities, ratings that were used by consumers as a means of selecting a quality skilled nursing facility. Through its misrepresentations to CMS, Brookdale fraudulently increased its star rating in several categories to attract prospective residents and their families. Today’s settlement is a stipulated judgment that resolves the People’s lawsuit against Brookdale.
