Hammonton and Deptford Centers: Where the Care Money Went

The Hammonton Deptford related party investigation examined alleged undisclosed transfers, loans and rent payments alongside inadequate staffing at the two New Jersey nursing homes. In its 2025 investigation, the state’s Office of the State Comptroller described money moving to related businesses while residents went short of staff.

What New Jersey Investigators Found About Disclosure and Staffing

Hammonton Center and Deptford Center reported $882,666 in related-party transactions. The comptroller alleged undisclosed transfers, loans and rents alongside inadequate staffing, putting registered-nurse staffing penalties at $980,000. The accounting question is what the homes left out. The care question is who was there for the residents.

The disclosure question runs through the money story. An invoice, a bank transfer and a cost report each answer a different question. The invoice describes the charge. The bank record identifies the payment. The cost report shows how the facility presented the expense and its relationship with the recipient. Comparing them puts the payment beside what the facility disclosed.

For an employee in finance, that comparison may begin with a familiar vendor whose ownership does not appear in the reported relationship. For someone reviewing rent, it may begin with the lease and the company receiving payment. Those are the kinds of connections we examine with an insider who knows how the accounts work.

Related-Party Rent Can Move Profit Beyond the Facility

A nursing home’s rent can be an expense for the operator and income for a property company under common ownership. The same structure can put management and service fees into other businesses within the same enterprise. A facility’s reported margin therefore tells only part of the financial story.

The operating company receives payments for care, then pays rent and service charges. If the recipients share ownership or control with the operator, a payment can leave the nursing home’s account without leaving the owners’ business interests. The lease, the service agreement and the recipient’s accounts make that movement visible.

A National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, revised in September 2025 estimated that 68% of profits were shifted to related parties in the Illinois nursing homes it studied. The place that reports the expense and the place that receives the income may be under the same control.

Why Staffing Belongs in the Money Story

The alleged inadequate staffing at Hammonton and Deptford gives the financial inquiry its practical stakes. Money paid to a landlord or service company and money available for care appear in different records, even when decisions about both come from the same business structure.

A staffing schedule shows who was expected to work. Payroll and time records help establish who worked and for how long. Agency invoices and contracts identify outside staffing charges. Clinical records describe the residents’ needs and the care provided. Comparing these records for the same period brings the financial account back to the people the home was paid to serve.

The worker who sees an uncovered shift and the employee who processes an affiliate payment may each know something the other’s records leave out. We connect the staffing account, the payment and the decisions behind them.

The staffing comparison depends on the service date, residents’ needs and the state requirements that applied then. We examine those alongside the actual care roles behind the payroll entries.

Cost Reports Reveal More When the Recipient’s Accounts Are Included

Medicare related-party cost reporting compares the provider’s reported expense with the supplier’s underlying cost. As the Justice Department explains in its Centers cost-report announcement, Medicare generally limits related-party costs to the supplier’s own cost, capped by comparable outside prices.

A management fee on the facility’s books describes the charge to that facility. The management company’s accounts show the costs behind it. The comparison reaches beyond the invoice to the costs the provider is entitled to report.

The Department of Health and Human Services inspector general found both disclosure and cost-adjustment problems in its audit of selected skilled nursing facilities. Among 14 facilities examined, three had undisclosed related parties and seven had improper cost adjustments. The findings show why an inquiry continues beyond identifying the owner: the amount reported also needs examination.

That distinction matters to an insider who knows the relationship was disclosed but believes the reported cost still contains the supplier’s profit. We examine both the ownership disclosure and the cost adjustment, together with the agreement and the underlying accounts.

Centers Healthcare Agreements Show Why Disclosure and Care Both Matter

The same disclosure issue appears in Centers Healthcare’s federal cost-report resolution announced in July 2025, which covered Medicare reports from 44 commonly owned or controlled skilled nursing facilities. The $6,063,500 settlement included admissions that reports contained false statements or significant omissions about related-organization transactions. Centers also admitted that management reviewed the reports and knew, or had reason to know, the reports were false.

New York’s November 2024 Centers care agreement addressed the state’s allegations connecting related-party financial transfers, insufficient staffing and failures of resident care. It required at least $35 million for resident care, alongside $8.75 million to repay government health care programs. Healthcare and financial monitors were part of the remedy. The care fund tied spending to improvements for residents, including staffing and compensation for direct-care workers.

What Evidence Is Needed to Prove Fraud?

For related-party payments, the evidence connects control of the recipient, the underlying expense, the money transferred and the information given to the payer. A cost report states what the facility told the payer. Supplier accounts and bank records let us examine the expense behind it. Staffing and care records bring the residents into that comparison.

A person who reviews the cost report may know why a relationship disappeared from it. A person who approves payments may know which agreement supports the charge. Someone responsible for staffing may know what the payroll account leaves unexplained. We work with that firsthand knowledge to trace the transaction from the business decision through the reported expense and the government payment.

A whistleblower case under the False Claims Act can pay 15% to 30% of what the government recovers.

Inside the Accounts, Beside the Residents

If you work with nursing-home accounts, staffing or management and know why care money is going to another company under the same control, speak with our whistleblower experts about those payments. We build your strongest nursing home whistleblower case with you, bring in Medicaid fraud whistleblower lawyers who understand related-party payments and staffing representations, and stay beside you through the case.