Morris Park Nursing Home: Cash for Referrals, Coverage Changes Without Consent

The Morris Park Nursing Home fraud case ended in a $3.46 million civil settlement over referral kickbacks and Medicare coverage changes made without residents’ consent. Cash bought admissions, while a separate fee rewarded switches into Original Medicare. The facility’s former administrator admitted delivering the referral money and arranging a hidden share of the disenrollment fee.

Who Settled the Morris Park Case?

The estate of Morris Park’s owner at the time of the conduct, the former administrator and an outside disenrollment contractor agreed to separate payments. The estate agreed to pay $2.85 million and the contractor $115,000 to the United States.

Morris Park was a skilled nursing facility in the Bronx, New York. The Justice Department announced the settlement on May 17, 2023, resolving the government’s civil complaint alleging violations of the False Claims Act and the Anti-Kickback Statute. Each defendant admitted facts about their own conduct.

Referral Payments for Empty Beds

Morris Park paid a Jacobi hospital discharge-planning supervisor for Original Medicare patients who became admissions. The estate admitted that, during 2017 through 2019, the facility made cash payments for these referrals. For much of that period, the supervisor received $150 for each referred patient admitted.

The administrator admitted personally delivering the money, arranging meetings by text and often meeting the supervisor in a nearby CVS parking lot. He repeatedly asked for referrals when Morris Park had empty beds.

DOJ alleged that the cash payments totaled approximately $5,000 to $10,000 for dozens of patients. The government also described Yankees tickets, invitations for the supervisor and staff to a facility-sponsored holiday party, and frequent food deliveries to the supervisor’s office.

A similar hospital-to-facility payment channel appeared in the whistleblower’s complaint against Brius Management and its San Diego nursing homes. The complaint alleged that payments to hospital case managers carried a different label:

The allegation describes the same bargain, money for patients, hidden behind a consulting label.

Medicare Advantage Disenrollment Without Consent

The Medicare Advantage disenrollment scheme targeted residents’ coverage because Original Medicare usually paid Morris Park more. The contractor admitted understanding that Original Medicare generally brought the facility a higher daily reimbursement rate and often approved longer stays.

Under Original Medicare, the government pays healthcare providers directly on a fee-for-service basis. Under Medicare Advantage, it pays the private plan a fixed monthly amount for each enrollee. A resident can remain in the same room while the payment basis changes. At Morris Park, residents lost the health care coverage they had chosen so the facility could collect more from Medicare.

DOJ alleged that staff switched residents from their chosen Medicare Advantage plans into Original Medicare during 2018 and 2019 without obtaining consent from residents or authorized representatives. Staff often approached residents at the bedside. They typically failed to explain changes to co-payments and deductibles, possible loss of supplemental coverage, changes to drug coverage or limits on returning to the former plan.

The estate admitted that most switches lacked a signed disenrollment form or other document showing consent. In several instances, residents or their families had expressly said they did not want the change. Staff sometimes offered to reduce or waive the co-payments residents would owe starting on the 21st day of their stay if they switched to Original Medicare.

In July 2019, the financial coordinator asked how to disenroll a resident who was not alert and had no family. The administrator admitted giving this answer:

The person whose coverage was being changed could not consent. The instruction was to proceed anyway.

A Fee for Each Switch, a Bonus for the Census

Morris Park’s disenrollment contractor and administrator agreed to share a payment tied to each coverage switch. In summer 2018, the administrator recommended retaining a friend who worked at another skilled nursing facility. Morris Park agreed to pay the contractor $1,000 for each resident he helped move into Original Medicare. The contractor agreed to give the administrator $500 from that payment. The administrator’s settlement obligation was $495,000. Both admitted keeping the arrangement from Morris Park.

The administrator admitted that disenrollments accelerated after the contractor arrived and that he continued pressuring staff to switch as many residents as possible. The contractor admitted processing changes without confirming that residents had consented or signed a disenrollment form.

The facility also rewarded the resulting payer mix. The estate admitted that, starting in early 2019, the administrator received monthly cash bonuses when the average number of Original Medicare residents stayed at a specified level. Marketing and admissions staff received bonuses tied to new Original Medicare admissions. The incentives reached from the person bringing residents in to the person changing their coverage.

The same coverage incentive appears in the Citadel and Plaza Rehab settlement announced in June 2022. Those companies admitted facts about moving residents into Original Medicare without consent to obtain higher revenue. Morris Park adds the concealed payment split between the administrator directing the switches and the contractor processing them.

What Evidence Is Needed to Prove Fraud?

For referral payments and unauthorized coverage switches, the evidence connects referral payments, resident consent and the facility’s claims. We work with the insider who knows those records to connect who directed the admission or coverage change with who benefited from it.

The administrator’s admitted exchange with the financial coordinator shows why the instruction behind a change can matter as much as the completed form.

Referral patterns also have value beyond a single transaction. The National Bureau of Economic Research’s 2026 working paper Medicare Home Health Fraud: How Much, Where, and Who? found that prosecuted home-health agencies were more likely to rely on extremely high-volume referring physicians and show unusually uniform care patterns. The recurring referral pattern gives an individual payment its context.

What a Nursing Home Whistleblower Case Can Pay

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

If You Saw Who Directed the Switch

If you saw referral payments, missing consent or bonuses tied to Original Medicare admissions, speak to one of our whistleblower experts about the payments and who directed the switches. We develop the case with you and bring in nursing home fraud whistleblower lawyers who understand referral kickbacks and Medicare enrollment manipulation. We stay with you through the pursuit of a recovery, building your strongest nursing home whistleblower case.