From September 2015 through September 2018, KBWB Operations received more than $142 million from Medicare and Medicaid, with the expectation that they would provide adequate care and resources for twenty-four skilled nursing facilities called Antrium Post Acute Care, throughout Wisconsin and Michigan. Which might have been KBWB CEO Kevin Breslin’s intention. But not until he paid off his investors alleges the Department of Justice. And then build a new nursing facility in New Jersey.
You would think $142 million would be enough to cover it all, but as far as one can see it was not. Don’t ask the investors though! Ask the patients. According to the DOJ, the diversion of funds meant residents in Wisconsin facilities received inadequate care, including a shortage of clean diapers, not enough wound care supplies, inadequate cleaning supplies, and a lack of medical equipment. In addition, the DOJ alleges that the Breslin’s priorities caused non-payment to vendors, which caused numerous services to be cut off, including physical therapy for residents, fire alarm monitoring services, phone and internet services which prevented staff from obtaining prescription orders and accessing electronic medical records. Defrauding taxpayers is one thing, but when it dehumanizes people in the process it is a whole different kind of low.
Patients and taxpayers weren’t the only victims of Breslin’s greed. KBWB allegedly withheld insurance payments from employees’ paychecks but failed to pay that money to their insurance administrator, causing payment of employees’ health claims to be stopped. Breslin also allegedly withheld 401k contributions from employees’ paychecks but failed to pay the money to the 401k administrators.
Great job by the Medicare Fraud Control and Elder Abuse Unit with this investigation. Hopefully, changes will be made at KBWB’s existing facilities, and stopped from ever building more.
Today’s Fraud Of The Day is based on article “New Jersey man running nursing homes in Wisconsin charged with fraud” published by NBC Wisconsin on February 8, 2023
A New Jersey man and the company he ran are accused of running a scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid while operating nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Wisconsin.
Kevin Breslin, 56, of Hoboken, New Jersey, and KBWB Operations, LLC, doing business as Atrium Health and Senior Living (Atrium) in Park Ridge, New Jersey, were indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday in the Western District of Wisconsin.
