Court records: AG moves to replace Woodbury nursing home's independent health monitor
This is an exterior view of the nursing home formerly known as the Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation in Woodbury. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
A Boston-based firm should be installed as the new independent health monitor at the nursing home formerly known as Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation, according to court documents filed by the state attorney general’s office.
The recommendation comes more than nine months after an Albany-based consulting firm which has served as the health monitor at Woodbury Heights Nursing and Rehabilitation Center — the facility’s name under its new management — was purchased, in part, by a law firm representing some of the owners of the nursing home in its bankruptcy court proceeding.
Questions of independence
In a Sept. 19 filing in Nassau Supreme Court, Christina Pinnola, special assistant attorney general in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, asked Judge Lisa A. Cairo to remove Lisa Wickens-Alteri, president and chief executive of Capital Health Consulting, as Woodbury Heights' court-appointed health monitor.
New York Attorney General Letitia James wants to replace Wickens-Alteri with Vincent DiCianni, president and founder of Affiliated Monitors Inc. in Boston. James in 2022 sued the nursing home's ownership, arguing it neglected resident care and skirted state laws through a fraudulent business setup designed to enrich the owners.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- The state attorney general's office is asking a Nassau judge to replace the independent health monitor at the nursing home formerly known as Cold Spring Hills Nursing & Rehabilitation.
- The move comes after the monitor's Albany consulting firm was purchased, in part, by a law firm that represents some of the nursing home's owners in its bankruptcy proceedings.
- The law firm's co-founder said the attorney general's petition ignores the needs of nursing home residents, arguing the monitor operates autonomously and has made strides in improving conditions.
Affiliated Monitors, which did not respond to requests for comment, provides independent health monitoring at Fulton Commons Care Center in East Meadow as part of a settlement with the attorney general's office, which sued that nursing home alleging resident abuse and misuse of government funds.
Pinnola said the move was necessary after Abrams Fensterman, LLP announced on Jan. 1 that it was a 50% indirect owner of Capital Health Consulting. The law firm, which has offices in Lake Success, represented Benjamin Landa and his daughter Esther Farkovits, minority owners of the nursing home, in its bankruptcy proceedings.
"A health care monitor must be independent from the financial and regulatory interests of the for-profit nursing home industry, its owners, and related parties that have been sued by the Attorney General in this special proceeding for engaging in fraud and illegality," Pinnola wrote in her petition.
Capital Health contends they operate autonomously and don't consult the law firm regarding nursing home's operations.
'Contrary to the best interest' of residents
In an interview, Howard Fensterman, managing partner and co-founder of Abrams Fensterman, accused the attorney general's office of hypocrisy and ignoring the needs of nursing home residents.
Fensterman said the attorney general had opportunities to ask the bankruptcy judge to remove Wickens-Alteri from he role as health monitor — even after her firm's sale — but opted against it, only asking for assurances that the law firm would not receive financial benefits from her role at the facility.
In addition, the state Health Department mandated that Wickens-Alteri remain as health monitor while the facility is under the receivership of Eliezer Jay Zelman, who is expected to purchase Woodbury Heights. Landa and Farkovits, the latter of whom lives in Israel, have no role in the current operations of the facility, Fensterman said.
"Why did the AG's office wait nine months [to bring the action]? The AG's behavior here is absolutely outrageous, and contrary to the best interest of these residents," said Fensterman, adding the nursing home's patient care ombudsman has credited Wickens-Alteri with improvements to the facility.
The attorney general's office blamed the monthslong delay on standard processing issues with the bankruptcy court, which it contends does not have jurisdiction over the health care monitor.
Schuyler Carroll, an attorney for the nursing home in its bankruptcy proceeding, added in a Sept. 30 filing that Cold Spring Hills no longer operates the nursing home and "as a result, this court does not have jurisdiction to appoint a monitor over the current operator."
Messages left at Woodbury Heights were not returned.
On April 12, 2024, Cairo ordered Wickens-Alteri installed as the nursing home's health monitor at the recommendation of James' office as part of the resolution of a contentious lawsuit that also included a more than $2 million financial penalty to the facility's owners. The monitor is tasked with improving resident care, maintaining sufficient staffing and ensuring state and federal guidelines are followed.
Wickens-Alteri, a former nurse at an upstate nursing home, spent eight years as deputy director of the Office of Health Systems Management, the policy, regulatory, surveillance and enforcement arm of the state Health Department.
The nursing home's ownership group, led by Bent Philipson and his son Avi Philipson, remain in place until the health department approves the formal sale of the facility.
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
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