Federal agents search Haven Healthcare

Federal agents search Haven Healthcare

	Published : Sat, 01 Dec 2007 00:15 By : Agencies Print this Story

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Federal task force agents have searched the Middletown offices of a troubled nursing home company that has filed for bankruptcy protection and is facing allegations that it misused millions of dollars in Medicaid funding.

Members of the multi-agency Health Care Fraud Task Force began executing search warrants late Thursday afternoon at Haven Healthcare's headquarters, U.S. attorney's office spokesman Tom Carson confirmed Friday. A federal judge signed off on the warrants.

Carson would not comment on what agents were looking for or what they have found, but he acknowledged the federal investigation of the company for the first time. The task force includes agents from the FBI, the inspector general's Health and Human Services Office and the IRS.

'We are encouraging anyone with information about the Haven Healthcare investigation to contact the FBI Health Care Fraud Task Force hot line at 203-785-9270,' Carson said.

In a statement, company president Anthony Scierka said Haven was cooperating with the investigation. The company has denied wrongdoing.

'Haven Healthcare will continue to respond to the various agencies looking into this matter,' he said. 'We look forward to a swift and positive resolution.'

State authorities are also investigating Haven Healthcare's financial dealings, including nearly $9 million in company money that went to the Nashville country music label Category 5 Records, whose top star is Travis Tritt. None of the allegations involve Tritt.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has said that his office's investigation centers on whether the company fraudulently used Medicaid funds for deals and investments not related to health care, while it neglected to pay bills for its nursing homes.

Blumenthal alleged the company, which has been fined more than 45 times in recent years by state and federal health agencies for poor patient care, has been putting its clients' health and safety in jeopardy.

State officials have asked a federal judge to appoint a trustee to take over the company's finances and an ombudsman for patient care. State officials have also been monitoring the company's nursing homes in Connecticut.

Haven Healthcare operates 35 nursing homes in New England, including 15 in Connecticut. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court in New Haven last week, seeking permission to continue operating while it reorganizes and asking for protection from creditors it owes tens of millions of dollars.

The largest debt listed in the bankruptcy documents is $13.7 million owed to Covington, Ky.-based Omnicare Value Health Care, which provides pharmaceutical care to the elderly.

In Connecticut, the company owes the state tax department nearly $600,000. It owes Connecticut Light & Power more than $400,000 in utility bills, according to the bankruptcy records. It also owes taxes in Vermont and Rhode Island.

Category 5 Records does not appear in the bankruptcy filings.

Ray Termini, chief executive officer of both Haven Healthcare and Category 5 Records, did not return a phone message left at his home in Middlefield Friday.

Termini has blamed much of the company's financial problems on low Medicaid reimbursement rates for health care services. He said money for the record company investments came from refinancing Haven Healthcare properties, not from Medicaid funding. He insisted that the transactions never affected patient care.

Associated Press Writer Susan Haigh in Hartford contributed to this report.