Nursing Homes Oust Unwanted Patients With Claims of Psychosis

“You can get $1,000 extra a day by getting rid of the Gloria Singles of the world and replacing them with someone on Medicare,” said Matthew Borden, Ms. Single’s lawyer.

John Supple, a lawyer for the Retirement Housing Foundation, which operates Pioneer House, said that its medical director had deemed the home unsuitable for Ms. Single’s medical needs and that Pioneer House had never received the medical records it needed to readmit her. (Ms. Single’s lawyer disputes that. The lawsuit is ongoing.) Mr. Supple said Pioneer House had held Ms. Single’s bed for months and had not replaced her with a Medicare patient.

During the pandemic, nursing homes in Illinois and Michigan have repeatedly sent elderly and disabled Medicaid patients to NeuroBehavioral Hospital in Crown Point, Ind., said Kimberly Jackson, a discharge planner at the psychiatric hospital. In one case, a resident who yelled at a staff member was branded as being violent and having a psychotic break.

“The homes seem to be purposely taking symptoms of dementia as evidence of psychosis,” Ms. Jackson said. (Christy Gilbert, the chief operating officer of the hospital’s parent company, said instances when nursing homes dumped patients in her company’s hospitals were “very few and far between.”)

In June, Life Care Center of Plainwell, Mich., sent Nicki Safapour, a Medicaid patient who needs a wheelchair, to NeuroBehavioral Hospital. Because of a developmental disability, Mr. Safapour, 55, has the mental capacity of a 5-year-old, according to his brother John, who is his legal guardian. He said Life Care had told him that Mr. Safapour assaulted an employee and another resident.

A state health inspector later determined that the discharge was illegal, according to a copy of the inspector’s report reviewed by The Times.

“It seemed like they were just trying to get rid of Nicki,” John Safapour said. “He took up a lot of staff time.”