State Seeks To Close Syracuse Home Health Agency
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
Steps are being taken by the Indiana State Department of Health to shut down a Syracuse home health agency allegedly operating without a license.
The state agency is seeking an injunction in Kosciusko Circuit Court against Forte Residential, North Huntington Street, Syracuse, and the action is being pursued "to prevent the irreparable injury to the defendant's clients whose health and lives are threatened by the fact that they are receiving home health services from untrained, unlicensed individuals," according to court documents.
"It is our contention that the facility is operating as a home health agency, and it isn't one," said Margaret Joseph, public information officer for the ISDH.
However, Thomas Van Meter, owner of Forte Residential, said his agency is a "residential service provider" contracted by the state under the Medicaid waiver and that it has never called itself a home care provider. The fact that the agency appears under the "Home Health Service" in the yellow pages of two telephone books is in error, Van Meter said.
The ISDH surveyed the business once in November and on two occasions in January and found Forte Residential to be operating a home health agency, which is defined as "a person that provides or offers to provide only a home health service for compensation."
Records reviewed by the ISDH show that caregivers at Forte Residential have performed home health aide services and skilled nursing functions without a license on numerous occasions, according to the civil plenary case file. These services included using a lift to transfer patients who cannot move themselves, providing physical therapy and ventilator and tracheostomy care and administering prescription medication and subcutaneous injections.
The lawsuit contends that Forte Residential is not licensed to operate a home health agency and that the individuals being compensated to perform these services are not licensed health care professionals, volunteers who provide services without compensation or immediate members of patients' families. The latter two types of individuals do not need licensing to assist with patients.
A spokesman for the Indiana Attorney General's Office - the legal representation for the ISDH - said the matter was referred to their office by the ISDH because officials there were unable to get Forte to come into compliance.
Obtaining licensing, according to Joseph, involves an agency making application, undergoing a survey to assure there is compliance with all state rules for licensing, having a supervisory nurse and an administrator and meeting staffing requirements. The agency would then have to pay a $100 fee for the license. Such agencies also can be federally licensed, Joseph said.
Both preliminary and permanent injunctions are being sought to prohibit Forte Residential from providing services without a license.
Van Meter said his agency is seeking resolution of this matter through informal mediation and doesn't expect it to actually go into court. [[In-content Ad]]
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Steps are being taken by the Indiana State Department of Health to shut down a Syracuse home health agency allegedly operating without a license.
The state agency is seeking an injunction in Kosciusko Circuit Court against Forte Residential, North Huntington Street, Syracuse, and the action is being pursued "to prevent the irreparable injury to the defendant's clients whose health and lives are threatened by the fact that they are receiving home health services from untrained, unlicensed individuals," according to court documents.
"It is our contention that the facility is operating as a home health agency, and it isn't one," said Margaret Joseph, public information officer for the ISDH.
However, Thomas Van Meter, owner of Forte Residential, said his agency is a "residential service provider" contracted by the state under the Medicaid waiver and that it has never called itself a home care provider. The fact that the agency appears under the "Home Health Service" in the yellow pages of two telephone books is in error, Van Meter said.
The ISDH surveyed the business once in November and on two occasions in January and found Forte Residential to be operating a home health agency, which is defined as "a person that provides or offers to provide only a home health service for compensation."
Records reviewed by the ISDH show that caregivers at Forte Residential have performed home health aide services and skilled nursing functions without a license on numerous occasions, according to the civil plenary case file. These services included using a lift to transfer patients who cannot move themselves, providing physical therapy and ventilator and tracheostomy care and administering prescription medication and subcutaneous injections.
The lawsuit contends that Forte Residential is not licensed to operate a home health agency and that the individuals being compensated to perform these services are not licensed health care professionals, volunteers who provide services without compensation or immediate members of patients' families. The latter two types of individuals do not need licensing to assist with patients.
A spokesman for the Indiana Attorney General's Office - the legal representation for the ISDH - said the matter was referred to their office by the ISDH because officials there were unable to get Forte to come into compliance.
Obtaining licensing, according to Joseph, involves an agency making application, undergoing a survey to assure there is compliance with all state rules for licensing, having a supervisory nurse and an administrator and meeting staffing requirements. The agency would then have to pay a $100 fee for the license. Such agencies also can be federally licensed, Joseph said.
Both preliminary and permanent injunctions are being sought to prohibit Forte Residential from providing services without a license.
Van Meter said his agency is seeking resolution of this matter through informal mediation and doesn't expect it to actually go into court. [[In-content Ad]]