A Florida senior living and care provider “strongly denies” allegations that it used a federal COVID-19 vaccination clinic to inoculate hundreds of ineligible donors, saying it settled with the federal government to “avoid the expense and distraction of protracted litigation.”
MorseLife Health System, a not-for-profit that includes an assisted living community and nursing home on its West Palm Beach campus, will pay $1.75 million to settle a False Claims Act charge.
According to the Department of Justice, MorseLife enrolled in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care program — designed to prioritize vaccination of long-term care residents at highest risk of COVID-19 infections — and knowingly vaccinated more than 500 people it “falsely characterized” as staff members or volunteers during a Dec. 31, 2020, vaccination clinic.
“MorseLife’s top priority is to promote and protect the health, safety and well-being of everyone in our community, and the staff of MorseLife, as well as the vice chairman and his brother, acted in the best interest of the community to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” a spokesperson for MorseLife Health System told McKnight’s Senior Living. “The resolution of this matter enables us to continue pursuing our mission and will have no impact on MorsLife’s operations and programs.”
The spokesperson stated that all eligible long-term care facility residents and staff members who wanted the vaccine received it free of charge during the vaccination clinic.
According to the Justice Department, 567 of the 976 individuals vaccinated at MorseLife’s federal vaccination clinic in December 2020 were ineligible. The provider allegedly facilitated the vaccination of 128 current and former members of its various boards of directors and their families. The CEO also allegedly directed the MorseLife Foundation, the organization’s fundraising arm, to invite 290 donors and potential donors to receive vaccinations intended for older adults and staff.
The government also alleged that MorseLife’s board vice chairman invited 290 individuals to the vaccination clinic who had no connection to the company, including a “significant” number of members of the vice chairman’s country club.
MorseLife falsely characterized the ineligible recipients as staff or volunteers, according to the DOJ. Text messages and a MorseLife Foundation strategy document referenced “guaranteeing” vaccination by making those individuals employees and “recruiting” donors and using that “allegiance to effectively get significant gifts from that group in a short amount of time.”
“This specific vaccination program was designed to protect some of the nation’s most vulnerable individuals at a critical time when the COVID-19 pandemic was devastating that population,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the DOJ’s Civil Division.
The federal program administered more than 8 million vaccine doses to long-term care facility residents and staff members across the country.
“It is disturbing to see initiatives designed to provide protections against COVID-19, for individuals who critically need them, manipulated in this way,” said Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General Miami Region Special Agent in Charge Omar Perez Aybar.
