Nursing home owner faces 10 felony counts for Medicaid or tax fraud

The owner of a national nursing home chain is in hot water in Arkansas, where he faces eight counts of Medicaid fraud and two tax fraud counts. If convicted on any of the charges — all of which are felonies — he likely would be precluded from Medicare and Medicaid participation for years to come.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rudledge issued a warrant Monday for Joseph Schwartz, the owner of Skyline nursing homes. Schwartz is accused of eight counts of Medicaid fraud for allegedly submitting false statements in cost reports and other documentation to the Arkansas Medicaid program. According to the attorney general’s office, in 2018, Skyline exaggerated its costs by almost $6.3 million and received an overpayment of more than $3.6 million for its eight nursing home facilities in Arkansas. The alleged tax fraud charges stem from Schwartz allegedly failing to pay more than $2 million withheld from his Arkansas employees’ paychecks to the state from July 2017 to March 2018.

“These charges come after a 44-month-long investigation into Skyline’s wrongdoings, and I will not sit idly by while anyone defrauds the state and federal government out of millions of dollars to line their own pockets,” Rutledge stated.

Schwartz, who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., is expected to turn himself in to Arkansas authorities in early January, MSN reported. 

At one time, Schwartz oversaw the care of more than 7,000 older Americans through Skyline Healthcare, which at its peak owned or ran more than 100 facilities in 11 states, according to the media outlet. Schwartz still is listed as the owner or a co-owner of four facilities, according to federal nursing home ownership data, NBC reported.

The case was referred to the Arkansas attorney general’s office by the Office of Medicaid Inspector General. The investigation was worked in cooperation with the Health and Human Services Office of Investigation, the Nebraska Medicaid Fraud and Patient Abuse Unit, the Kansas Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the Maryland Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the South Dakota Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.