there's been little Improvement at the state's lowest rated nursing homes over the past year and some facilities have been providing poor care to residents for nearly a decade now that's according to a new report out from the state comptroller's office today finding a dozen long-term care facilities in New Jersey have consistently gotten the lowest possible quality rating of one star while continuing to receive tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money through Medicaid senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports on what the state and nursing home Advocates say needs to change we sounded the alarm last year and we're sounding it again today because a year later not much has changed New Jersey State Comptroller Kevin Walsh says his follow-up survey of nursing homes with Rock Bottom rating shows a little Improvement at a dozen facilities with problematic Health reports involving poor patient care dirty living facilities inept staff and mismanaged meds he says some 1500 people live in these homes that despite persistent one-star performances collect 103 million dollars a year in Medicaid funding from taxpayers the bottom line is that we shouldn't be using Medicaid funding to fund poor quality Care the goal should be for us to see the red flags to see the warning signs and to get to a place where our state policy can protect people before it gets so bad that we have to act urgently Walsh's list includes seven nursing homes shown in red that make repeat appearances from prior reports to compile these rankings researchers use the federal star rating system linked to state inspections by the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services three of the facilities including Grove Park in East Orange made the list again despite graduating from a special program designed to improve care what it shows I think is that there's a new plan needed if if after a decade's worth of carrots if after a decade's worth of sticks if after special hand-holding there's still a problem we need a new plan Walsh blames New Jersey's Departments of Health and Human Services for not cracking down harder his reports have recommended capping or ending admissions of new patients at facilities that fail to improve and barring their owners from investing in more nursing homes but industry spokesman Andy Aronson says struggling facilities need more not less funding he calls the star rating system a bell curve even if deficiencies were cited during a survey during that process they were corrected and all of those facilities were in compliance with all federal and state regulations by the time the survey ended so the idea that's simply because of facility is a one-star rated facility that before that provides poor care is just not accurate it's not right a bell curve that tolerates um uh poor quality Care isn't something that anybody should defend nobody I that I know would voluntarily put their loved one um to live in the conditions that the Department of Health has found especially in the nursing homes that have been on the list for a decade or more New Jersey officials cited in the report explained they're constrained by federal rules and so improve Nursing Home Care by defining standards and providing support for all facilities to meet them but they ultimately do take action and point it to Woodland Behavioral Center in Andover widely reviled for atrocious conditions which the state shut down last summer but other frequently cited facilities on the comptroller's list remain open including silver Health Care Center in Cherry Hill recently renamed the Grove for the current operator at silver today I don't think is the operator that was responsible for um the the findings of the very poor report that came out I think it was last year also listed on the report under a different name the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehab where 11 children died of adenovirus in 2018 now it's called Phoenix Center for rehab and Pediatrics it's the only facility on the comptroller's list that's improved to three out of five stars I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight news