When families reach out to my office, they rarely start with the obvious. They start with what they saw.
A loved one who suddenly declined. Repeated falls. A severe pressure injury that "showed up overnight." Being left in their own waste, with call bells that never get answered, or answered and immediately turned off without help. The same excuse, "we're understaffed," over and over.
That's why New Jersey's January 19, 2026, enforcement action matters. The NJ Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) filed a lawsuit against the ownership group and related entities tied to Hammonton Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare and Deptford Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare, alleging a multi-year scheme to profit from two Medicaid-funded nursing homes while residents received substandard care.
This isn't just a story in the news. It's a window into how unsafe care happens and how it can be hidden in plain sight.
What OSC is alleging
In the complaint, OSC says the defendants operated the two facilities as part of a coordinated enterprise, routing funds through companies owned or controlled by insiders and family members. OSC alleges the result was money diverted away from resident care, concealed reporting, and government oversight evaded.
Most importantly for families: OSC alleges that the diversion of resources resulted in chronic understaffing, including extended periods without required direct care staff or registered nurse coverage, and that the facilities operated in ways that were inconsistent with residents' health, safety, and dignity.
Families don't need to memorize corporate names to understand that. If staffing collapses, everything else collapses with it.
Chronic understaffing isn't a "staffing challenge." It's foreseeable harm.
In OSC's December 10, 2025, investigatory report (the report that led to this enforcement action), OSC reviewed 146 days between February 2021 and May 2024 and found that both facilities failed to meet minimum staff-to-resident ratios on almost all of those days. OSC reports average understaffing of about 52% at Hammonton and 54% at Deptford, meaning residents were receiving less than half the direct care required by law.
Then OSC describes what that looks like in real life:
• call bells unanswered
• residents yelling for help
• residents left in soiled diapers
• not enough staff to feed, bathe, or provide basic care
If you've ever walked into a facility and felt that pit in your stomach, "something is not right here," this is most likely why. Understaffing is where neglect becomes routine, and injuries abound.
"Related entities" and "rent," why can't families get a straight answer
Families often assume a nursing home is a single business. Many are not; instead, they are an interweaving mass of multiple companies and shell companies. In the OSC report, the allegation is that money moved through a network of interrelated companies linked by ownership, covering functions such as management, staffing, IT, maintenance, and even clinical lab services.
OSC also describes an alleged real estate structure in which property companies (connected to the same ownership circle) received payments labeled as rent, and some distributions were disguised as rent payments funded primarily by Medicaid reimbursements.
Here's what families should take from that:
When a facility is set up with layers of companies, it becomes easier to:
• move money out of the nursing home,
• understaff and underpay facility staff while also cutting back on daily necessities, and
• keep families stuck arguing with the front desk while the decision-makers are elsewhere.
That structure doesn't excuse poor care. It can explain why poor care persists even after repeated complaints.
The January 19, 2026, OSC announcement also flagged a second South Jersey facility.
In the same January 19, 2026, press release, OSC stated it issued a final notice to South Jersey Extended Care in Bridgeton that Medicaid funding will cease on March 13, 2026, with no further extensions.
Whether you're talking about a nursing home, assisted living, or a group home, when oversight reaches the point of enforcement action, families should pay attention.
What families should do now if they're worried about a loved one
1) Start documenting and taking photographs.
Write down: dates and times, names and titles, what you observed, what you were told, and what changed (mobility, appetite, alertness, mood). Patterns matter more than one-off explanations.
2) Ask for key items in writing.
Request: incident reports, care plan updates, wound/skin logs (if relevant), medication administration records (MAR), treatment administration records (TAR), and ADL Tracking/Flow Sheets. If an injury happened, written records are the difference between accountability and a shrugged shoulder.
3) Ask the staffing question the facility hopes you won't ask.
Be specific: "What was staffing on this unit on the shift when this happened?" "Was an RN on duty?" "Who was assigned to my family member?" If the answers are vague, delayed, or keep changing, treat that as information.
4) Don't accept "short-staffed/understaffed" as the end of the conversation. Understaffed doesn't mean unavoidable. It often means higher chain choices were made.
Better Call Schall®
Were you or a loved one a resident of a nursing home, assisted living, or group home and injured due to failures in care?
Better Call Schall® at 856-310-6782 or send a message through our contact form.
Important: Time limits apply. If this happened recently, contact us promptly.
This post is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
