This USA TODAY investigation by reporter Peter Eisler revealed that thousands of nursing home residents have had their savings stolen or mismanaged after allowing the facilities to hold their money in special trust accounts. Those accounts, which nursing homes are required to maintain for residents who want the facility to handle their money, get almost no oversight, Eisler found. And the bookkeepers and office workers who manage the accounts often get far less vetting than a nursing home’s care-giving staff. Eisler’s meticulously documented stories showed that more than 1,500 nursing homes have been cited by state and federal inspectors since 2010 for mishandling resident trust accounts. He also identified scores of cases in which the funds were raided byees, often to the tune of tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Eisler’s stories included interactive, on-line graphics that give readers important, consumer-oriented information. One provided how-they-did-it details on a half dozen trust fund thefts, showing that most cases are discovered by happenstance because regulators and nursing home administrators frequently pay little attention to how the accounts are managed. Another graphic offered an on-line search tool that readers can use to check the inspection records for any nursing home in the country. After the initial investigation was published, Eisler continued to dig, producing follow-up stories that documented his project’s impact and added additional findings. For example, in a subsequent, 50-state survey, Eisler determined that just four states require audits of nursing homes’ resident trust accounts. He also found that 20 states do not require criminal background checks for the office workers who typically manage those trust accounts, despite demanding such checks for care-giving staff. Ultimately, Eisler’s stories take their power from the people they feature — the wounded victims, the ruthless employees who exploit them, and the dogged administrators and investigators who uncover their crimes. Their tales, woven through the narrative and the interactive sidebar, illustrate the impact that trust fund thefts have on virtually everyone in a nursing home’s community. The resulting package is a powerful piece of investigative reporting. It exposed a problem that has long gone unrecognized, it documented the impact on the most vulnerable of our citizens, and it spurred spurred policy makers to seek immediate reforms.
