AG reaches $4 million settlement with nursing home operator

In what her team called the "largest nursing home settlement" ever reached by the office, Attorney General Andrea Campbell on Monday reported a $4 million agreement with a Woburn-based long-term care management company.

Next Step Healthcare, which operates 16 nursing homes in Massachusetts, will need to pay for an independent compliance monitor to oversee operations as part of the deal resolving allegations that the company "deliberately failed to properly staff the nursing homes it owned and operated, resulting in resident harm and neglect," according to Campbell's office.

Reports of substandard care or regulatory violations at Next Step, which were based on complaints and referrals from the Department of Public Health, led to a years-long investigation and agreement by Next Step to budget for staffing at state-mandated levels.

"For years, Next Step prioritized profit over care by failing to adequately staff its nursing homes," Campbell said in a statement, adding that the message from the settlement is that "this conduct will not be tolerated."

Next Step is co-owned by Damien Dell’Anno and William Stephan, according to the AG's office, and has nursing homes in Attleboro, Fall River, Fitchburg, Lee, Malden, Melrose, Middleborough, Norwood, Plymouth, Taunton, Walpole, West Newton, Westborough and Worcester.

About $3.25 million in settlement funds will be overseen by the compliance monitor and must be used by Next Step "for additional staffing improvements, recruitment, retention, additional benefit costs, bonuses, overtime, wage increases, and/or other staffing-related initiatives over the next three years." About $750,000 will be paid to the state and distributed to MassHealth and the Long-Term Care Facility Quality Improvement Fund, a DPH fund that aims to improve the quality of care delivered to residents of long-term care facilities.

"We have an obligation to create a safe and caring environment for some of our most vulnerable residents in Massachusetts," Secretary of Health and Human Services Kate Walsh said. "I am grateful to the Attorney General’s Office for their work to ensure protections and appropriate measures are taken when patients can’t speak up for themselves."