Hixson-based nursing home operator New Beginnings Care recently saw the state of Ohio shut down its Youngstown, Ohio, nursing home and one in Warren, Ohio, after inspectors cited “deficiencies” at them, including that the Youngstown facility was understaffed because workers quit over not being paid and patients’ adult diapers were saturated with urine and feces.
New Beginnings Care still owes Ohio unpaid bed taxes at the two facilities – but doesn’t plan to pay, the nursing home operator’s attorney David Fulton said Friday morning in bankruptcy court in Chattanooga.
“We’re going to convert those properties to Chapter 7,” Fulton said, referring to a liquidation in which New Beginnings would be freed of its debts. “There’s not going to be any payment on those taxes.”
Fulton was in bankruptcy court Friday because New Beginnings Care hasn’t written off all 15 homes it once operated in five states.
It still hopes to use Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize and hang on to seven of its nursing homes, after losing eight in Ohio, Tennessee and Georgia when regulators cited “deficiencies” at several New Beginnings facilities and cut off Medicaid and Medicare payments.