August 27, 2025 – On August 25, NY Attorney General James announced a significant settlement against a major New York nursing home chain, the Upstate Services Group, which operates 17 nursing homes across the state. The facility at the focus of this action, the Van Duyn nursing home in Syracuse, has a long history of horrifying reports of neglect and substandard care in the Syracuse Post-Standard.

The Attorney General found that Van Duyn’s owners:

  • Engaged “in significant up-front profit taking of One Hundred Million One Hundred and Sixty-Four Thousand and Sixty-Two Dollars and Zero Cents ($100,164,062.00) in Medicaid reimbursement payments to Van Duyn through fraudulent schemes and deceptive conduct;”
  • Failed “to provide timely, consistent, safe, adequate, and appropriate services, treatment, and care to numerous of Van Duyn’s residents, including nutrition, therapies, sanitary clothing and surroundings, and activities of daily living;”
  • Failed “to timely administer treatments, medications, diets, and other health services to Van Duyn’s residents;”
  • Violated the law by running “Van Duyn with insufficient nursing staff” to meet residents’ basic needs and continuing;
  • Violated the law by continually admitting residents “to Van Duyn even though it operated with insufficient staff to provide adequate care to all of its existing residents;
  • “[R]epeatedly and persistently [engaging] in illegality in the operation of the Nursing Home by filing and/or causing to be filed claims for payment to Medicaid for unfurnished medical care and services [and] converting Medicaid payments to a use or benefit other than for the intended use and benefit.”

[NOTE: This is only a partial list of the AG’s findings. Emphases added.]

Click here to download a list of the facilities owned by the Upstate Services Group, along with relevant staffing and citation information. This list was derived from the Provider Data Report that LTCCC releases periodically on all U.S. nursing homes.

The data indicate that:

  • Upstate Services Group nursing homes have an average overall rating of less than two out of five stars.
  • Their average staffing rating is just over two out of five stars.
  • Expected staffing for Upstate Services Group nursing homes is 4.84 Hours Per Resident Day (HPRD). Their actual reported average HPRD is 3.24 HPRD. This indicates understaffing of close to 50%.
  • Understaffing is even more dire on the weekends, when average staffing drops to 2.74 HPRD. This indicates understaffing of over 75% on weekends.

If you are concerned about the persistence of poor quality nursing home care, please join us for our September 16 webinar, which will focus on a groundbreaking case in which advocates are suing the State of Maryland for failure to provide sufficient nursing home oversight and enforcement.