FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today announced a $400,000 settlement with Orchard Hill Operator, LLC d/b/a Orchard Hill Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center (“Orchard Hill”) to settle allegations that Orchard Hill violated the Maryland False Health Claims Act by providing substandard care to residents at the facility. The settlement includes $325,000 paid by Orchard Hill to fund a quality improvement plan in which the Office of Attorney General will oversee the facility for three years through regular performance evaluations from a third-party monitoring company. It also includes $75,000 in restitution to the state.
“When nursing homes fail to meet basic care standards, vulnerable Marylanders suffer preventable harm and misery,” said Attorney General Brown. “This settlement ensures Orchard Hill makes meaningful changes to protect those entrusted to their care.”
Today’s announcement marks the culmination of the investigative efforts by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud and Vulnerable Victims Unit (MFVVU) including: (1) review of survey reports from the Office of Health Care Quality, which documented a myriad of deficiencies; (2) discovery targeted upon obtaining facility staffing levels, personnel and resident census documents; and (3) obtaining and reviewing resident medical records.
The investigation uncovered (1) serious wound care inadequacies leading to hospitalizations; (2) the failure to provide residents with adequate nutrition and hydration; (3) regulatory violations compromising patient care; (4) numerous preventable falls; and (5) inadequate staffing.
The MFVVU determined that these deficiencies were a signal that the Medicaid recipients residing at the Orchard Hill facility were receiving such substandard care that taxpayers, who paid for the care through the Medicaid program, were being defrauded. To ensure that the care at the facility improves, the Team insisted on the quality improvement agreement as part of the monetary settlement. The quality improvement agreement allows the state to monitor relevant facets of the facility’s day-to-day operations on a regular basis, through the third-party monitoring activities and unfettered access to corporate documents, medical files, and staff at the facility. Where continuing problems are uncovered, the facility must make improvements or risk renewed legal exposure.
In making today’s announcement, Attorney General Brown thanked Medicaid Fraud and Vulnerable Victims Unit Director Zak Shirley, Assistant Attorney General Louise Lock, Investigators Carl Stambaugh and Antonnio Hopson, and Auditor Yelena Slutskaya for their work on this case.
The Maryland Office of the Attorney General, Medicaid Fraud and Vulnerable Victims Unit receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $7,119,096 for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2026. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $2,373,032 for FY 2026, is funded by the State of Maryland.
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