The Ivy at Great Falls — Montana’s largest nursing home — is suing the state’s Department of Public Health and Human Services, claiming the agency gave insufficient opportunity to correct compliance with regulatory requirements.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services notified the 278-bed facility in late June that its access to Medicare and Medicaid funding would be cut off effective July 9.
The notice prompted The Ivy to initiate plans to shut down and move residents to other facilities throughout the state. Of these, 65 had already been moved as of last week.
“These actions are taken because CMS has determined that Ivy at Great Falls failed to attain substantial compliance with certain Medicare and Medicaid participation requirements,” the regulatory agency explained.
The provider filed its lawsuit July 19, alleging that DPHHS had failed to provide a chance to correct deficiencies and further arguing that the transfer of its residents was potentially traumatic.
More than 20 residents were proving difficult to place in other Montana facilities and were still at The Ivy as of at least early July, the lawsuit claims.
According to CMS’ notice of termination, The Ivy can continue submitting Medicaid claims for patients already admitted to the facility until August 9 — 30 days after the termination.
Ivy at Great Falls did not respond to McKnight’s request for comment on its decisions to sue.
The Ivy was listed in CMS’ Special Focus Facility Program as of April 2024. In March of that year, a survey found a dozen deficiencies — including one incident labeled Immediate Jeopardy in which “the facility failed to secure hazardous areas on the secure unit, which allowed a resident to enter the area.”
The Ivy had submitted plans to correct its deficiencies, according to the Montana Free Press.
Previous state inspections had also found deficiencies and imposed fines on The Ivy — including a December 2021 inspection that found 5 Immediate Jeopardy deficiencies and fined the nursing home nearly $150,000.
