Former SNF employee gets 4 years for stealing $173,000 from residents

A former business office manager of an Ohio skilled nursing facility was sentenced to four years in prison this week for stealing more than $173,000 from residents’ trust funds.

Brian Frawley pleaded guilty in April to stealing the funds from more than 150 residents of Clifton Healthcare Center in Cincinnati between 2008 and 2013. Frawley reportedly falsified records to cover up the thefts, according to a statement from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. The thefts, discovered by a Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, were charged as theft from a person in a protected class, a first degree felony.

In addition to the four-year sentence, Frawley was ordered to pay $60,000 in restitution; the rest will be covered by insurance.

“We were very glad to see that he was sentenced to prison time and ordered to make restitution,” a spokesman for CommuniCare, Clifton’s operator, told McKnight’s.

Upon discovering Frawley’s thefts CommuniCare worked with the Ohio Attorney General and the Hamilton County Prosecutor on the case.

“We take the safety of our residents — not just physical but financial safety — very seriously, and we thought this was a particularly egregious crime,” the spokesman said. “We will continue to do whatever we have to do to protect our residents.”