by James C. Sherlock

For the first time ever, a Virginia nursing home, Princess Anne Health and Rehabilitation Center (Princess Anne) in Virginia Beach, has been evicted from the Medicare and Medicaid programs.  

Before I get to it, I want to acknowledge and thank those who have been working to improve nursing facilities in Virginia.  

Federal.  Medicare is administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) under Dr. Mehmet Oz.  The federal HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) under Juliet Hodgkins investigates wrongdoing in Medicare. Most chains operate in more than one state, making full owner accountability a federal matter under the investigative responsibility of the HHS OIG. 

Virginia. In this Commonwealth, acknowledgements start with Governor Youngkin, his team and the General Assembly.

The Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Secretariat led administration efforts under both John Littel, now the Governor’s Chief of Staff, and Janet Kelley. The Departments of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS), Virginia’s Medicaid agency, under Cheryl Roberts and the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) led by Health Commissioner Dr. Karen Shelton have earned the gratitude of all Virginians.  

The Virginia Department of Social Services’ Adult Protective Services under Paige McCleary was responsible for the raid on Colonial Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (Colonial Heights that woke up both the citizens and the General Assembly.  

The legacy media, TV and print press, did its job well. Reporting on Colonial Heights by Tyler Lane of WTVR CBS 6 in Richmond has been particularly dogged and superb.

The General Assembly had been the place where nursing home oversight legislation went to die for nearly five decades. I have repeatedly skewered them here for it. But after the Colonial Heights scandal and its publicity, bipartisan support emerged for 2025 legislation that has provided more authority and money to supplement VDH inspection efforts.  

Special thanks to OLC.  Most of all, I acknowledge the work of VDH’s Office of Licensure and Certification (OLC) under both previous Director Kim Beazley and Acting Director James Jenkins.  

OLC inspections teams, understaffed and underpaid, have doggedly and professionally inspected Virginia’s nursing homes for decades. It is their work that I most often quote here. It is that office that finally this year, after four decades, was given authorization and funding by the General Assembly to staff their activities properly.  

OLC this year shot the arrows that finally finished off Princess Anne. Here is their complaint inspection report from February and revisit report from June.  Apparently, the final straws.

Excerpts from LEGAL PUBLIC NOTICE of MANDATORY TERMINATION FROM MEDICARE/MEDICAID PROGRAM

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is providing notice that on August 27, 2025, Princess Anne Health & Rehabilitation Center, 1948 Landstown Centre Way, Virginia Beach, VA 23456, a skilled nursing facility in the Medicare program, will no longer participate in the Medicare program.

The Medicare provider agreement between Princess Anne Health & Rehabilitation Center and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) will be terminated on August 27, 2025, due to the facility’s failure to meet Medicare’s basic health and safety requirements. In addition, as authorized by the STATE MEDICAID AGENCY, notice is given that the provider’s agreement as a nursing facility in the Medicaid program will also be terminated effective August 27, 2025.

CMS requires facilities to meet certain health and safety standards to be certified as a Medicare provider. Mandatory termination of a provider agreement is generally a last resort after all other attempts to remedy the deficiencies at a facility have been exhausted. In this instance, CMS has determined that Princess Anne Health & Rehabilitation Center is out of compliance with CMS’s health and safety requirements. While we understand that relocation of residents and patients can be challenging for all parties involved, CMS prioritizes patient safety and care quality.

Bottom Line. I have been writing for years about the dreadful Innovative Healthcare Management/Medical Facilities of America/Lifeworks Rehab chain based in Lakewood, N.J. The owners use those names interchangeably, especially if the heat is on. We will call them the blob.

The links below are to a couple of blob facility websites with smiling faces.

Princess Anne.  

The ones with the 50+ years of experience were the Roanoke family from whom the blob bought the 30 MFA facilities in 2021.

Colonial Heights.    

Particularly galling. There is no new ownership. The blob just shifted the logo from Innovative Healthcare to MFA.  Those are not their biggest sins, but are indicative of a casual relationship with the truth.

By shutting Princess Anne off from Medicare and Medicaid, our federal and state governments now have the blob’s attention. But there is much left to do.  

Here are excerpts from the blob’s record in CMS’ Provider Information – extremely low average staffing and extremely high patient acuity assessments upon nursing home admission. Take a look. The evidence is overwhelming and stunning. As a direct result, they get paid very high insurance per diems for what they contend are very needy patients with very few professionals to provide care.  

They make tons of money that way.  

We are left to read about the human tragedies in the newspapers and in inspection reports.  I doubt the blob cares. The costs of the CMS fines and admissions pauses together are dwarfed by the profits from their business model.

They and the rest of the nursing home owners who operate dangerous nursing homes with skeleton staffs and OLC-documented federal law and regulation violations now understand that there are real consequences for their actions in Virginia.

I sincerely hope and expect that this single administrative action soon becomes the very least of their worries.