A former business office manager (BOM) at Miravilla Care Center in Cherry Valley, CA stole a total of $38,115.49 from the trust funds of 45 residents during her employment between September 1, 2011 and August 17, 2013.
During her employment, the BOM was responsible for performing all billing functions and did monthly bank reconciliations of the residents’ trust funds. It was her responsibility to receive the residents’ social security and pension checks and make deposits, post the deposits and disbursements in a computer system, and send quarterly statements to the residents’ responsible parties. She illegally used the facility’s administrator’s signature stamp, which was supposed to be kept under lock and key and only used in the presence of the administrator for payroll and emergency purposes.
With the administrator’s signature stamp, the BOM wrote 17 facility checks to her personal bank account. Twelve of the financially abused residents died in the facility during the BOM’s employment, and their families or responsible parties were supposed to be refunded for the deceased residents’ trust funds within 30 days of their passing. However, they were never refunded.
This could have been prevented if the facility administrator had conducted monthly reviews of the residents’ trust funds with the BOM, as required by facility policy. The facility received 19 class B citations for failing to protect the residents from financial abuse and was fined a total of $37,500.