McKnight's Long-Term Care News,
Nursing home fighting ‘$2M cup of coffee’ penalty finally headed for its
day in court
A nursing home that says it’s the victim of a surveyor’s misinterpretation of a non-existent temperature standard for coffee service has formally appealed its $1.8 million penalty in federal court.
In its filing against the Department of Health and Human Services Thursday an attorney for Potomac Falls Health & Rehab Center highlighted earlier testimony by the lead surveyor who conceded there is “no regulation for hot coffee.”
“There are [no stated temperature regulations] and CMS utterly failed to provide any evidence otherwise,” attorney Alan Horowitz wrote in a 54-page brief that noted temperature limits for other foods are included in the State Operations Manual that guides surveyors.
The filing occurred in the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, a little more than 10 years after the standalone incident that required no special treatment nor a follow-up inspection.
HHS issued a $6,550 per day civil monetary penalty for an Immediate Jeopardy deficiency over 272 days, a span when no similar incidents occurred despite tens of thousands of hot drinks being consumed.
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