Risk of Misuse of Social Security Program Raises Fears of Nursing Home Abuse

Risk of Misuse of Social Security Program Raises Fears of Nursing Home Abuse

Two decades after a woman running a boarding house was found guilty of the most horrific kinds of nursing home abuse involving Social Security bilking and murder of the residents at the facility, experts worry that the potential for unchecked abuse remains as strong as ever. The case related to exploitation of the representative payee program that allows a third party to handle and cash Social Security checks on behalf of the elderly, who are unable to handle these matters themselves.

It involved Dorothea Punte, an elderly woman who took in patients at her unlicensed boarding home in California in the early eighties. Puente had been convicted for Social Security fraud before, and had even spent time in prison for these convictions. When she decided to take in residents at her home, Puente was aware that it would be impossible for an ex-convict to obtain a license to run a boarding house. A boarding house technically comes under the purview of nursing homes in a number of states. These homes can prove residents food and accommodation, but not medical care, and are required to be registered by the state, as well as by local authorities, in some cases. Puente did not apply for either kind of licensing.

The residents at her boarding house were stripped of their Social Security payments, and when some began to protest, Puente got rid of their concerns in the most horrific ways imaginable - she killed them. It was an alert social worker who got suspicious and alerted police to Puente's boarding house in 1988. The bodies were found, and police would later confirm that at least two more victims had been killed. Puente was sentenced to life without parole.

It's been 20 years since Puente's abuse was discovered, but the fears that another Puente-style boarding house owner could be running operations with slim chances of being discovered, still remain as strong as ever, officials say. States all over the country are cutting down on inspections of nursing home facilities, and the situation is likely to get worse as a faltering economy continues to suck out funding for essential services that could protect residents. California for instance, has recently announced cuts for funding the state's Ombudsman Program, which did exemplary work in conducting regular nursing home inspections, and keeping facilities on their toes.

Puente was able to get away with nursing home abuses for years precisely because of the lack of regular inspections and proper monitoring of facilities. How many more such abuse perpetrators could be lurking beneath the system's radar, unchecked and unmonitored, is anybody's guess.

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