Joseph Schwartz charged with Medicaid fraud

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - An arrest warrant has been issued for a former nursing home owner on eight Medicaid fraud charges involving his facilities in Arkansas, the state’s attorney general said Monday.

Joseph Schwartz also faces two counts of state tax violations for failing to pay taxes that were withheld from employees’ paychecks, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said.

Schwartz operated Skyline Health Care, which at one point held licenses for one out of every 10 nursing homes in the state, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. Schwartz has relinquished most of his nursing homes, including those in Arkansas, because of financial insolvency.

In Pennsylvania, his company owned Golden Living facilities in Lancaster, Reading, Doylestown and elsewhere.

Schwartz’ attorney, Bill James, told the newspaper that his client is expected to surrender in January and that he will plead not guilty to the charges.

Schwartz was also sued in federal court in 2020 by former employees in multiple states who claimed that they were left without health insurance even though money had been deducted from their paychecks. Five plaintiffs who worked at Skyline-operated facilities in South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska and Arkansas filed the suit.

Skyline once operated more than 100 nursing homes under numerous subsidiary companies. Those facilities were also in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Massachusetts, Kentucky and Tennessee.