Judge Gives Sandy Springs Man 20 Years for Horrendous Nursing Homes, Defrauding Medicare

Information provided by the United States Attorney's Office

Conditions at three Rome nursing homes operated by George and Rhonda Houser of Sandy Springs were so horredous that residents were near starvation, according to the United States Attorney's Office.

Roofs were leaky, air conditioning and heating units were broken, residents’ rooms were filled with bugs and rodents, rotting garbage in dumpsters were nearby, and mildew and foul odors swelled in the air.

How would you react if you learned your parent or grandparent lived in these conditions?

While operating three nursing homes filled with over 300 senior citizens, the court found that Medicare and Medicaid paid the couple more than $32.9 million between 2004 and 2007 for food, medical care and other services, a media statement said. 

On Monday, George Houser was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on charges of conspiring with his wife to defraud the Medicare and Georgia Medicaid programs by billing them for “worthless services” in the operation of three nursing homes.

The couple was indicted in 2010. Houser, 64, was convicted after a bench trial on April 2, 2012. Rhonda Houser, 49, pled guilty to misprision, a felony which includes neglect, in December 2011. She has not been sentenced yet.

“Senior citizens in nursing homes are among our most vulnerable citizens,” said United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates, in a statement. “This defendant stole millions of dollars in Medicare funds to fund his luxurious lifestyle, while the nursing home residents entrusted to his care went without food or medicine.”

Several complaints had been made about the Housers' nursing homes by families, staff and vendors to the Georgia Department of Human Resources Office of Regulatory Services, (ORS). The United States Attorney’s Office statement said that after giving the nursing homes many opportunities to correct deficiencies, the ORS closed the two nursing homes in Rome in June 2007, and it closed the couple’s Brunswick home in September 2007. 

One state surveyor inspected the Moran Lake home in Rome in late May 2007, and she testified that the heat, flies, filth, and stench made for an environment best described as “appalling” and “horrendous.”

Do you think Houser's sentence was just? How much time should his wife get?