Bob Dean nursing home patients endure another delay for settlement money: 'A crying shame'

After his elderly mother-in-law suffered for days on a wet mattress on the floor of a warehouse during Hurricane Ida in 2021, Gerald Ayo had hoped she'd receive a payout from nursing homeowner Bob Dean's insurers to help her through the end of her life.

Nearly a year passed before Ella Mae Alario died at age 91, still having received no money. Ayo then hoped a check from a class-action settlement that a Jefferson Parish judge approved last year could go to pay her funeral expenses.

Another year has passed, and Ayo's family has yet to receive any payment after Alario and more than 800 other nursing home residents were evacuated to an ill-equipped warehouse in Tangipahoa Parish to ride out the storm.

"It's a crying shame because the poor people involved in it haven't even gotten a penny yet," he said.

The holdup on receiving funds was extended this week, after 24th Judicial District Judge Michael Mentz acknowledged a snafu. Mentz set a new deadline of Dec. 30 for Dean's former patients or their survivors to seek payment from a settlement of more than $12 million. The previous deadline was in June.

The class includes 843 former patients of seven homes once controlled by Dean, who faces state criminal charges over an evacuation during which several patients died. State officials deemed five of those deaths to be storm-related.

Dean has been sued, arrested and had his nursing homes shut down, but his residents have so far received little in return.

Slightly fewer than half of Dean's former patients or their survivors have filed claims so far. Mentz in September approved initial $1,000 payouts under the settlement to cover claims under the Nursing Home Bill of Rights Act.

Special Master William "Rusty" Knight, a retired state judge, said then that the low initial amounts were intended to prevent the claimants from blowing past Medicaid asset limits and losing their coverage.

But in court papers, lawyers for the class acknowledged that word never reached the court that state health officials had already worked out a deal with federal authorities to lift those caps for Dean's former patients. Knight said he heard it first from The Times-Picayune and The Advocate.

"In effect, this regulation could greatly benefit class members or their heirs in maintaining Medicaid eligibility," even if the settlement checks exceed the general $2,000 threshold, the lawyers argued. Mentz on Oct. 31 granted the motion to extend the deadline.

Many still waiting for $1,000 checks

Knight described the extension as a "win-win," giving a fresh chance for people who didn't file claims out of fear of losing their Medicaid eligibility.

"It's something that will allow more of the class members to come forward," he said.

Knight said the initial $1,000 checks went out to all of the 419 claimants, in a decision based on expediency.

"We had two choices. We could issue a small check safely and at least get some money into the hands of the class, or issue no check at all until the back end," Knight said. "So we felt it was better to send some money than no money. I'm glad to say the next check will be larger."

While the new deadline will slow down the process of divvying up the bulk of a pot of more than $12 million in settlement funds — about $9 million of it earmarked for Dean's former patients — many still have not even received the $1,000 payouts that Mentz approved in September.

Ayo's family is among them. He said they were told that's because lawyers are still trying to determine whether any of the money needs to be paid back to Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people over 65.

Ayo's mother-in-law had Medicare when she lived at Dean's South Lafourche Nursing and Rehab, where she needed round-the-clock care for dementia. When she was rescued from the warehouse, she was hospitalized for days and needed surgery. Medicare paid for it.

While the Louisiana Department of Health got approval from Medicaid to raise the asset cap for low-income patients of Dean's, Medicare patients may still have to pay back money to the program, said Matthew Hemmer, an attorney with the Morris Bart law firm, which represents 70% of the plaintiffs.

"The vast majority of these people who had to get any kind of medical treatment from their time at the warehouse, they can't do anything without creating a problem with Medicare," Hemmer said. "Ironically, the people who will most easily be able to get their share are the ones that had the fewest injuries."

Another warehouse evacuee showed the newspaper a copy of paperwork he received in early October. It said he would receive $825 instead of the full $1,000 payout, with the remainder held back for legal fees to the Morris Bart law firm.

"I really believe they're going to steal all the money they can," Ayo said of the lawyers.

After his mother-in-law was released from the hospital, Ayo said he and his wife took care of her until her passing, no longer trusting nursing homes to look after her. He believes the warehouse ordeal accelerated her decline.

169 former patients have died since storm

Attorneys for the class emphasized the age and infirmity of Dean's patients last year as they pushed for Mentz to swiftly approve the settlement, and they predicted checks could go out to patients before the end of last year.

Alario is among at least 169 of Dean's former patients who have since died, their ages ranging from 58 to 102, Knight said. Hemmer said he's heard from multiple families in the past two weeks about losing loved ones.

"Everyone's anxious for this to be done," he said.

Hemmer said it's a judgment call as to whether it's worth extending the deadline to give more of Dean's former patients a chance at a piece of the settlement.

Knight said he has yet to determine how much each individual will be paid in the end, based on the extent of their injuries. That will depend on the final roster of claimants, with the new deadline likely to change the calculus.

"You can't decide who's getting paid what until you figure out who the who's are," Hemmer said.

The total settlement figure, meanwhile, has risen by $1.2 million, to a little over $13 million, after a settlement was reached last month with another insurance company.

In September, Mentz approved the release of 30% of the more than $2 million in attorneys' fees he had previously approved, as well as their expenses.