Missouri Nursing Home Worker Accused of Financial Exploitation
According to a report posted on therolladailynews.com, a Missouri nursing home worker faces one count of forgery, one count of stealing by deceit, and one count of abuse of a person receiving health care. Connie Jean Beckerman admitted to forging checks and stealing money from the Perryville Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center.
Beckerman was a bookkeeper at the facility. The report states that Beckerman forged the nursing home administrator’s name on several checks written for cash amounting to more than $14,500. Beckerman would then keep the money herself for personal use. The victims of these crimes were the Medicaid recipients residing at the Perry Oaks Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center. This incident had been occurring between September of 2006 and October of 2007. Beckerman faces sentencing on August 13th.
Financial fraud of any sort is a very serious crime, but when it happens to someone in the care of an elder care facility, the crime seems far more disastrous. Forging checks and essentially stealing Medicaid funds from the nursing home prevents the nursing home from being able to provide the proper care for residents. It is stealing medical monetary resources that should be going to those individuals living in nursing homes and assisted living centers because they are the ones that truly need the financing for their medical care.
