Nursing home cited for poor care allegedly owes half a million dollars to vendors

A troubled western Iowa nursing home is being sued by four different vendors for an alleged failure to pay more than half a million dollars in fees for management and patient-care services.

Since January 2019, Sioux City’s 125-bed Touchstone Healthcare Community has been cited for 106 regulatory violations and subjected to $195,000 in federal fines. The home currently owes $11,000 in unpaid federal fines, according to state records.

Touchstone was designated one of the nation’s worst care facilities in recent years, having been on the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services’ list of Special-Focus Facilities for four years before dropping off the list this year. Typically, homes that are eligible for special-focus status have about twice the average number of violations cited by state inspectors. As of last October, only two other nursing homes in the nation had spent more time on the Special-Focus Facility list than Touchstone.

The most recent lawsuit against Touchstone and its owner, Indian Hills Health Care, was filed this week in U.S. District Court by Health Dimensions Consulting, a Minnesota company.

HDC alleges it was hired by Touchstone in 2019 to provide an on-site, full-time administrator for the facility in return for $33,000 per month or 5.5% of the home’s gross monthly revenue, whichever was greater.

According to HDC, Touchstone paid the fees until May 2021, at which point all payments stopped. The Minnesota company is now seeking payment for $129,000 in management fees. Touchtone and its owners have yet to file a response to the lawsuit.

In state court, Touchstone and Indian Hills are being sued by Key Rehabilitation of Tennessee for an alleged failure to pay $83,688 in bills related to patient-care services. Indian Hills admits having received the invoices for payment, but claims it never received any services that warranted payment. A trial in that case is scheduled for November.

Touchstone and Indian Hills are also being sued in state court by Helping Hands Nursing Solutions, a Woodbury County company that provides nursing homes with temporary employees. According to Helping Hands, the care facility stopped paying invoices in March 2021 and now owes Helping Hands There $270,617. Touchstone and Indian Hills have denied the allegation, and a trial is scheduled for August.

Touchstone is also being sued by a health care consultant, William Watson of Indiana, who claims he is owed $32,252 by the home and its affiliates. Touchstone has yet to respond to that claim and no trial date has been set.

Last year, a court entered a default judgment against Touchstone for $5,463 in a case filed by another temporary-staffing agency, Nextaff Camillus Staffing.

State records indicate Indian Hills was organized and incorporated by Sioux City developer James C. Johnson in 2019. Johnson and Touchstone Administrator Greg Gregerson could not be reached for comment Wednesday.