By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis – Federal prosecutors have joined a whistleblower lawsuit against the owner of several nursing homes in the St. Louis area.
U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said Cathedral Rock Corporation, based in Fort Worth, Tex., failed to provide proper care and sent false bills to the government.
Hanaway said residents of five Cathedral Rock facilities suffered from dehydration and preventable wounds.
"At least one patient was found with a pressure sore that had maggots crawling out of it," Hanaway said. "This is a terrible case of a nursing home company not providing the care that they represented to Medicare and Medicaid."
An investigation of Cathedral Rock began nearly four years ago, after two nurses filed a whistleblower suit.
However that investigation was not made public until Thursday.
An attorney for the company did not immediately return calls for comment.