Gracedale's Medicare Fines Climb From $80,550 to $154,330

Medicare may fine a nursing home when there's a serious health or safety violation that remains uncorrected. Gracedale was hit with two such penalties, totaling $80,550, on September 19, 2025. This appears to be related to residents who were just wandering off the premises and then being retrieved by local police. Unfortunately, and for reasons that elude me, that total has increased. 

According to Medicare, those penalties now total $154,330, nearly twice what it had been before. It is unclear to me why they have increased. They appear to be based on the same two transgressions for which Gracedale was fined on September 19, 2025. There was no public discussion of this sudden increase or what prompted it at Thursday night's County Council meeting. 

According to the Department of Health nursing home facility locator, Gracedale still has a provisional license. 

During her Executive Report, Tara Zrinski told Council last Thursday that she had visited Gracedale that very day and is grateful for everyone's dedication. "Their team is invaluable as they care for some of the most vulnerable people in that our residents there are just in some of the most challenging conditions," she said.

Zrinski did draw attention to one of the residents, Rodney Schaffer, an accredited firefighter with 23 years at The Bethlehem Steel. "They're not just residents, they had lives before they came to Gracedale, and we want to honor them as well," she observed.