Care Home Operators Deny DOH Allegations
Four people were issued an order by the health department to cease operations of two care homes in Kaneohe and fined $379,000.
Four people recently cited by state health officials for allegedly operating illegal and unlicensed care homes and a care agency in Kaneohe say they deny wrongdoing.
In late May, the Hawaii Department of Health’s Office of Health Care Assurance (OHCA) ordered April Mabe, Dwayne Nasu, Ken Arima, and Linda Fong Arima to cease and desist operations of two unlicensed care homes and a care agency and pay penalty fees totaling $379,100. The two care homes were located at 45-1117 Cobb Adams Rd.
Margery Bronster, a Honolulu former state attorney general whose firm represents them, called the Department of Health’s allegations “unsubstantiated.”
The Notices of Violation and Order “were based on a mistaken conclusion that there was some relationship between Ms. Mabe and Cobb-Adams, LLC. There is not,” she said.
Bronster said none of the parties have the ability to transfer the tenants elsewhere, as the order demands.
“It is remarkable that the Department of Health seeks to evict people with a high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19 from their homes, especially when the governor has put a stop to evictions,” Bronster said in a statement.
