ST. LOUIS — Prosecutors said he was a sham of a nurse, who managed to get a job at not one, but three St. Louis area health care facilities.
"They're supposed to be credentially checked, so that does kind of bother me," said Becky Cebulski, who was visiting a friend at the Quarters of Des Peres nursing home.
Benjamin Dannemann pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges of healthcare fraud, social security fraud and aggravated identity fraud.
Prosecutors said from 2017 to 2018, he used the name of a licensed registered nurse to get nursing jobs at Sherbrooke Village in St. Louis County, the Rehabilitation Institute of St. Louis and Quarters of Des Peres nursing home in Des Peres.
"They have to have their licenses I mean the licenses are supposed to get checked," said Cebulski.
But in this case, Danneman never held a nursing license or any license allowing him to provide medical services, documents said.
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He also hasn't received any other education that would qualify him to provide medical or healthcare services of any kind.
Danneman's biggest gig was at the Quarters of Des Peres nursing home.
There he made nearly $70,000 as the assistant director of nursing.
His day-to-day duties included supervision of floor nurses and direct patient care, including administering medication.
Cebulski felt there may be another issue as far as the patients are concerned.
"Talk with CMS Medicare because I don't know if that would be considered fraud and CMS needs to be aware if they're not," said Cebulski.
MGM Healthcare owns Quarters Des Peres nursing home.
They sent 5 On Your Side this statement:
“Mr. Danneman used fraud, forgery, and identity theft to gain illegal access to several health care facilities in this area, including The Quarters at Des Peres. Thankfully, Mr. Danneman only worked at The Quarters at Des Peres for a few weeks, and we have confirmed that no residents or staff were harmed during his short tenure. Mr. Danneman circumvented the facility’s industry-standard pre-hire background checks—which included verification with Missouri’s Employment Disqualification List, the Family Care Safety Registry, the OIG exclusion list, and Nurses License Verification—by using a stolen identity, including a forged driver license. Shortly after he started working, the facility terminated Mr. Danneman, and after we discovered that he had forged facility checks, management called the authorities. We are thankful for the authorities’ help, and we will continue to keep our residents’ safety as the highest priority.”