Hundreds of adult family home caregivers have learned they may NOT be legally licensed!

WA State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Tuesday a suit has been filed and fines assessed against a Pierce County couple, for allegedly selling bogus nursing home credentials.

Ferguson said since 2012, Dennis and Jennifer Lalander violated the state Consumer Protection Act by selling 'home-study' packets and pre-signed certificates claiming to satisfy state requirements.

Caregivers who work in adult family homes (residential homes used as nursing homes for elderly or invalid patients) are required to complete 12 hours of special training and continuing education each year.  According to Ferguson, the Lalanders deceived hundreds, possibly thousands of workers:

"The Lalanders began operating their company, Adult Family Home Training, in 2012, but were never authorized by DSHS to provide continuing education.

The Lalanders had a simple business model.  They kept records of when individual adult family home employees needed to update their CE with DSHS. When the deadline loomed, the Lalanders phoned the employee or their manager and offered to sell a training packet and pre-signed certificate of completion. The Lalanders represented that the purchase of their materials satisfied DSHS’s CE requirement. However, when adult family home managers or employees tried to submit the certificates to DSHS, they discovered the certificates were invalid.

The packets were sold at $72 for the full 12-hour certification, or $8 per credit hour for fewer than 12 hours. The Lalanders told AGO investigators they sold five to ten training packets per week until they stopped offering them at the end of 2013. The AGO believes hundreds of employees bought these bogus certificates."  (Bold lettering added for emphasis).

Besides an injunction forbidding the Lalanders from engaging in any further business concerning DSHS, adult family or nursing homes, the could face fines amounting to at least $2,000 per infraction - that could result in hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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