Accused killer Luigi Mangione may have targeted UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson over hatred of his company’s policies — but the suspect’s own family made millions with a nursing home network that was rife with violations and complaints, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS).
The for-profit Lorien Health Services network, founded by Mangione’s affluent grandparents, touts its nine Maryland homes as idyllic places with the promise of top-class services and amenities that include restaurant-style dining, movie theaters and even beauty spas.
But at least two of the homes have been hit with low ratings by Medicare.gov for health inspections and quality-of-life issues, with one slammed with a warning label over reports of abuse.
The Lorien Nursing and Rehab Center, in Bel Air, was accused of mistreating its patients in several incidents that occurred inside the home, according to an April 2024 inspection by HSS.
The report found that on August 24, 2023, a geriatric nursing assistant (GNA) flung a call bell at a resident who needed help using the bathroom, warning the patient “not to press the button again.”
That same day, the GNA was also accused of being too rough when assisting a resident who needed to be turned over in bed, with the staff later medicating the patient with Tylenol for the pain.
While the GNA was fired over the bell-flinging incident, the HHS inspection found that the company failed in its due diligence after reviewing the nurse’s file and finding that they had not completed their annual abuse training since 2020.
The report also cited several claims from residents that the nursing staff failed to respond to their calls for assistance in a timely manner, with some waiting nearly an hour to get help.
“Based on medical record review of a complaint and a facility reported incident, review of medical records and interview with staff, it was determined that the facility failed to ensure that a resident was free from mental and physical abuse,” the report concludes.
Overall, the Bel Air facility has been hit with 24 health citations over the last six years, nearly three times more than the national average of 9.6 citations.
Lorien’s Columbia facility, meanwhile, had to pay a $24,680 fine in July following an HHS inspection that found a plethora of health and safety violations in the nursing home.
The July report also recorded a slew of incidents throughout the year in which staff regularly mismanaged patients’ health care needs and failed to communicate with each other, the residents or the families of the residents.
The mismanagement caused moments of distress for the patients, including one incident in which a resident who needed help getting dressed was left alone and naked on a bed when another patient of the opposite gender walked into the room.
In June, Lorien Health Services also agreed to pay the federal government $55,192 for allegedly violating the Civil Monetary Penalties Law by retaining the services of an unlicensed individual, the Daily Mail reports.
The Office of Inspector General for the HSS claimed Lorien “allegedly submitted claims for services provided by an individual impersonating licensed nursing staff, using stolen credentials.”
Officials also said that “after Lorien learned the employee was an imposter and unlicensed, Lorien failed to timely report and return to Medicare and Medicaid payments received for services furnished by the employee.”
A spokesman for the company told The Post that the status of abuse cited for the Bel Air location was being disputed and the fines paid by Lorien over the violations are but a tiny fraction of the millions paid by similar facilities across the state.
“For 47 years, Lorien has excelled at providing unparalleled assisted living and nursing home care for our residents,” Lou Grimmel Sr., CEO for Lorien Health Services, said in a statement.
“We have been guided by our founders’ pride of ownership and their principal value that ‘we are family taking care of families, friends, and neighbors.’
“We embrace this mantra every day along with our CareForward approach, which grows from our team embracing innovation, new techniques, and professional care that set us apart from the pack,” Grimmel added.
Mangione’s grandmother, Mary, who left the family some $30 million in a trust, was not named personally in any of the federal documents.
Despite the troubles faced at its Bel Air and Columbia locations, the company is still among the leaders in its industry, with Lorien named among the top 19% of nursing homes in US News & World Report’s 2025 list.
The company’s health care violations have received renewed public interest given Mangione’s alleged hatred of the industry flagged in his manifesto, according to police.
“These parasites simply had it coming,” Mangione wrote, according to law enforcement.
In his writings, Mangione railed against the “greed” of private insurers that he accused of putting their profits above the well-being of their clients.
Authorities also found engravings on the bullets used by the assassin, which appear to include the words “deny,” “depose” and “defend” — words eerily similar to a 2010 book condemning the insurance business, titled “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why insurance companies don’t pay claims and what you can do about it.”
Thompson was notably the head of the insurance division for the UnitedHealth Group, the largest private insurer in the nation with a long and controversial history of rejecting customers’ claims.
