Trends in Long-Term Care - U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging

2951
A couple of housekeep<strong>in</strong>g th<strong>in</strong>gs. You gentlemen agreed that you
would provide this committee with a list of any bus<strong>in</strong>ess deal<strong>in</strong>gs
that Dr. Bergman had with Rabbi Twersky.
Would you be k<strong>in</strong>d enough to supply that to us with<strong>in</strong> a reasonable
time?*
Second and third, the accountant that you have used is Samuel
Dachowitz. Would you be k<strong>in</strong>d enough to have him contact the committee
and help us <strong>in</strong>terpolate some data?
I am <strong>in</strong>formed, I do not know if this is accurate or not, but that
Mr. Dachowitz could not be reached. Repeated efforts by the committee
were not successful to reach him, and we would like to have
your help <strong>in</strong> contact<strong>in</strong>g him, and <strong>in</strong> giv<strong>in</strong>g us whatever assistance we
might need <strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>terpolat<strong>in</strong>g data.
Mr. LEWIN. The best we can do is try to speak to him to get him
to cooperate. We certa<strong>in</strong>ly do not control Mr. Dachowitz, and we
cannot control his actions.
We will make that effort. Let me also s<strong>in</strong>ce we are talk<strong>in</strong>g about
housekeep<strong>in</strong>g details, not to go through it, but I th<strong>in</strong>k the committee
should also have exhibits of other documents that were taken from
the health department file, which specifically they are aga<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>
the same nature of the family tree, because the health department
is part of its profile, as appears from the file, they went through to
f<strong>in</strong>d out what the problems were with Dr. Bergman, and why this
was, this was the reason for opposition to his application, and if the
committee goes through those exhibits, I th<strong>in</strong>k you will see that they
made various allegations aga<strong>in</strong>st Dr. Bergman <strong>in</strong> regard to homes.
Senator Moss. We will accept those documents.**
Mr. HALAMANDARIS. Let me ask counsel, what your explanation is
for the apparent <strong>in</strong>accuracies <strong>in</strong> the list of homes, et cetera, supplied
by the New York Department of Health.
I have never known the department of health to be <strong>in</strong>competent
or <strong>in</strong>accurate, and I th<strong>in</strong>k it is fair that we should hear a representative
from the department of health to see what they have to say
about this matter.
Are you agreeable to that?
Mr. LEWIN. I would love to hear from them as to what their basis
is for this.
As I said the file is now public. What the file would show is that
various people at the bureaucratic civil service level determ<strong>in</strong>ed at an
early stage they did not like Dr. Bergman. They thought he had various
associations with all k<strong>in</strong>ds of nurs<strong>in</strong>g homes, and they then went
out to manufacture allegations based on their preconceptions.
Let me say <strong>in</strong> this regard, and I th<strong>in</strong>k it is important, and I th<strong>in</strong>k
it is a fact that the committee may not be totally appreciative of.
There are <strong>in</strong> the <strong>in</strong>dustry, the nurs<strong>in</strong>g home <strong>in</strong>dustry <strong>in</strong> New York,
a variety of people like Dr. Bergman, who are of the Orthodox Jewish
faith. That is a small community. There may be an association of
those with<strong>in</strong> the department of health, that everybody of the Orthodox
Jewish faith are associated with each other.
* See appendix 2, item 3, p. 2964.
** Subsequently received pursuant to committee subpena. See appendix of "<strong>Trends</strong> <strong>in</strong>
<strong>Long</strong>-Ter<strong>in</strong> <strong>Care</strong>," part 24, Feb. 4, 1975.