Central Kentucky nursing home tried to falsify time cards to avoid audit, lawsuit says
A former payroll and human resources worker at a Madison County nursing home has filed a lawsuit alleging facility officials falsified time cards to avoid being flagged by state investigators.
Ashley Ingram, of Winchester, filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Madison Health and Rehabilitation Center, administrator Jim Jarman and director of nursing Crystal Ellington.
In the lawsuit, filed in Madison Circuit Court, Ingram claimed she was forced to resign from her job after officials tried to make her sign off on fraudulent time cards and she refused.
The Madison Health and Rehabilitation Center, located in Richmond, had just been removed from “special focus” status with the state government, according to Ingram’s lawsuit. A special focus facility faces increased oversight because of poor care or compliance violations. These facilities can be given increased penalties for additional issues, to the point of potentially not receiving funding from Medicaid and Medicare.
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the facility to have been placed under special focus.
The nursing home went more than a week without a registered nurse on staff, according to the lawsuit, which is a violation of state law. When Jarman and Ellington discovered the issue, they intentionally forged schedules to avoid an audit, the lawsuit says.
Ingram is suing for negligence, wrongful termination, retaliation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The Herald-Leader was direct to Jarman for comment, but they were not available prior to publication.
Nursing director wrote in fake times on payroll cards, lawsuit says
Ingram was hired as a payroll and human resources manager April 1, according to the lawsuit.
As part of this role, she was tasked with turning in the nursing facility’s payroll to state and federal departments.
The lawsuit said Jarman and Elllington discussed what nurse employee names could be put into the payroll system to “falsely represent (nursing) coverage for shifts during which no compliant coverage had actually occurred.”
According to the lawsuit, Ellington handwrote false time on paper time cards, which are used for instances when employees forget to punch in or out, the lawsuit states.
As payroll manager, Ingram would have been required to sign off on the time cards to confirm they were accurate. She refused, and resigned the same day.
Ingram formally reported the incident to the Office of the Inspector General and state officials. It wasn’t immediately clear what the status was of those reports.
This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 1:43 PM.
