The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has moved to revoke the licenses of all 12 RegalCare nursing homes in the state, finding that their owner, Eliyahu “Eli” Mirlis, is “neither suitable nor responsible” to run a long-term care facility. About 1,300 people live in those homes, according to DPH. The homes are not closing now, and no one has to move. Here is what the state’s notice says, how the process works, and what families can do.
What DPH did
On October 13, 2026, Public Health Commissioner Robert Goldstein issued a Notice of Intended Agency Action to Mirlis. The notice, which WWLP published in full, says DPH intends to revoke the licenses for these facilities under 105 CMR 153.014:
| Facility | Town | CMS overall rating (Oct. 8, 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| RegalCare at Blackstone Valley | Whitinsville | 3 stars |
| RegalCare at Courtyard Medford | Medford | 1 star |
| RegalCare at Glen Ridge | Medford | 1 star |
| RegalCare at Greenfield | Greenfield | 2 stars |
| RegalCare at Harwich | Harwich | 3 stars |
| RegalCare at Holyoke | Holyoke | 1 star |
| RegalCare at Lowell | Lowell | 1 star |
| RegalCare at Quincy | Quincy | 1 star |
| RegalCare at Sudbury | Sudbury | 2 stars |
| RegalCare at Wakefield | Wakefield | 1 star |
| RegalCare at Worcester | Worcester | 2 stars |
| RegalCare at Taunton | Taunton | 1 star |
The ratings are as listed in the DPH notice. DPH also refused to renew the Lowell license, which expires October 31, 2026. The notice says three RegalCare homes, Glen Ridge, Wakefield and Taunton, are on the federal Special Focus Facility candidate list of the 10 poorest performing nursing homes in Massachusetts.
The three grounds
1. Answers on license applications. The notice says New Jersey’s nursing home administrator licensing board revoked Mirlis’s administrator license on or about August 10, 2018. Each Massachusetts application to acquire a facility asked whether any owner had “a professional license revoked,” and “No” was checked, the notice says. Each application was signed under the pains and penalties of perjury. DPH calls each answer “a fraudulent misrepresentation” and says it relied on those answers when it found him suitable and issued the licenses. The Boston Globe Spotlight team reported last month that Mirlis held himself out as a licensed administrator after the New Jersey revocation, according to WBUR and State House News Service.
2. The billing settlement. In February 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office sued RegalCare’s management companies, ten facilities, Mirlis and another executive under the federal and state False Claims Acts. According to the DPH notice, the parties settled on September 23, 2026, and the defendants “admitted and accepted responsibility for billing MassHealth and Medicare for the provision of medically unreasonable and unnecessary skilled nursing services.”
3. Quality of care. DPH says it has conducted about 90 inspections at the 12 homes in three years, with four findings of “immediate jeopardy,” the federal term for noncompliance that has caused or is likely to cause serious injury, harm or death. The notice lists them: Harwich in March 2022, Lowell in March 2025 and again in March 2026, and Taunton in May 2025. Each led to a freeze on admissions that was later lifted after DPH found the problems corrected.
The legal standard: “suitable and responsible”
The notice relies on DPH’s licensing regulation for long-term care facilities, 105 CMR 153.000, as quoted in the notice:
- Under 105 CMR 153.014, grounds to deny, revoke or refuse to renew a license include that the licensee “is not suitable or responsible to operate a long-term care facility” and that “there has been a finding of jeopardy in the long-term care facility.”
- Under 153.012(A), each of these alone is enough to find a licensee not suitable: having “acted in a manner resulting in jeopardy to the health, safety or welfare of residents,” or having “maintained a substandard level of care” in Massachusetts or elsewhere.
- Under 153.012(B), factors with “significant bearing” include obtaining or trying to obtain a license “by fraud or misrepresentation or by submitting false information,” and having a nursing home administrator license “suspended, revoked or denied.”
DPH says it is also adopting new regulations under the 2024 long-term care law that let it look more broadly at an operator’s history in other states, civil litigation and finances.
What happens next
- 30 days to ask for a hearing. Mirlis has 30 days from receiving the notice to request an adjudicatory hearing. If he does not, the revocations become final, the notice says.
- A hearing at DALA. If he requests one, the case goes to the Division of Administrative Law Appeals, an independent state agency. A magistrate holds the hearing and makes a recommended decision. The Public Health Commissioner then adopts it or makes additional findings and issues the final decision, according to DPH.
- A 10-year bar. If revocation is upheld, the operator is barred from running a facility in Massachusetts for 10 years, DPH says. Other states may act on his licenses there too.
- A transition to a new owner. DPH says its goal is to move the homes to “a new, responsible owner who can provide stability and continuity of care,” not to close them.
We did not find a public response from Mirlis or RegalCare to the notice. Neither has had a hearing on DPH’s findings, and the factual statements in the notice are the department’s. A final decision has not been made.
If your family member lives in a RegalCare home
- No one has to move now. The department’s action does not require the facilities to close or residents to relocate, the Cape Cod Times reported, and Goldstein told the Public Health Council the same, according to WBUR. DPH says monitors are now in every RegalCare facility, visiting more often where concerns are highest.
- Check the ratings yourself. CMS Care Compare and DPH’s Nursing Home Survey Performance Tool are public. The notice gives each home’s DPH score; the statewide average is 114 of a possible 132, and Glen Ridge (84) and Courtyard Medford (89) are lowest.
- Families can ask for a receiver. Under G.L. c. 111, § 72N, which we read at malegislature.gov, DPH or the Attorney General can ask the Superior Court to appoint a receiver to run a nursing home. A resident or a resident’s guardian may also petition DPH or the Attorney General to seek a receivership. If they deny it or do not act within five days, the resident or guardian can file suit in Superior Court for appointment of a receiver “or other appropriate relief.”
- Report problems. Complaints about care go to DPH’s Division of Health Care Facility Licensure and Certification, which the notice says investigates complaints with on-site and off-site surveys.
Frequently asked questions
Are the RegalCare nursing homes closing?
Not now. DPH says the notice does not mean the facilities are closing or that residents must relocate. Its stated goal is a transition to a new owner.
Why is Massachusetts revoking RegalCare’s licenses?
DPH found owner Eliyahu Mirlis not suitable or responsible, citing answers on his license applications that did not disclose a 2018 New Jersey administrator license revocation, a 2026 settlement in which the defendants admitted billing MassHealth and Medicare for unnecessary skilled nursing services, and four immediate jeopardy findings at the homes.
Can RegalCare appeal?
Yes. Mirlis has 30 days to request an adjudicatory hearing before the Division of Administrative Law Appeals. The Public Health Commissioner issues the final decision.
What can a resident’s family do?
Monitor care and ratings, report problems to DPH, and, under G.L. c. 111, section 72N, petition DPH or the Attorney General to seek a court-appointed receiver, with the right to go to Superior Court if they do not act within five days.
Sources: Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Notice of Intended Agency Action to Eliyahu Mirlis, October 13, 2026, as published by WWLP; DPH, “General information regarding RegalCare and DPH actions,” mass.gov; WBUR and Worcester Business Journal (State House News Service), and Cape Cod Times, October 14, 2026. Regulation text from 105 CMR 153.012 and 153.014 as quoted in the DPH notice. G.L. c. 111, section 72N, read at malegislature.gov. The findings described are DPH’s and have not been adjudicated. General information, not legal advice.