Who Are We?
Sep 23rd, 2007 at 6:05 am by Susie
When I read stories like this, I think about Michael Moore’s question in “Sicko”: Who are we?
Who are we that our sick elders, the most vulnerable among us, are left to the mercies of for-profit corporations? What does that say about us? What does it say about this nation’s unquestioning adoration of the free market at the expense of human beings?
Those investors include prominent private equity firms like Warburg Pincus and the Carlyle Group, better known for buying companies like Dunkin’ Donuts.
As such investors have acquired nursing homes, they have often reduced costs, increased profits and quickly resold facilities for significant gains.
But by many regulatory benchmarks, residents at those nursing homes are worse off, on average, than they were under previous owners, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data collected by government agencies from 2000 to 2006.
The Times analysis shows that, as at Habana, managers at many other nursing homes acquired by large private investors have cut expenses and staff, sometimes below minimum legal requirements.
Regulators say residents at these homes have suffered. At facilities owned by private investment firms, residents on average have fared more poorly than occupants of other homes in common problems like depression, loss of mobility and loss of ability to dress and bathe themselves, according to data collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
It is incredibly worrisome…it is like we are jettisoning the poorest and sickest.
I blogged this and the Loewe story here:
http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2007/09/expose_on_some.html
and here:
http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2007/09/survival_of_the.html
Ouch. The timing for this story couldn’t be worse for the Carlyle Group, which is busy finalizing the largest-ever buyout of a nursing home chain, its $6.3 billion buyout of HCR Manor Care. It would be nice if Carlyle used the buyout to prove everyone wrong and improve care, given that more than 85% (!) of Manor Care facilities already report CNA staffing levels below 2.8 hours per resident day—a standard identified in a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services study as necessary to properly care for residents. Unfortunately, so far it looks like more of the same – “more profits, less nursing” – the takeover will result in a windfall of as much as $254 million for top Manor Care execs, including as much as $186 million for CEO Paul Ormond, plus Carlyle will get millions in fees. Read more here.