Some Nursing Homes Are Shaky: Hearing Witnesses

Some states do look at a corporate nursing home owner’s financial and management capacity, but others do not, Smetanka said.

In 2018, Smetanka said, the collapse of one large corporate owner affected nursing homes in eight states.

States had to step in and take control over the nursing homes through receivership proceedings, “to make sure the residents received food and care,” Smetanka said. “Thousands of residents and facility staff have been affected, suffering through poor living and working conditions, facing loss of home and jobs as many of the facilities are closing, some in communities where alternative options are limited or nonexistent.”

Smetanka said Congress should do the following to protect consumers against the collapse of nursing home owners:

• Give CMS authority to regulate the corporate owners, not just individual nursing homes.
• Establish minimum owner or management standards for nursing home owners that want to serve Medicare or Medicaid patients.
• Exclude corporate owners that fail to comply with nursing home closure requirements from participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs for a specified period of years.
• Require detailed reports on nursing home related-party companies and owners.

Resources

Links to Senate Finance elder justice hearing documents, including a video recording of the hearing, are available here.

— Read 7 Cities Where Nursing Homes Let Patients Get Bedsores, on ThinkAdvisor.

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