In These Times: Selling Out Grandma

[marmar]

News > January 21, 2008
Selling Out Grandma
By Emily Udell


In late 2007, the investment firm The Carlyle Group purchased one of the country’s largest nursing home chains despite the concerns of regulators, lawmakers and workers’ groups that the acquisition would lead to staffing cuts and cause a decline in quality of care for residents. The $6.3 million purchase of Toledo, Ohio-based Manor Care Inc. closed after a Michigan judge lifted a restraining order that temporarily halted the sale.

“The problem is, in the nursing home industry, making money means cutting care,” says Julie Eisenhardt, a spokeswoman for Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents employees at about 15 Manor Care homes and which spearheaded a campaign to raise awareness about the buyout.

In 2006, Manor Care, which operates more than 500 nursing, rehabilitation and assisted living facilities in 32 states, posted $167 million in profits and $3.6 billion in revenues. Manor Care shareholders were slated to get $67 for each share as part of the deal.

The Carlyle Group has holdings in several industries, including healthcare, defense and energy. Former President George H.W. Bush was one of its advisers until 2003.

Officials from both firms have denied plans to reduce staffing or slash services following the takeover, and have said Manor Care will continue to be run as it was before the buyout. “There’s not going to be a cut in staff and there’s no reason for quality to go down,” says Rick Rump, a spokesman for Manor Care. “Carlyle is going to realize a return in investment by our company growing and becoming a better provider of healthcare.”

The deal’s critics also say investment companies create Byzantine ownership structures that impede regulation and shield the firms from accountability for negligent care or wrongful death accusations. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3486/selling_out_grandma/

[OneBlueSky]

1. “The problem is, in the nursing home industry, making money means cutting care” . . .

and so it is throughout the VERY profitable healthcare industry . . . the same people/companies who, btw, are contributing tons of money to certain presidential campaigns . . .

universal healthcare? . . . forget it . . .

[KansDem]

2. This is a big worry of mine.

I turn 55 later this month and the thought of lying in some urine-soaked bed unable to move while expression-less staff, who only six months earlier learned on TeeVee of an "exciting career in the nursing-home industry," move about, going through only the motions required on their job descriptions.

Makes me hope that I have at least one working arm and my S&W .357 lying on my nightstand.