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Nursing Home Care Suffers Under Private Equity

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A survey of complaints against more than 16,000 U.S. nursing homes found that care often deteriorates after being acquired by large private investment firms, The New York Times reported in its September 23 edition.

Monday, September 24, 2007

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A survey of complaints against more than 16,000 U.S. nursing homes found that care often deteriorates after being acquired by large private investment firms, The New York Times reported in its September 23 edition.

The Times compared the number of complaints received against 1,200 nursing homes acquired by these for-profit firms against those of 14,000 other nursing homes.

It found that, on average, residents of private equity-owned homes received worse care than before the takeover, according to data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Expenses and staff were cut at about 60 percent of the homes purchased by private equity, sometimes well below minimum legal requirements, the Times found.

The investigation singled out Habana Heath Care Center, a 150-bed nursing home in Tampa, Florida, for poor care. The home and 48 others were bought in 2002 by a group of large private investment firms that the Times said included Warburg Pincus.

Other investors in nursing homes include the Carlyle Group.

(Reporting by Sarah Coffey)

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