Nursing homes are called 'the wild, wild west' without industry standards. Who profits? Who suffers?
President Biden has fulfilled his promise to "protect seniors' lives" with his latest push to ensure that nursing homes, serving 1.2 million seniors, are sufficiently staffed around the clock. Check the quality of care your loved one is getting at their nursing home with this map.
More than 200,000 residents and staff in long-term care facilities have died since the start of the pandemic because of COVID-19. "It's a big change in the sense that the industry hasn't had to follow particular standards. And it's been the wild, wild west when it comes to quality and accountability at nursing homes throughout the country. What we're simply saying is we don't want the wild, wild west when we send our loved ones." - Xavier Becerra, the secretary of Health and Human Service Secretary. - NPR
Exploiting Nursing Homes and Medicare: The Shocking Path to Wealth
"While Glenn was at the Carlyle Group, the company took control over HCR Manor Care, a nursing home chain with 281 facilities in 30 states. In 2011, according to the Washington Post, Carlyle finalized the transaction by extracting “$1.3 billion from the company for investors,” leaving the company with huge debts.
Part of the deal included laying off hundreds of staff. According to former HCR ManorCare staff, the company was so short-staffed, patients regularly soiled themselves while waiting for staff to help them to the bathroom. In addition, patients suffered broken bones, brain hemorrhage, opioid overdose, and more. An increasing amount of health code violations occurred as well. All because Glenn Youngkin and the Carlyle Group wanted to make a buck." - Progress Virginia
Medicare fraud case
Florida Senator Rick Scott, controversy has been a theme. Scott has had previous issues with Medicare. Amid his unclear plan for Social Security and Medicare, people are recalling his past issues with such programs. Scott's healthcare and medicare fraud situation is coming back to haunt him. In 1987, Scott started Columbia, which was a hospital company (which later became Columbia/HCA). As the years passed, Scott added hospitals, centers for surgery, and other health locations to the HCA network. In 1997, an investigation was launched after records were seized that were indicative of Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Scott resigned shortly after the investigation started, but he couldn't escape it altogether.
Prior to his resignation, several warrants were issued that granted the federal government permission to search hospitals that were owned by Columbia/HCA. The warrants also included hospitals previously owned by the company. As part of his resignation, Scott received $300 million in stock, $10 million in cash, and $5 million, which was quite the severance pay. According to PolitiFact, the investigation revealed a slew of offenses." - Market Realist
TakeAway: Hold politicians accountable for profiting from cutting Medicare and nursing home quality of care.
Deepak
DemLabs
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