March 9, 2020 – Over the last several years, it has become increasingly evident that too many nursing home residents are at risk of experiencing poor care because of fundamental problems with a facility’s ownership, management, and finances. This trend is supported most recently by the dramatic collapse of Skyline Healthcare and the shocking bankruptcy of HCR ManorCare. Such high-profile cases of nursing home chain closures and bankruptcies raise serious questions about the standards by which federal and state governments evaluate potential and existing nursing home owners.
Today, the Long Term Care Community Coalition (LTCCC) is publishing a report on nursing home ownership. The report, entitled Meaningful Safeguards: Promising Practices & Recommendations for Evaluating Nursing Home Owners, identifies promising practices among states for evaluating nursing home owners for state licensure and provides essential principles for improving accountability and integrity in the licensure process. Our organization encourages federal and state policymakers to use this report as a guideline for developing meaningful legislation and regulations. Consumers can speak out in support of these measures by writing to their representatives via our Action Center.
The report is divided into four sections:
- A brief background on federal certification requirements;
- An overview of promising state practices for evaluating a nursing home owner’s application for licensure;
- A summary of the promising practices; and
- LTCCC’s essential principles for improving government licensing requirements.
The report offers essential principles for issues involving ownership disclosure, financial capacity, leases or subleases, character and fitness, management, change of ownership, and criminal liability.
Following is an example of an essential principle from the report:
Applicants must publish notice of their intent to acquire a nursing home 90 days before the effective date of the change of ownership. The notice must include the names and address of any individual or entity with a prospective ownership interest in the facility. The notice must describe any planned changes to the facility’s operations. The notice must indicate that any individual may request a public hearing or submit comments to the Department on the change of ownership within 21 calendar days of the licensee’s notification.
Long Term Care Community Coalition
www.nursinghome411.org
One Penn Plaza, Suite 6252
New York, NY 10119
United States