With political concerns growing in Congress, caregivers and advocates to visit Capitol Hill Tuesday, ask Congress to hold hearings on private equity ownership of nursing homes

***MEDIA ADVISORY FOR MON. OCT. 22***

WASHINGTON, DC- With political concerns growing rapidly on Capitol Hill and in key states about the impact of private equity buyouts of nursing homes, a national caravan of caregivers and senior advocates will arrive in D.C. on Monday, Oct. 22, where they will hold a demonstration at the Pennsylvania Ave. headquarters of the Carlyle Group. Carlyle is in the process of taking over the nation's largest nursing home chain, HCR Manor Care. There is growing concern that the $6.3 billion buyout could come at the expense of seniors, taxpayers, and workers.

WHAT: Demonstration calling on Carlyle to put seniors above profits
WHEN: 12 Noon, Monday October 22, 2007
WHERE: Outside Carlyle Group headquarters
1001 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, D.C.
WHO: National caravan of caregivers, family members, and patient advocates

At the Monday demonstration, nursing home family members, workers, and senior advocates will speak out about the need to ensure safe staffing levels and improve nursing home care in the Manor Care buyout and form a delegation to deliver a petition to Carlyle management. Manor Care runs 11 nursing homes in the D.C. metro area -  eight nursing homes in Montgomery and Prince George's counties, one in Arlington County, and two in Fairfax County.

This week, the bipartisan leadership of the Senate Finance Committee sent letters to the Carlyle Group and other four other private equity firms asking for information related to their ownership and management of nursing homes. Sens. Baucus (D-Mont.) and Grassley (R-Iowa) also sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) asking the federal agency responsible for overseeing nursing home inspections to account for a report of higher health and safety violations in nursing homes that have been bought by private equity investors. Earlier this month Sens. Charles Grassley and Hillary Clinton separately requested investigations of the issue by the Government Accountability Office. On October 2, SEIU Healthcare called on Congress to hold hearings and consider new legislative reforms related to private equity ownership of nursing homes.

Monday's demonstration will conclude a week-long caravan that began this week after Manor Care shareholders voted to approve the buyout. The caravan made whistlestops in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland at Manor Care nursing homes and churches where the group highlighted concerns about the buyout's impact on seniors, taxpayers, and nursing home workers. The caravan is being organized by the nation's largest healthcare workers union, SEIU Healthcare.

Coalitions of patient advocates, community and elected leaders and workers in states where Manor Care has operations including Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Florida, Wisconsin, and Washington state formed earlier this month to fight for safe staffing levels and improved patient care in the Carlyle Manor Care takeover. The multi-state effort is the largest ever public campaign focused on the impact of a private equity buyout on people's lives.  More info is available at www.CarlyleFixManorCareNow.org

A recent front page expos by the New York Times detailed how cuts to staffing and operations at nursing homes bought by private equity firms across the country have enriched top executives and buyout firms but left nursing home residents worse off. Read the article here.

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