SEIU Applauds Key Leaders Investigating Transparency and Accountability; Hearings Also Announced at State Level

WASHINGTON, DC -- The nation's largest healthcare workers' union applauded Congressional leaders for scheduling hearings on growing problems with nursing homes. Chairman Pete Stark's (D-CA-13) House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee will examine the effects of nursing home ownership on the quality of care, especially in light of Carlyle Group's takeover of Manor Care. Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) scheduled a hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging on transparency, accountability, and policy solutions. The announcement today by the Chairmen is the latest move by Congressional leaders this month to look more deeply at problems that are affecting our nation's elderly who rely on nursing homes for day-to-day care.

On October 2, SEIU Healthcare sent letters to four Congressional committees urging them to hold hearings, exercise oversight, and consider new legislative reforms related to private equity ownership of nursing homes.

"Big buyout firms like the Carlyle Group and others should be held accountable for the impact of their actions on seniors, taxpayers, and workers,"said Gerry Hudson, Executive Vice President, SEIU Healthcare. "When Carlyle and other private equity giants buy-out nursing homes they become the owners and, as such, are directly responsible for what happens to patients. They need to be held accountable."

Echoing the concerns of Capitol Hill, lawmakers in eight states are hosting similar hearings that will examine whether the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, should receive licenses to operate the Manor Care nursing homes. Advocates, regulators, and lawmakers alike have sounded the alarm about the effect that the purely profit-driven private equity industry could have on fragile nursing home residents.

Background for Reporters  

Action on Capitol Hill this month:
On October 18, 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.

About SEIU Healthcare
With more than one million healthcare members, SEIU Healthcare is the nation's largest union of healthcare workers. With 1.9 million total members, SEIU (Service Employees International Union) is the nation's fastest growing union.

New York Times Investigation
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.

In recent years, large private investment groups have bought out 6 of the nation's 10 largest nursing home chains, containing over 141,000 beds, or 9 percent of the total number of nursing home in the nation. Private investment groups own at least another 60,000 beds at smaller chains and are expected to acquire many more companies, according to the New York Times article by Charles Duhigg, "At Many Homes, More Profits and Less Nursing,"published September 23, 2007.

More background at CarlyleFixManorCareNow.org.  

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