AAJ Urges Further Steps in CMS Nursing Home Disclosure of Ownership Rule

Washington, DC  — The American Association for Justice (AAJ) submitted comments in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) formal rulemaking process for the nursing home disclosure of ownership proposed rule. As advocates for nursing home residents and their families, trial lawyers often see the consequences of negligent quality of care that worsens when a facility is purchased by a private equity entity. Such purchases are more and more prevalent leading to a rapid decline in care quality, higher costs charged to Medicare and taxpayers, staffing cuts and ultimately, abuse of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens.
 
AAJ recommended in filed comments some ways CMS might strengthen the rule:
Require annual reports from nursing homes instead of every five years as is currently required.   Make available a public database which would allow the entities having common ownership of nursing homes and entities exercising managing control over facilities to be identified and tracked. Require the disclosure of a detailed ownership structure, such as in the form of a diagram, would allow the public and government regulators a clear illustration of how the SNF/NF is organized.
"There needs to be a full and thorough accounting for who is in charge and who is profiting from our nation's corporate nursing homes," said AAJ President Tad Thomas. "This rule is a great first step to bring transparency to the complicated, secretive ownership structures of these entities that receive billions of dollars of taxpayer funds each year."
AAJ’s comments read, in part:
"Many skilled nursing facilities (SNF)/nursing facilities (NF) are part of much larger nursing home chains that provide a wide range of benefits for their owners. The two main benefits of creating these complex corporate structures is the ability to maximize tax benefits, and limit both the nursing home and their parent companies from liability. This complex layout also makes it more difficult for government regulators to provide sufficient oversight of nursing home chains. It is also difficult to assess the actual profit margins of the SNF/NF because those assets are being moved to other entities that are still under the control of the parent company."
Full comments are available here .

CONTACT Carly Moore Sfregola Email: Carly.Sfregola@justice.org Phone: 202.684.9609