Playing Hide-and-Seek at the Nursing Home

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It kind-of reminded me of a board game.

Last year, the New York Times began running a series of investigative reports on how businesses were profiting off of our aging seniors.  A couple of months ago, one of the articles in particular caught my eye.  The Times reported that in the last few years, many of the nursing homes purchased by investor groups  were generally providing inferior care while shielding themselves from regulators and litigation by creating intricate structures of shell companies and subsidiaries. 

So, lets say something happens to your loved one, and suddenly it's like you’re in some wacky board game, moving your piece through the complicated structure of private investors, trying to figure out who’s responsible for the bedsores or clogged tracheotomy tubes.

But this is not a bizarro version of Settlers of Catan (for those of you who are not board game aficionados click here) and these scenarios, sadly enough, are not a game.  These complicated corporate structures have stymied regulators from figuring out who owns the homes, and shielded the investors from paying fines that are meant punish wrongdoings and encourage better patient care.

Fortunately there are organizations like National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform that have been tirelessly working on improving nursing home care.

And there are groups all over the country, like in Arkansas, Illinois, Tennessee and Kentucky trying to fight the nursing home industry and make sure the civil justice stays strong for seniors who have been abused or neglected.