Nursing home sale concerns officials (Carlyle Group)

[Omaha Steve]

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071015/NEWS01/710150380

AP

COLUMBUS - State officials are voicing concern that a private equity firm in the process of buying a troubled family of nursing homes in Ohio will only maintain the status quo and not address problems and staffing levels in the facilities.

The Carlyle Group is expected to complete it's $6.3 billion purchase of HCR Manor Care by the end of the year, provided shareholders agree to the deal in a vote on Wednesday.

Toledo-based HCR Manor Care operates 44 nursing homes caring for 5,100 people in Ohio and has been under close watch by state authorities.

Officials fear that recent problems could continue under the ownership of Carlyle, which owns Dunkin' Donuts and Hertz, but it's only health care related venture is Lifecare, a nationwide chain of 21 long-term care hospitals.

"These aren't the kind of nursing homes that they can just take over and keep status quo," said Beverly Laubert, long-term care ombudsman for the Ohio Department of Aging. "When you have facilities with such quality problems, someone is going to have to fix them. "

State investigators have found instances in which residents at HRC Manor Care facilities did not receive proper care, including instances in which residents didn't receive physician-ordered lab tests or the proper treatment for incontinence, hampering their ability to progress toward using the bathroom on their own.

FULL story at link.

[OzarkDem]

1. Manor Care owned by Ohio GOP donors

some of whom were mixed up in the Tom Noe scandals. A special price fixing scheme the GOP passed in Ohio during Taft and Voinovich's years, required the state to reimburse nursing homes at a high level, even requiring them to pay for beds that weren't even being used. The reimbursement scam was written into law, separate from the budget.

Nursing homes in Ohio became a big campaign money laundering machine, along with Noe's Bureau of Worker's Comp and, some say, the Ohio Turnpike System. All the investigations into these schemes were tied up by GOP federal prosecutor Greg White who gave away lots of immunity to crooks who didn't need it and stopped many from testifying.

Enter Dem Gov. Ted Strickland who said from the start that he was going to put a stop to the nursing home / Medicaid reimbursement scam. I don't know how far he's been able to cut the funding for the GOP money laundering machine, but it appears the big bosses have had to step in and take over.

GOP was taking cash out of Ohio by the freight-carload during Voinovich and Taft's tenures. We'll probably never get to the bottom of it.