Who Owns the Nursing Home in Your Neighborhood?

Chances are the owner is not a person or company that lives in your neighborhood. Despite attempts to appear to the contrary, many nursing homes are part of large national, or even multi-national corporate chains. Make no mistake; the nursing home industry is BIG business. Because of this, many of these corporate nursing homes are controlled by private equity firms, which have a goal of maximizing profits.

While being a for-profit nursing home chain doesn’t necessarily speak to the level of care provided at a given facility, there have been several studies that have found for-profit—especially those that are investor owned—nursing home facilities provide lower quality nursing care than nonprofit or public homes. For instance, in a 2002 article, Does Investor-Ownership of Nursing Homes Compromise the Quality of Care?, the authors found that investor-owned nursing homes “provide worse care and less nursing care” than nonprofit or public nursing home and that “nurse staffing ratios were markedly lower at investor-owned homes.”

Ten years later, in 2012, the University of California, San Francisco published a research article which found that the top 10 for-profit chains had lower registered nurse and total nurse staffing hours than governmental facilities. The article, Nursing Staffing and Deficiencies in the Largest for-Profit Nursing Home Chains and Chains Owned by Private Equity Companies also found that when compared to government facilities other for-profit facilities also had lower staffing and that in some instances nursing home chains purchased by private equity companies had an increase in the number of serious deficiencies when compared to early ownership.

Again, this is not to suggest that a for-profit nursing facility by definition provides inferior care. These studies do, however, provide a reminder that many nursing homes are run by corporations that, despite the warm slogans and sometimes even best intentions, ultimately answer to a bottom line. This is something to consider when selecting a nursing or looking into why a nursing home may be operating a particular way.

The following is a list of national for profit nursing home chains in Missouri and Kansas: Golden Living, Kindred Healthcare (Missouri only), Life Care Centers, HCR ManorCare, National Healthcare Corporation (NHC) (Missouri only), Sunrise Senior Living, Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society (Kansas only), Skilled Healthcare Group, Five Star Senior Living, LCS, Brookdale Senior Living, Benedictine Health Systems, Stonegate Senior Living (Missouri only), Vetter Health Services, Medicalodges, and Emeritus Corp. In 2012, each of these national for profit nursing home chains was listed among the Top 50 Largest Nursing Facility Companies, according to Provider Magazine.

-Tom and Ryan