Genesis Shakes Hand With Skilled Health Care
Genesis Health Care and Skilled Health Care Group, Inc. announced that they will merge to create a single long-term and post acute care company with over 500 facilities nationwide. We see a trend occurring in the long-term care industry: mergers, mergers and more mergers. Earlier this year, Brookdale Senior Living and Emeritus Corp announced a $2.8 billion merger.
The bigger question is how will this effect patient care with our elderly and disabled adults? Bigger does not mean better quality care. In fact, for-profit nursing home chains emphasize and pressure their facility Administrators to increase census and reimbursement rates — $$. Patient care is not the focus. It could have not been said better by Skilled Health Care CEO, Robert Fish, who stated and in this order, “The combination will expand our core business lines, significantly diversifying our markets, provide opportunities for increased efficiency and enhance our collective ability to provide the highest quality patient care.” Patient care was only addressed as an aside at the end of his statement. The real purpose of the merger is on market share and increasing “efficiency,” a nice way of saying profits.
Wendy York and the team at York Law Firm have been handling and elder abuse cases for 20 years. If you believe your loved one has been the victim of elder abuse or neglect in a nursing home or assisted living facility, please call our office so that we can investigate your case at 916-643-2200 or contact us online. We are dedicated to representing elders and dependent adults who have been injured, neglected or abused.