April 21, 2023

Proposed HHS Rule Shining Light on Nursing Home Ownership Interests Meets AG Approval

Lori Kalani, Bernard Nash

Cozen O'Connor

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Cozen O'Connor

A group of 18 AGs wrote a letter to officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in support of a proposed rule requiring disclosure of certain ownership or managerial interests of private equity investors and real estate investment trusts (REITs) regarding nursing facilities.
In the letter, the AGs urge that the disclosure requirement would be beneficial to the work of their Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCUs), which are tasked with investigating and prosecuting those responsible for abuse or neglect of nursing facility residents. As was widely reported during the COVID-19 pandemic, many nursing facilities allegedly continue to deliver substandard care to their residents.
The AGs argue that the root cause of substandard care in nursing facilities is often decisions made by for-profit owners and operators, but these entities often conceal their ownership interests from public disclosure under existing regulations. The disclosure requirement would allow the MFCUs to identify the true decision-makers at nursing facilities without considerable expenditure of public funds for investigative efforts.

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