Real estate investors profit from long-term care facilities : NPR

Key Points:

• Pearlene Darby, an 81-year-old nursing home resident, died in 2020 from infections and bedsores, leading to a lawsuit against City Creek Post-Acute and Assisted Living and its landlord, CareTrust REIT, alleging neglect and poor care standards.
• CareTrust REIT, a major landlord of healthcare facilities, exerts significant influence over nursing home operations by selecting management and enforcing occupancy and financial targets, despite federal tax rules barring REITs from directly operating healthcare facilities.
• Investigations and court cases reveal REIT-owned nursing homes often face understaffing, safety violations, and poor care outcomes, with some resulting in multi-million-dollar verdicts against REITs for resident deaths and neglect.
• REITs own a substantial portion of senior housing and nursing homes nationwide but remain largely unregulated by health authorities, with rent payments and landlord identities not disclosed in Medicare reports, complicating oversight of their role in care quality.
• Despite high profits reported by REITs like CareTrust, critics argue that insufficient spending on staffing and patient care contributes to poor outcomes, challenging industry claims of financial constraints in long-term care facilities.