A “Multibillion-Dollar Game:” How Nursing Homes Siphon Money and Avoid Liability
Holding the Right Parties Accountable in Nursing Home Abuse Cases
Nursing homes receive billions of dollars from Medicare, Medicaid, and private payers to provide long-term care for the elderly and disabled. And they have become quite adept at spending as little of that money as possible on actual resident care, while funneling as much as possible to side businesses that line owners’ pockets.
An in-depth article on NJ.com laid bare the realities that attorneys who litigate nursing home cases have long understood: most nursing homes use management entities to shift money away from patients and toward their owners. And in addition to raking in profits, these complicated ownership structures make it far more difficult to hold them accountable for nursing home abuse and neglect.
How owners of nursing homes use shell companies to shift money
According to the NJ.com article, there are about 15,000 nursing homes in the United States, and more than half of them reported operating at a loss. However, in many cases, these financial losses exist only on paper, as they’re paid out to other entities owned by the same individuals.
“Many of our cases involve nursing home defendants with ownership structures whose purpose clearly is to funnel money away from the actual company that is licensed by the State of Alabama to operate a skilled nursing facility,” attorney Perry Shuttlesworth said. “What we see is that a parent company will set up numerous sister companies to perform different functions at the facility, such as therapy services, staffing services, management services, hospice services, and other essential services at nursing facilities so that payment for all of these services actually goes to entities different than the one holding the license. The obvious purpose of this is to shield revenues and profits being realized by the nursing home from any legal judgments by ensuring that the nursing home itself has no money to satisfy a judgment.”
He continued, “That means nursing home abuse and neglect cases aren’t just about figuring out what happened to your loved one, but also investigating the nursing home’s ownership structure to identify those side businesses and ensure that they are held accountable, too. As a result, we work hard to discover the existence of all related entities under the same ownership umbrella and add them as defendants so that any judgments we obtain will be against all the entities who failed to provide adequate care and treatment to our clients.”
We fight back against the nursing homes’ evasive tactics
By relying so heavily on sister companies and shell games, nursing homes seek to drive up the time and cost required to litigate nursing home abuse and neglect cases. It’s yet another way that they prioritize profits over people, and with the growing role of private equity in the nursing home industry, this problem is only getting worse. The result is that far too many families are left without recourse, even if their loved ones were seriously injured or killed as a result of a nursing home’s negligence. That’s unacceptable. That’s why we fight back.
Contact Shuttlesworth Law Firm today
Attorney Perry Shuttlesworth and the legal team at Shuttlesworth Law Firm, P.C. have the experience, resources, and tenacity needed to hold nursing homes and their affiliated companies accountable. We invest the time and effort to achieve significant results for our clients, including multiple million-dollar recoveries.
To see how we can help with your potential nursing home case, give us a call or contact us online today for a free consultation.
“I can’t say enough kind words about Mr. Shuttlesworth and his law firm staff. From the first day that I got in touch with them regarding my problem, they were on top of things. Kept me informed of every action and how the case were going. Mr. Shuttlesworth is a compassionate man. Very knowledgeable of the law. He will fight for you. So, if you have a loved one who has been neglected, abused, or even death by someone you are paying to take care of your loved ones. Shuttlesworth Law Firm is the one to call. He won my case. Thank you, Mr. Shuttlesworth.” – Debbie C., ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐