{"id":585979,"date":"2026-04-15T16:01:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/585979\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T16:01:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:01:15","slug":"who-owns-nursing-homes-in-ct-lawmakers-want-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/585979\/","title":{"rendered":"Who owns nursing homes in CT? Lawmakers want to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

With studies showing a higher mortality rate in nursing homes owned by private equity firms<\/a>, Connecticut lawmakers are calling for more transparency and accountability from private equity firms investing in nursing homes in the state.<\/p>\n

The Government Accountability Office<\/a> has reported that \u201cprivate equity firms have drawn attention in recent years by buying nursing homes, changing their operations to increase profit and selling them for more money.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Connecticut, private equity ownership has brought concerns about firms stripping equity and cutting costs to the detriment of the company and its customers.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers are considering legislation that would require private equity firms<\/a> that own nursing homes to produce \u201cinvestor names, business addresses, and thorough financial details to the Department of Social Services every year,\u201d according to testimony from Senate Democrats in support of SB 125.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdditionally, any private equity entity firm with a real estate investment trust will not be permitted to sell or offload any nursing home property until five years after purchase unless the Commissioner of Public Health finds that doing so will increase patient wellbeing or facility stability,\u201d said the Senate Democrats.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the legislative session, Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney called for the restriction of private equity in the health care, nursing, housing, child care and education industries saying its role in essential public services is \u201cdangerous and toxic as a matter of public policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill\u2019s original intent was to restrict private equity in nursing homes but the language was revised after conferring with state agencies understanding that not \u201cevery actor is a bad actor when it comes to private equity,\u201d said Sen. Jan Hochadel, a Meriden Democrat and co-chair of the Aging Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes they use it to make improvements,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A paper published in Health Policy late last year found that \u201cacross studies, private equity was linked to a higher number of deficiencies, increased hospitalization rates and higher mortality, although some improvement in care processes were noted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hochadel said \u201cprivate equity is there to make money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat money does not go toward patients,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have seen some good players (in private equity) but the bad players, what we\u2019re saying is they\u2019re coming in to make money. They\u2019re not coming in to take care of these patients that are elderly, the most fragile (who) deserve dignity and respect in their last years. And we want to make sure that we have that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said private equity firms will come in at times and buy the land, sell it off and strip some of the needed resources such as staffing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what we\u2019re looking for is transparency and accountability after we saw what happened in Rockville and Manchester,\u201d she said, referring to hospitals owned by Prospect Medical Holdings.<\/p>\n

Prospect Medical Holdings, a private equity company that in Connecticut owned Manchester Memorial, Rockville General and Waterbury hospitals, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year.<\/p>\n

The hospitals struggled over the years under the company with inadequate staffing and antiquated equipment. Hartford HealthCare has since purchased Manchester Memorial and Rockville General. The Office of Health Strategy approved UConn\u2019s Health emergency certificate of need to purchase Waterbury Hospital on Jan. 30.<\/p>\n

Sarah Dzialo wrote testimony in opposition to the bill that \u201cprivate investment \u2013 including private equity \u2013 brings capital, operational expertise, and the ability to modernize struggling facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a sector facing workforce shortages and rising costs, discouraging investment is the wrong direction,\u201d Dzialo said in her testimony.<\/p>\n

Matt Barrett, president and CEO of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities\/Connecticut Center for Assisted Living, said originally the trade association did oppose earlier versions of the legislation that included \u201can outright ban of all private equity investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

But through revisions of the bill, Barrett said he commended the leadership of the Aging Committee for their leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe additional ownership and more detailed disclosure will also be meaningfully important in better understanding which types of nursing home private equity ownership structures correspond to lower quality outcome and which structures demonstrate high quality,\u201d he said in an email. \u201cIn this regard, we recommend against prematurely adopting other provisions in this year\u2019s bill that will too broadly increase costs for a wide range of nursing homes and limit access to nursing home care by restricting property transfers to new owners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what percentage of nursing homes are owned by private equity in the state, Hochadel said this is part of the intent of the bill to seek clarity on that specific percentage as legislators do not know that number.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will collect that information and we will have better knowledge on how much private equity is in the state right now,\u201d Hochadel said.<\/p>\n

In its risk assessment, The Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit watchdog organization focused on the growing private equity and broader private funds industry, said that 5.4% of nursing homes in the state are owned by private equity companies.<\/p>\n

Sen. Saud Anwar, co-chair of the Public Health Committee, has been advocating for the restriction of private equity in hospitals and health care.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a state we have to be very watchful of private equity-owned nursing homes to make sure they\u2019re not cutting corners and changing the workforce in ways that would result in such a negative impact on patient outcomes,\u201d Anwar said.<\/p>\n

Atul Gupta, assistant professor in the department of health care management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, was one of several researchers who examined the acquisition of over 1,600 skilled nursing facilities by private equity firms between 2005 and 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that mortality rates at PE-owned facilities increase by 11% after acquisition and spending also increases by 8%,\u201d he said. \u201cThese headline results are supported by evidence on changes of care inputs (decline in nursing staff) and declines in CMS 5-star ratings, which track other quality metrics.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legislation was passed by the Aging Committee and heads to the Senate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With studies showing a higher mortality rate in nursing homes owned by private equity firms, Connecticut lawmakers are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[2000,256390,15861,15862,97,252,253,35165,983,168221,86883,111,3201,128045,256389,256388,204512],"class_list":{"0":"post-585979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-connecticut","9":"tag-connecticut-association-of-health-care-facilities-connecticut-center-for-assisted-living","10":"tag-ct-news","11":"tag-hartford-courant","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-health-care","14":"tag-healthcare","15":"tag-legislature","16":"tag-local-news","17":"tag-max-image-preview","18":"tag-nursing-homes","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-private-equity","21":"tag-prospect-medical-holdings","22":"tag-rep-jane-garibay","23":"tag-sen-jan-hochadel","24":"tag-sen-saud-anwar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}