Elder care in Florida makes Times Page One

Browsing around the NY Times, I happened to see the list of the most-emailed articles from the Sunday Times. Surprisingly, it was a long, dry article about nursing homes. On the one hand, its popularity was testimony to the large number of boomers among the Times readership; they have nursing homes on their personal horizons, not to forget their aged parents. On the other, I wonder, could the popularity be due to the large number of people who are feathering their nests with nursing homes?

The drift of the article was that the elderly seem to be getting worse care from homes bought out in recent years by private equity groups that are more immune to lawsuits than publicly owned companies.

If true, this is a deep black eye for capitalism, for compassionate conservatism, for the corporate culture that is so prevalent in our country in the 21^st Century. If their claimed virtues are valid, the owners should be providing excellent care and value for their elderly inmates. But it seems not the case.

In their defense, the few owner-types who could be found for comment declared that their takeovers of nursing-home chains had made it possible for them to continue caring for the elderly. Otherwise, they were going out of business. Who, then, would take the job?

This was the lead article in the Sunday Times, with a complex circular diagram on the front page showing 4-5 levels of ownership and operation for one home in Tampa, Habana Health Care. Company after company providing this service or that, administration or operation, and none to be found to carry responsibility for actual health care.

This is a serious challenge to the progressive view of elder care today. If a Democratic president launches reform of elder care, how to find accommodation with a system where huge and secretive companies are in charge?

And this is, as you may imagine, a Florida story. Where are there more elderly people? Where more nursing homes? Where else was Jeb Bush in charge for eight years?

“Regulators have been stymied,” the article reports of Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration.

Welcome to reality.

Here’s a link to the Sunday Times story, which is part of a wider series on “how businesses and investors seek to profit from the soaring number of older Americans, in ways helpful and harmful.” The series link is http://nytimes.com/goldenopportunities