At Hearing, Warren Calls for Robust Federal Role in Overseeing Assisted Living Facilities, Blasts Private Equity for Declining Quality of Care

Hearing

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I appreciate that we're having this hearing. I appreciate your leadership on ensuring quality care for seniors in assisted living facilities.

This issue is not a new one for me. In July 2020, my office released the findings from the first national survey of COVID-19 in assisted living facilities, revealing that about 7,000 residents had died from COVID in just the first half of 2020. In many ways, the threat of COVID in assisted living facilities was just as serious as it was in nursing homes. But these facilities received little help and little attention.

Now, before that, in 2018, I released the first ever national assessment of quality care issues in assisted living facilities, which was completed by the Government Accountability Office at my request. That report revealed that over 20,000 serious health and safety problems occurring at assisted living facilities in just 22 states, from physical assaults to medication errors to unexplained deaths.

In the years since my office did that work, new studies have revealed additional problems in assisted living facilities.

Mr. Mollot, you lead the Long Term Care Community Coalition, which is dedicated to improving the quality and accountability of senior living facilities. Can you say a word about what kinds of threats seniors at assisted living facilities face and how serious the risk is?

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You know, and your keyword: We just don't know.

These are serious problems that have been going on for years. But we hear so much less about what's going on in assisted living facilities than we do in other facilities, like nursing homes.

So, Mr. Mollot, why do you think assisted living facilities receive so much less attention than, say, nursing homes?

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So with nursing homes we put in federal standards on this, got more federal oversight, but assisted living facilities are governed by a patchwork of state laws without any meaningful federal oversight. And that means no national standards that assisted living facilities are expected to meet.

That is particularly worrisome, because private equity firms and real estate investment firms -- REITs -- have gone on a buying spree of senior and assisted living facilities.

We know how their model works. Private Equity comes in, strips the assets, cuts the staff, and sends the quality of care down the tubes.

So, Mr. Mollot, your organization has looked carefully at the data. And you've heard from the residents of these facilities. When private equity comes into an assisted living facility and slashes jobs. What impact does that have on the residents?

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Yeah. In other words, more people will suffer when private equity comes in.

We need to do more here. At a minimum, the Biden administration should require additional reporting on problems at assisted living facilities. In fact, that is a priority recommendation from the 2018 GAO report. While CMS is making progress on implementing this recommendation, they should finalize it quickly.

This has gone on long enough without oversight.

And Congress must look at ways to improve accountability, transparency and quality of care in assisted living facilities.

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