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Just last year, the for-profit Princeton Care Center closed abruptly and chaotically around the clock, disrupting the lives of 72 residents and their families, leaving them homeless and, in some cases, traumatized. Although the closure had been planned months in advance, residents were given only hours to find new homes and were forced to pack their belongings in garbage bags. The care provided to residents was so poor that the New Jersey Department of Health had suspended new admissions to the facility weeks before. State regulators, local authorities, and federal agencies knew that this taxpayer-funded facility was in financial and medical trouble. Residents, however, were unaware of the situation or why it was being closed.
This incident highlights why — despite the millions of new state and federal tax dollars invested in New Jersey’s nursing homes since 2019 — full, clear, and constant visibility into how they operate is essential. Without transparency and accountability, more families could suffer similar situations in other nursing homes. This past budget season, New Jersey lawmakers had the opportunity to include budget language that would force improved transparency and accountability coupled with increased funding for nursing homes. Instead, nursing homes received an additional $60 million at the last minute — on top of what Gov. Phil Murphy proposed for this year — with no strings attached.
Following the tragic deaths of over 9,000 long-term care home residents during the Covid crisis, people living in care homes and their families are entitled to an independent audit into where our current funds are going, what they are being spent on and whether their money is helping to improve the safety and quality of care in these centers.
Business as usual is simply not possible. Unfortunately, that is exactly what New Jersey is doing. Nursing homes are funded primarily through Medicaid and now receive more than $2 billion from taxpayers. In the final days and hours of last year’s budget negotiations, a backroom deal quadrupled the proposed increase in the taxpayer-funded Medicaid reimbursement rate – a windfall of $120 million. That increase was above Medicaid’s policy for nursing homes and is now included – along with the additional $60 million – in their rates for the new fiscal year.
What is particularly troubling is that there is no commitment to use these taxpayer dollars to improve the quality of care, for example in infection control, to improve the wages and working conditions of nursing staff despite chronic staff shortages in nursing homes, or to inform consumers, politicians and regulators about how the extra money will be spent. Again, this year’s federal budget does not call for improved transparency about how our taxpayer dollars are spent. This information is also very important to the residents and their families who call a nursing home their home. Greater transparency would reveal where our money goes. For example, how much is spent on residents’ care needs and personal care plans? How much is spent on nursing staff salaries rather than on the homes’ profits? This important information will help hold nursing homes accountable for their use of taxpayer dollars and the care they provide. This year, legislation to revise reporting requirements for disclosure of nursing home finances and ownership structure was reintroduced. Instead of funneling millions more taxpayer dollars through more backroom deals into an industry that needs more accountability and transparency, the Governor and the Legislature should continue to work together to pass this bill to ensure that the billions in funding nursing homes receive from New Jersey taxpayers are used to improve the quality of care for residents.
Katie Squires is the deputy state director for advocacy for AARP New Jersey.
