SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE APPROVES ESSENTIAL LEGISLATION TO ENSURE TRANSPARENCY ON NURSING HOME SPENDING

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Sacramento, CA (April 22, 2021) - The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California released the following statement upon the Senate Health Committee’s approval of SB 650 (Stern), which requires nursing homes to file annual consolidated financial statements, giving the State and the public more information on nursing homes, many of which are privately owned by large for-profit chains that utilize increasingly elaborate corporate structures to hide their finances and shield themselves from oversight. The following may be attributed to April Verrett, President of SEIU Local 2015 and Executive Board member of SEIU California:

“It was no accident that nursing homes became the most dangerous place in California to live and work during the pandemic. Nursing home corporations and individual owners have long treated the people they are supposed to care for first and foremost as a way to extract profit from families and from taxpayers. They have continuously evaded our efforts to improve the lives of nursing home residents and have hidden their profiteering from public view through financial and legal chicanery using elaborate corporate shell games. 

“It’s time to shine a spotlight on this system that failed our seniors, our families, and our state. We cannot allow the corporations charged with caring for our most vulnerable people to shield their abuses from public oversight. Without transparency there can be no accountability and no improvement. 

“SB 650 is a cornerstone of the PROTECT Plan, our multi-level campaign to ‘Put Care First,’ transforming our state’s nursing homes from profit centers to care centers. We applaud the Senate Health Committee for joining with us to move this much-needed bill forward.”