Nursing Home Merger Raises House Dem Hackles

Democratic leaders in the House of Delegates are sounding alarms over the pending $4.9 billion buyout of a national nursing home chain with seven facilities in West Virginia.

As both Public Broadcasting and The Charleston Gazette report, the lawmakers are questioning the state Health Care Authority's approval of the sale to the Carlyle Group investment firm of Heartland nursing homes in Beckley, Charleston, Clarksburg, Keyser, Kingwood, Martinsburg and Rainelle.

The sale is part of a larger deal by Carlyle to acquire HCR Manor Care, an S&P 500 company with about 60,000 employees "at more than 500 skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers, assisted living facilities, outpatient rehabilitation clinics, and hospice and home health care offices."

The West Virginia lawmakers echoed concerns raised by their counterparts in Pennsylvania and Florida, among other states.

The legislators, in turn, appear to be following the lead of the Service Employees International Union, which urged greater scrutiny by state health care regulators last month.

Carlyle has countered that the union's campaign "is aimed at unionizing employees and not improving patients' health care."