Financialization of the US Nursing Home Industry: Profiteering and Patient Neglect

How financial profiteering has reshaped long-term care and jeopardized the well-being of nursing home residents. Nursing homes care for some of the nation's most vulnerable citizens.They are also increasingly controlled by financial actors whose priorities lie far from the bedside.In Financialization of the US Nursing Home Industry, Laura Katz Olson and Michael K.Gusmano examine how for-profit companies-and increasingly private equity firms and real estate investment trusts (REITs) with complex ownership structures-have transformed long-term care into a vehicle for profit extraction. Drawing on extensive case studies of major chains and mid-sized operators, the authors trace the industry's consolidation over decades and document how financial engineering-asset stripping, related-party transactions, real estate manipulation, and deliberate labor cost cutting-has reshaped nursing home operations.Chronic understaffing, declining care quality, opaque ownership arrangements, and repeated ba