As part of his undeclared candidacy to be California’s next governor, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra paid a pandering visit in April to the Los Angeles headquarters of an SEIU...
Paying the price of political ransomware
By
Brendan Williams
Mar 20, 2024
Perspective is too often lacking when it comes to our healthcare system. Policymakers will, for example, generalize from every alleged transgression by a nursing home provider and paint the entire...
Private equity: not just for nursing homes
By
Brendan Williams
Jul 05, 2023
You may think you know the story: Private equity firms buying up healthcare businesses and sticking it to payers.
If only nursing homes were banks
By
Brendan Williams
Mar 17, 2023
I went to high school in Iowa, where 19 nursing homes closed in 2022 alone. Surely, you might think, this has prompted a federal response.It isn’t. Instead, the federal government has chosen to bail...
CMS should be careful in what it asks for
By
Brendan Williams
Dec 23, 2022
Those in the nursing home sector are worried a potential staffing mandate imposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services could be the ruination of a reeling sector. However, there is an argument...
When celebrity obscures suffering
By
Brendan Williams
Sep 10, 2021
There is a poignant scene in the first episode of Spike Lee’s “NYC Epicenters 9/11-2021½” on HBO in which New York Assembly Member Ron Kim breaks down recounting the efforts of former Governor Andrew...
The floggings will continue until morale improves
By
Brendan Williams
Jun 25, 2020
Caught in the throes of a pandemic lethal to those they serve, nursing homes have been largely abandoned by policymakers. The $4.9 billion in federal relief provided in May was very welcome. However,...
‘Gimmick’ bashing from the expert
By
Brendan Williams
Dec 02, 2019
Seema Verma, administrator for The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, is at it again with a proposed rule that purports “to eliminate state financing gimmicks that cost the federal government...