A New Jersey company with no track record owning nursing homes has been buying up Massachusetts facilities at a rapid clip, assembling 11 nursing homes in less than three years. Synergy Health Centers typically cuts staff soon after each purchase, and swaps out supplies for lower quality products. Quality of care has plummeted. But state regulators kept approving licenses for Synergy, and all of this was done behind closed doors.
Massachusetts lawmakers in July 2014 ordered state regulators to create a public hearing process before approving future nursing home sales or closures – a directive that was ignored for more than a year as regulators approved four more licenses for Synergy.
Kay Lazar’s coverage provided a micro and macro look at the problems, exploring the effect on families and the failures of the state’s licensing system. The coverage concluded with an investigation that showed Synergy’s owners were profiting handsomely as complaints climbed. It found that state regulators had failed to perform the most basic checks on company executives, and company finances, before granting licenses. The state health commissioner, whose agency grants licenses, acknowledged the system needs to be overhauled.