Open Letter Urges State Regulators to Ensure Carlyle-ManorCare Provides Promised Disclosures

Members of the Pennsylvania House Democratic leadership voiced continued concern over Carlyle’s buyout of HCR Manor Care in an open letter to state regulators last week.

Lawmakers sought to ensure that Carlyle-ManorCare was abiding by its commitment to provide continuing disclosures of direct care staff levels and 30-day advance notification of permanent staffing cuts. In an effort last year to gain regulatory approval for the $6.6 billion buyout, Carlyle-ManorCare took the unusual step of committing to provide the Pennsylvania Departments of Health and Public Welfare with these and other disclosures in a document dated November 30, 2007. The letter from lawmakers was sent May 20 and addressed to Secretary of Health Calvin Johnson and Secretary of Public Welfare Estelle Richman.

The May 20 letter follows demands by advocates for Carlyle-ManorCare to abide by its public commitments to provide adequate staffing, quality care, and training for frontline caregivers. Advocates are also urging Carlyle-ManorCare to extend the specific commitments made to Pennsylvania regulators to each of the other 31 states in which the company operates nursing homes.

Read the May 20, 2008 letter.

Read Carlyle's committments to lawmakers.