Townhall.com takes a hard look at the ProPublica/FrontLine A C Thompson agenda laden attack on Emeritus Senior Living and the Assisted Living Industry.
On December 1, 2013 Town Hall published a multi-part article titled: Frontline/ProPublica’s Misguided Attack on The Assisted Living Industry.
This series is a much more in-depth look at the issues I raised in my article What AC Thompson Got Wrong About Assisted Living. It is refreshing to see someone do a much more in-depth investigation of the so called investigation of assisted living.
The series focuses on these four questions:
- “Why did the entire series focus only on Emeritus? Was there any focus on the rest of the Assisted Living industry and/or comparison to home health care?”
- “Why was the data so dated? All references were to 2008 and 2009 with only one from 2010. This industry has been evolving for 30 years, but the study was using four-to-five-year-old data.”
- “Why were no regulators mentioned in either the show or the publication? There are state regulators in all 50 states, but none were referenced.”
- “Why in all cases — the show, the interviews on the Frontline website and the ProPublica column — was there so much focus on federal regulation? There is none at this time.”
Some Highlights:
“With no evidence to back it up, Thompson writes ‘For assisted living chains such as Emeritus, there is a powerful business incentive to boost occupancy rate and to take in sicker patients, who can be charged more.’”
With respect to targeting only Emeritus Senior Living: “In fact, we found that apparently Thompson looked nowhere else. (We had an interview scheduled with Thompson which he cancelled. We submitted him 15 written questions which he did not answer.”
“. . . Thompson did not interview anyone from the California regulatory agency about Emeritus or request documents for any other Assisted Living companies.” We applaud this serious look at something that was a serious campaign against a single company masked as serious reporting and look forward to part 2. Steve Moran
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Obviously, neither Steve nor his buddies have ever been inside an Emeritus. Everyone in the industry knows about Emeritus’ bad practices and that they still exist.
Steve – Very interesting. Although I thought some of the critiques of emeritus and the regulatory system were fair, I was disgusted that Frontline’s was so inherently bias. I’m glad their report is getting pushback from organizations outside of our industry.
http://townhall.com/ This is a right wing site. I am not sure it is any surprise that a corporate supporter would take on Frontline on a piece questioning Emeritus practices or talking about Federal Regulation. As for getting pushback from organizations outside of the Assisted Living industry, frankly Townhall is not the best choice to challenge the Frontline piece given their obvious support for Corporate wealth and dismissal of most federal regulation.
RR it is hard to know how to respond to this comment since it is really just an Ad hominem attack on me (and my buddies, who ever that may be). It is curious because this series was not particularly a defense of Emeritus. It did though expose 3 points:
1. The bias or perhaps even vendetta Thompson has against one company.
2. It demonstrated he was willing to taint a whole industry based on a few incidents over several years with one company.
3. That he has a strong bias in favor of Federal Regulation even though the Skilled Nursing Industry has clearly demonstrated Federal oversight mostly just increases cost.
Finally I have been in plenty of Emeritus buildings and I think if you read everything that has been published at Senior Housing Forum, you would find that I am hardly a front man for Emeritus.
Steve
Hi Melinda:
You are right it is a right wing site but we as an industry need to take what we can get. Since you mention Federal regulation, I find myself just baffled by the idea that somehow Federal regulation would make anything better and no where is this more clear than the skilled nursing industry.
Steve
The expose on Emeritus, was just that; directed at Emeritus. It could be suggestive of an implied thought that Emeritus is the leader in poor care. Or, it could simply have been a directed investigative piece.
I’m sure other Assisted Living Corporations will happily provide information to demonstrate that they do not follow or condone the practices detailed in the Frontline reporting.
It is imperative that those of us in the industry do not defend an ALF corporation just “on principle.” We should be the first to point out what corporations need to improve, what state regulations need to be refined, what criteria makes a good admission.
Let’s put this whole Emeritus thing to rest now and move on, striving to always do the right thing. For the resident, that is.
Edith I agree with you that it was essentially targeted at Emeritus, but it was labeled and titled in a way to be an attack on the whole assisted living industry.
Steve
Yes, it was and in a sense it should be. The general public consensus could be that all ALFs are conducting business in much the same way.
What I mean to make very clear is that we in the industry should truly welcome the opportunity to show that we are operating in a manner that provides for the best care and highest quality of life for our residents.
If a major corporation can be shown to have practices that call that goal into question, then we need to look at that carefully, and honestly and not take it personally.
Admission practices, retention practices, training practices… those a few of the core factors that must be examined and shown to have the best interest of the resident at their center.
Yes, “no margin, no mission” but if you do not provide excellent service to your residents you won’t have the opportunity for the margin.
The Expose pointed out areas that need to be addressed by the company featured, and should be reviewed by all of us in our respective facilities.