(C) ProPublica.
This unaltered story was originally published at ProPublica.org. [1]
Licensed under creative commons by-nc-nd/3.0 [2]


Nursing Homes With Safety Problems Deploy Trump-Connected Lobbyists

Author Name, ProPublica

2020-08-16 00:00:00

Some want direct government aid. Others want tax breaks. Many want protection against lawsuits.

Nursing homes have been the center of America’s coronavirus pandemic, with more than 62,000 residents and staff dying from Covid-19 at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, about 40 percent of the country’s virus fatalities. Now the lightly regulated industry is campaigning in Washington for federal help that could increase its profits.

Some of the country’s largest nursing-home companies — including those with long histories of safety violations and misusing public funds — have assembled a fleet of lobbyists, many with close ties to the Trump administration.

Eliezer Scheiner, a nursing-home owner and major donor to President Trump, recently retained Brian Ballard, a friend of the president who used to lobby on behalf of Mr. Trump’s business. Genesis Healthcare, the largest nursing-home chain in the United States, hired two former top White House aides, including Jim Schultz, a former special assistant to Mr. Trump. LifeCare Centers of America, whose Kirkland, Wash., facility had the country’s first coronavirus outbreak in March, brought on four former Republican Senate aides. The industry’s main trade group enlisted Haley Barbour, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
[END]

[1] URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/16/business/nursing-home-safety-trump.html
[2] URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/
    URL: https://www.propublica.org/steal-our-stories

ProPublica via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/propublica/