Shameless Greed

George Hager at Genesis

Genesis is a large nursing home chain with a history of compliance issues and substandard care. Genesis HealthCare includes more than 325 skilled nursing facilities and assisted living/senior living communities in 24 states. Its subsidiaries also deliver rehab therapy services to about 1,100 providers in 44 states and China.

They often whine about their financial health when demanding more money and legal protections. The chronically troubled company say they may go bankrupt even.  Welltower had to restructure their real estate agreement. Omega announced a $65 million Genesis write-down.

For the first nine months of last year, Genesis reported a loss of $96 million. Taxpayers gave the chain $254 million in federal aid related to COVID-19, as well as commitments of $85 million from some of the states where it does business. However, they gave CEO George Hager Jr. a $5.2 million “retention payment.”

He served as chief executive for 17 years. Hager controlled the large for-profit national U.S. nursing home chain during the pandemic. He did a terrible job. At least, 1,700 of its residents and employees died because of his failed leadership.  Hager received the bonus before he resigned in disgrace.

An analysis of Medicare data found Genesis’ nursing homes short on personal protective equipment even after the company’s board had signed off on Hager’s bonus. Just shocking and shameless greed.  Hager was also running the chain when it reimbursed the government nearly $54 million for providing “grossly substandard nursing home care” at multiple facilities.

Nursing homes account for a sizable portion of the more than 419,000 U.S. COVID-19 deaths. National for-profit chains did worse than non-profits and governmental facilities. Genesis refuses to insist their workers get the vaccine.

Richard Feifer, M.D. is Genesis HealthCare’s executive vice president and chief medical officer. He said:

“Once you start creating mandates and requirements, in some ways that may be counterproductive to building trust and we really want to build trust,” Feifer said. He added that the “concept of vaccinating all the staff and residents in our facilities is monumental.” 

Senator Elizabeth Warren is now asking questions.