When a nursing home or assisted living is sold
When a home is sold, the building, the name and the sign usually stay the same. Families often don't find out until things start to change.
Why it matters
A new owner can be good news: fresh investment, or better management. But sales are often followed by changes in management, staffing and services in the first year, and research on nursing homes has linked some kinds of ownership change — particularly purchases by private equity firms — to falls in staffing and in measures of resident health. A sale is a reason to watch more closely, not a reason on its own to move.
How you can tell
- Nursing homes: Medicare publishes who owns and controls each nursing home, and updates it monthly. It also groups homes into chains by operator.
- North Carolina licences: a state licence can't be transferred. When a nursing home or adult care home changes hands, the state usually issues a new licence to the new operator, often with a new licence number.
- The home: residents and families may get a letter, but not always in advance.
Because the licence number can change, a home's earlier record can seem to vanish with a sale. We link old and new licences so the history stays with the building, and we check every week.
If your family member lives there
- Ask the administrator what is changing, and when: management company, key staff, services, rates.
- Ask whether the director of nursing (or care supervisor) and the administrator are staying.
- Read the resident agreement for anything about changes of owner, and ask whether a new agreement will be needed.
- Visit more often for the first few months, at varied times.
- If care slips, raise it in writing, and call the free Long-Term Care Ombudsman — in the Charlotte area, (800) 508-5777 — who can help without you having to move anyone.
Let us watch for you
We check the federal ownership records and North Carolina's licence lists every week. Join the list and we'll email you if the home you care about changes hands.