As hundreds of private equity investors gathered at the Wharton School for a conference on "harnessing the winds of change to allocate capital and maintain returns of recent years,” protesters called on the industry to take greater responsibility for the impact of their investments on workers and communities. Workers from Manor Care nursing homes, a company recently acquired by conference keynote speaker David Rubenstein’s The Carlyle Group, joined protesters in holding up the firm’s poor record in the community as an example of the harmful impact of irresponsible buyouts.

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Now that the Carlyle Group owns Manor Care, it owns its problems, too. After months of contentious debate over the quality of care at Manor Care homes and whether the Carlyle Group is fit to take care of fragile seniors, it is now time for Carlyle to step up and provide the quality care it promised. To bring Manor Care’s homes up to standards and expert recommendations, this means increasing staffing and addressing deficiencies from day one.

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With a year-end deadline looming to close a $6.6 billion takeover deal, the Carlyle Group and HCR Manor Care, the nation's largest nursing home chain, are attempting to steamroll the regulatory process in states to avoid addressing concerns about resident care. Despite a push to get states to rubber stamp approval of the buyout, state officials in Florida, Maryland, Oklahoma,Kansas, Virginia, Michigan, Illinois, and West Virginia have yet to issue licenses for the Carlyle takeover of nursing homes, according to the latest information available to SEIU. Those eight states have approximately 120 Manor Care nursing homes, nearly half of all Manor Care's skilled nursing facilities.

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As The Carlyle Group, a private equity buyout firm, faces more scrutiny in its drive to take over Manor Care nursing homes, this week regulators or lawmakers in three states will look more closely at the issue of whether private equity ownership hurts residents. This brings the total number of states who have held or scheduled meetings or hearings up to six.

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The day after two hearings on Capitol Hill on the impact of private equity buyouts of nursing homes, a delegation of caregivers and nursing home residents' family members from a Manor Care facility in Pennsylvania delivered a petition at the Carlyle Group's headquarters calling on the buyout firm to make quality patient care a priority. Carlyle is in the process of taking over HCR Manor Care, the nation's largest nursing home chain. There is growing concern that the $6.3 billion buyout could come at the expense of seniors, taxpayers, and workers.

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