![]() ![]() “If you have multiple entities and complex ownership structures that are skimming off profits, anything that goes to profit or shareholders or private-equity companies is money that is not being used to combat the virus,” said Tamara Konetzka, a University of Chicago health care economist who studies nursing homes. The arrangements create myriad ways for the individuals in control to extract their gains outside public view. But the filings typically show big payments to companies in which these same people have interests. They tend to cast the owners as barely getting by. WBEZ also reviewed regulatory filings to the state from dozens of nursing homes. In those counties, for-profit nursing homes have had nearly double the death rates as nonprofit facilities. The difference is most stark in the 20 counties hit hardest by the virus. Nursing homes that operate for profit in the state have had more infections and deaths per bed than nonprofit facilities. Nursing home residents now account for at least 5,782 coronavirus fatalities in Illinois, more than half the state’s total death tally, according to public health data posted Friday.īut a WBEZ analysis of Illinois and federal data has found that the coronavirus’ spread through the industry has not been even. Seven months later, the illness is spreading fast again. When Krok caught COVID-19, the virus was taking hold in the Chicago area and other parts of Illinois, spreading especially fast in nursing homes. That man eventually tested positive for the virus.Īt the Jefferson Park house where John Krok raised two children with his wife, Barbara Krok, she holds a 2001 portrait of the family. Stout said he ended up with a roommate who had a hacking cough. Stout had no way of knowing that Fairmont’s main proprietor would be among the state’s least effective nursing-home owners at protecting people from COVID-19. She looked next at Fairmont Care, a facility with lower staffing ratings. Stout said they made it clear it had to do with Krok’s reliance on Medicaid, the government program that pays for long-term care for poor people. She toured those nursing homes and tried to get Krok in.īut both rejected him. Both places were owned by nonprofit organizations. She spotted two facilities with high marks for having enough staff to care for the residents. She printed out federal ratings for nursing homes near her brother’s house on Chicago’s Northwest Side. “I had only a few days to find him a nursing home.” Krok tried returning home but quickly ended up back in the hospital. ![]()
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