New Jersey Long-Term Care OmbudsmanNEW! Medicaid Cuts: A Message from Nursing Home Residents
NEW! 2025 Election Guide for Long-Term Care Residents
Hello, Mr. Chairman Beach and Vice Chair McKeon and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today.
My name is Laurie Facciarossa Brewer. I am the New Jersey Long-Term Care Ombudsman. I was honored to be appointed by Governor Murphy to this position in 2019. My office investigates allegations of abuse, neglect, and exploitation in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. We also work on policy and legislative issues affecting long-term care residents.
My job is to be a champion for residents living in long-term care and that includes being a watchdog against the worst impulses of the for-profit industry that operates 80 percent of New Jersey’s nursing homes.
Like the Office of the State Comptroller, the NJ LTCO is one of the few independent watchdog agencies in State government. In my opinion, the bill you are considering is dangerous – not just to the State Comptroller, but to anyone who is working to ensure that government is working for the people, not the powerful; not the industry lobbyists; and not the millionaires and billionaires who can afford expensive lawyers to avoid accountability.
It is my understanding that this bill contemplates taking investigative responsibilities currently assigned to the State Comptroller and moving those responsibilities to the State Commission of Investigation. I oppose this - and here’s why: In 2021, in response to the horrific problems we experienced with poor quality care in nursing homes before, during and after the Covid-19 public health emergency, and because we all know there is the potential for massive financial fraud in nursing homes, the state legislature passed a bill, now law, that invited the SCI to investigate nursing homes and address these problems. Specifically, the law says that the SCI “may, at any time, submit to policymakers and the legislature .....administrative or legislative action to improve oversight and transparency in nursing homes.”
It's been 4 years since this legislation passed. And it’s been the Comptroller's Office, not SCI, that has been working tirelessly to protect the taxpayers and to improve the quality of life of the vast majority of nursing home residents.
Because the OSC has shone a light on the millions of Medicaid dollars flowing to chronic poor performing nursing homes, NJ Department of Human Services no longer offers quality incentive payments to the perennial worse-performing nursing homes in the state. Further, people who commit fraud or run lousy nursing homes here or in other states now know that New Jersey is not going to rubberstamp their Medicaid application. The Comptroller's message is clear: You have to have a good track record financially and in terms of quality, or we don't want you here.
The OSC’s work, by its nature, will anger the people who are being scrutinized. Is this legislation an attempt to sideline and silence them? It sure seems like it, and, if so, which of us advocates will be next to go?
New Jersey has a reputation for government corruption. I am one of those people who would argue that, in fact, we have a proud record of strong accountability and anti-corruption. But this attempt to strip OSC’s powers flies in the face of that tradition.
This bill isn't good government, it's killing the messenger.
I urge you to vote no.
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