Official Site of The State of New Jersey

For Immediate Release:
March 18, 2026

Statement on Bill S2980 — Senate Health, Human Services, and Senior Citizens Committee, March 16, 2026
—Laurie Facciarossa Brewer, New Jersey's Long-Term Care Ombudsman

Mister Chairman, members of the committee — I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts on Bill S2980, and I want to thank Chairman Vitale and Senator McKnight for sponsoring this legislation.

My name is Laurie Brewer, and I am New Jersey's Long-Term Care Ombudsman. Our staff and volunteers are in nursing homes across the state every day, which gives us a clear perspective on what really happens inside these places.

This financial transparency bill is crucial because of the insight it will provide into related party transactions. If you are not familiar with the term, related parties are vendors contracted to the nursing home that are owned by the very same company that owns that nursing home.

In New Jersey, the most common example is that a company will buy a nursing home and then create a separate company for the operation and a separate company for the real estate. Then the nursing home owners pay rent to themselves.

In the Trenton facility where James and Teanette live, the old owners of the facility paid $1.3 million to lease the property just two years ago. Today, the new owners are paying themselves $3.3 million for the same property with no significant capital improvements.

Other typical related party costs include management fees, office staff, and other administrative costs. Some nursing homes also use related parties for nursing administration, staffing, physical therapy, pharmacy, and food services.

Unfortunately, we get very little insight into those expenses. We know what the nursing home paid the related party, but we have no idea how much of that money benefited the residents versus how much went into the owners’ pockets. This is a concern for a few reasons.

First, using related parties is a widespread practice. In 2023 alone, 90% of New Jersey nursing homes reported at least one related party transaction, according to a review by my staff. These transactions accounted for 12% of all spending. At some nursing homes, related parties raked in 60% of all spending.

Second, related party transactions tend to cost more. According to our review — which compared spending on a per-resident, per-day basis — nursing homes using related parties, on average, paid higher rates for the same service than those that did not. This was true for rent, management fees, therapy services, administrative costs, or payments to food vendors.

Taxpayers are footing the bill for all of this. In 2023, New Jersey nursing homes received $4.3 billion from Medicaid and Medicare combined. That equates to three-quarters of all their revenue. We should know where every one of those tax dollars went.

Even more importantly, the residents deserve to know where every dollar goes. They are the ones living this existence, and you have heard from some of them today. For many residents, especially in the for-profit nursing homes, life is not pretty. Homes are chronically understaffed, leading to neglect that compromises the safety and well-being of every resident. The food is forgettable, at best. And often the building is crumbling around you.

My office has received an influx of reports about infrastructure issues in recent years. HVAC systems and water heaters that give out when you need them the most. Elevators that repeatedly break down and keep residents trapped in place.

In my view, these are not isolated incidents. They represent the expected result of a system in which owners can strip mine profits out of these nursing homes instead of investing in quality care or a better living environment for the residents.

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