Senate to Review Assisted Living in Response to Recent Washington Post Articles

by Tim Regan

A committee of the U.S. Senate is slated to hold a hearing soon to study assisted living, a move spurred by a recent Washington Post investigation.

The Post revealed on Jan. 16 that Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, is launching a new review of safety within the assisted living sector in light of the newspaper’s reporting last month. A hearing entitled “Assisted Living Facilities: Understanding Long-Term Care Options for Older Adults,” was also scheduled for Jan. 25.

In a letter to executives of the three largest operators of assisted living in the U.S. – Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD), Atria Senior Living and Sunrise Senior Living – Casey asked for more information on the number of elopements in their communities and how they inform families of other incidents such as falls, injuries and violent interactions with other residents.

Casey also is asking for more information on the costs incurred by residents and their families in light of a recent New York Times investigation on the high cost of assisted living.

Casey told the Post that he was focused on “a set of cascading crises” related to staffing, oversight, how operators inform families and quality of care.

“It’s terribly disturbing,” Casey told the Washington Post. “It’s a basic violation of trust when you’re making assertions about a service you’re providing and you’re not providing that.”

In December, the Post found that nearly 100 senior living residents have died after wandering away from their assisted living and memory care communities since 2018. The investigation also detailed chronic understaffing in senior living communities.

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Senate to Review Assisted Living in Response to Recent Washington Post Articles