By Alti Nunio
In the past two years, the number of seniors who have died or have been admitted into some type of long-term care facility have skyrocketed. Is there any coincidental worldwide issue they may be a contributing factor to this? Covid perhaps?
Conveniently, the CDC and FDA continue to ignore, bury, and manipulate VAERS data on adverse reactions, such as death and disability. Since the roll-out of the Covid shots in 2021 and through November 1, 2023, the number of post-Covid vaccination adverse reaction VAERS reports have exceeded 1.6 million. Compare that with the post-vax average annual VAERS total before Covid which was 60,000.
These numbers should trigger a statistically significant safety signal that should require action by both the CDC and FDA to warn people of the dangers related to Covid shots. Instead of warning people of the risks, why does the Covid jab marketing campaign continue to grow? How many more advertisements will we be exposed to encouraging more jabs? And who is paying for the commercials?
The list of symptoms, diseases and disorders continues to increase in the VAERS database from myocarditis to pericarditis to dementia, Alzheimer’s, Bell’s Palsy, Parkison’s, Lewy Body, and different cancers. It’s simply overwhelming. Have you or a family member become a victim of post-Covid vaccine illness? If so, have you reported it to VAERS?
Have you noticed the cost of health care and basic life necessities increasing exponentially over the past two years? Are you or your family members concerned about how you are going to continue to cover the monthly rent in these long-term care facilities? This appears to be an epidemic of retirement fund robbery and nest egg obliteration.
If you take the time to conduct some basic research, you will find that the senior housing and care market was overrun some 15 years ago and consolidated by real estate investment trusts (REITs) and then private equity firms. In many business market mergers, the consolidation of companies can lead to more efficient service and sometimes even a reduction in costs. However, it appears that many large firms have become opportunistic, even on our most vulnerable class, the elderly. The elderly have become victims, not only trapped in a long-term care facility with some odd disease, but then swindled out of their life savings. Consider these examples.
In one case that emerged around the 2008 real estate crash, a judge recently ordered repayment of over $79 million dollars to investors who were defrauded by Sunwest Management, one of the largest assisted living operators in the U.S. In another case in 2016, Brookdale Senior Living (Brookdale) was ordered to pay $979,000 to settle claims that, they failed to refund to the U.S. government overpayments it received for Medicaid services. This was for a company it purchased in 2014, Emeritus Senior Living.
In another case in 2021, DHHS disclosed that Medicare made approximately $3.3 million in overpayments to Brookdale for claims that were incorrectly billed for home health services provided to assisted living residents. DHHS recommended that Brookdale return the Medicare funds related to claims within the 4-year reopening period. Shortly after DHHS audit findings, Brookdale announced its plans to sell its majority stake in Brookdale Health Care Services for a large sum of money.
In 2022, Brookdale conceded to a judge’s decision and entered into a $3.25 million settlement over the doctoring of records to increase profits. The allegations consisted of claims of negligence toward residents, transferring or discharging residents without proper notice, manipulating reports to Medicare for nurses’ care hours as well as other records for better ratings to increase the number new residents and revenue, a type of marketing fraud.
More recently this year, people came forward to report that Brookdale increased their fees 40% or more over the last 2 years, and they have informed residents that another 10% increase is due upon the 2024 New Year. When they inquiries were made about the reason for the cost increase, the facility’s response was “labor and food”. An increase of 50% in a two-year period for labor and food seems highly unlikely, especially when caregivers complain of stagnant wages. Many resident’s spouses are wondering “how will I continue to pay for these services?” Albeit that in our post Covid world, the labor and food costs have risen slightly, but not as significant as other fraudulent factors exposed above.
However, there appears to be a correlation between senior housing operating portfolios (SHOPs) traded on the stock market and their impending financial duress. Brookdale and other operators may fall under Diversified Healthcare Trust, traded as DHC. A recent review in 2022 considered DHC to be one of the worst performing healthcare REITs and criticized its faulty business model. It also mentioned their inability to close any facilities without termination fees, which put them in a very helpless situation.
Is there a form of white-collar robbery going on here? Are our seniors, that is our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents, being fleeced of their life savings? Where is John Stossel when we need him to expose this fraud? Better yet, what is our government doing about it? More importantly, why are the numbers of disorders and diseases skyrocketing 2-years after the roll-out of the COVID vaccines? Have we put too much trust in our government?
It appears that our government may be allowing agencies and corporations to create health and fiscal issues on the front end and then cashing out on taxpayer’s life savings in the back end by investors on the stock market. It appears to be time for We the People to awaken and object against these crimes against humanity, both fiscal and more importantly physical!