The American Prospect: The Longest 80 Miles: How Nursing Home Evictions Tear Families Apart (April 21, 2021)

It’s incredibly easy to grow old and die in the United States without community or proper care, especially for low-income, chronically ill seniors who rely on Medicaid. These residents are especially vulnerable to being evicted from their nursing homes and involuntarily transferred elsewhere, and this is often wielded as a threat to get exorbitant and even predatory debts repaid.

Nursing home evictions, technically known as involuntary discharges or transfers, are consistently the most common complaint received by the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, a federal program that advocates for the rights of nursing home residents. The program received 3,883 complaints related to nursing home evictions or admissions in 2019. “This happens under the table. That’s the whole point. In so many of these cases, the facility just says, ‘Get out,’ or ‘We’re moving you,’” said Eric Carlson, a directing attorney at Justice in Aging, a nonprofit focused on senior poverty.