As Pennsylvania lawmakers weigh the budget for the coming year, a crucial bill remains on hold in the state Senate.

HB 1460, which passed the state House in a bipartisan vote, would give the state tools to bar predatory private equity firms from purchasing hospitals and nursing homes in Pennsylvania.

Over the last decade, we’ve seen what happens when private equity takes over nursing homes. Real estate, services and purchasing are outsourced to companies related to the private owners, who drain every penny they can from these institutions, complaining along the way that they simply cannot afford to operate on Medicaid reimbursements. Eventually, patient care suffers and the owners, their pockets bulging with the profits they’ve reaped, declare bankruptcy.

Over the last six months, we’ve seen this pattern repeated at two hospitals in Chester County and one in nearby Sharon, where private equity owners shuttered operations in critical community institutions.

Gov. Josh Shapiro has called for giving the state the tools to halt these deals before they happen. Now, as we face the prospect of Medicaid reductions that will deal a devastating blow to rural hospitals and nursing homes, it’s high time for the Senate, led by President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, to act on this measure.

Lawmakers should put the needs of those who depend upon these vital institutions ahead of those interested in little more than squeezing every dime they can get out of hospitals and nursing homes before they leave town.

Debra Erdley Adams

Hempfield

The writer is a retired Tribune-Review journalist.

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