| The Alberta government’s increase in seniors’ user fees earlier this year is padding the profits of privately owned nursing home companies, say opposition politicians.
Extendicare, which operates 267 long-term care facilities in North America, including 14 in Alberta and three in Calgary, boosted its net earnings to $13.8 million from $7.9 million the previous year, according to its third-quarter earnings report released earlier this month. In the report, Mel Rhinelander, the company’s president and CEO, credited the increase to high nursing home occupancy in the United States and increased funding in Canada.
"In Canada, Extendicare benefited from the governments of Ontario and Alberta’s improved funding for long-term care services," he states.
Alberta New Democrat leader Raj Pannu says the report indicates that a huge increase in accommodation rates for seniors staying in long-term care facilities has boosted the profits of a private company rather than benefiting Albertans, as health minister Gary Mar promised when he announced it.
"That’s dishonest. It’s really a betrayal," Pannu says. Extendicare is a for-profit company…. Our quarrel is not with them. It’s with the Alberta government.
"The Tories hiked rents at long-term care facilities by almost 50 per cent to pad the bottom line of their friends."
The accommodation fee, which doesn’t cover the cost of health care, was increased to $40 a day on August 1, up from $28. At the time, the increase outraged many seniors who said they couldn’t afford it.
At the time, Mar said, "Every person in long-term care deserves the best possible quality of life, and this increase will help operators provide that."
Alberta Seniors spokesperson Kevin Donnan maintains that the increase is improving patient accommodation and Extendicare’s profits have little to do with Alberta government funding.
"Extendicare is a multinational company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. To suggest this (profit) is coming from Alberta… it just isn’t true," Donnan says. "The increase in August was not about profit. It was to increase revenue to offset the real cost of delivering these services and to ensure we have viable long-term (service) in the future."
Donnan also says the Alberta government introduced a support program prior to the increase to reduce those user fees for those who can’t afford them.
Pannu says tax money shouldn’t be boosting the profits of private companies. He says Extendicare has donated thousands of dollars to the Alberta Tories the past decade, and charges that the user fees are a way of paying back those donations.
"Extendicare has been able to buy this 35 to 45 per cent increase by paying the Tories. It was a small price to pay," he says. "It’s unconscionable to gouge seniors in order for Extendicare to make profits." |
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