PacifiCare Becomes Target in Nursing Home Dispute : Labor: The HMO sends patients to an operator accused by union of inadequate treatment.
PacifiCare and some other health maintenance organizations are finding themselves in the middle of a statewide contract dispute between a union and Hillhaven Corp., a nursing home operator.
PacificCare was the target of picketing Friday by 17 members of the Service Employees International Union, who accused the Cypress company of “dumping” acutely ill hospital patients into nursing homes.
The union claims that some facilities operated by Hillhaven, based in Tacoma, Wash., lack the staff and equipment needed to care for acutely ill patients recovering from surgery and other complicated medical procedures. It also claims that PacifiCare and other HMOs increasingly are transferring such patients from hospitals to lower-cost nursing homes.
A PacifiCare spokesman denied the accusations. “We never send any member of ours to any facility where there is any remote possibility of jeopardizing their care,” he said. The HMO has 35 members at Hillhaven facilities in California.
A Hillhaven spokesperson said there’s “no basis” to the union’s claims that its facilities are insufficiently staffed or ill-equipped. He added that the company’s facilities achieve some of the highest ratings on state regulators’ surveys of their operations.
The labor dispute involves three California union locals whose 2,000 members, including nurses aides, are working under expired contracts with Hillhaven, a union spokesperson said. The union, which held one-day strikes at nine California nursing homes last month, seeks higher wages, better training for employees, and higher staffing levels at Hillhaven facilities. About 60 employees at a Hillhaven nursing home in the City of Orange have been working without a contract since last year.
Several weeks ago, the union staged a similar protest against California HMO giant Health Net in San Francisco. A Health Net spokesman said the company quit transferring patients to Hillhaven locations until the labor matter is resolved.
