SEIU California recently released a slideshow summarizing some of the schemes used by nursing homes to hide their profits and skimp on resident care.  Facilities in California increasingly use vast networks of corporate shell companies and pay inflated rents and service charges to themselves to siphon more than one billion dollars a year.  Facilities use these “related party” expenses to drive down their operating margins, inversely proportional to their payments to themselves, so their owners can claim they need more taxpayer money.  The result is owners making more money while residents suffer more neglect.  Without full transparency of related party expenses, California will continue to be ripped off.  SB 650 (Stern), a bill to promote more nursing home financial transparency, is on the governor’s desk and we urge him to sign it.