Private Equity Group Drops Bid to Purchase Five Vermont Nursing Homes

A group of New York-based nursing home investors has dropped its effort to purchase five of the state's largest and most troubled facilities.

Priority Healthcare Group withdrew its application to the Vermont Agency of Human Services to assume full control of Burlington Health & Rehab and similarly named homes in Bennington, Berlin, St. Johnsbury and Springfield, according to a spokesperson for the current owner, national health care conglomerate Genesis HealthCare.

The application had been pending for more than a year. A Seven Days investigation of the buyers' backgrounds last July revealed problems at some of the homes members of the group owned in other states.

The withdrawal comes just as state officials were preparing to issue a decision on the application, which involves more than 500 beds — nearly 20 percent of all skilled nursing home care across Vermont. It follows a hearing earlier this month in which agency officials scrutinized Priority's track record and questioned the complex and shifting ownership structure for the Vermont deal.

Read more: https://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2021/12/28/private-equity-group-drops-bid-to-purchase-five-vermont-nursing-homes