LINKS CORPORATE MEDICINE WEB SITE Disclaimer The many extracts on these pages are from copyright material. They are owned by the reference given or its owner. They are reproduced here for educational purposes and to stimulate public debate about the provision of health and aged care. I consider this to be "fair use" in the common interest. They should not be reproduced for commercial purposes. The material is selective and I have not included denials and explanations. I am not claiming that the allegations are true. The intention is to show the general thrust of corporate practices as well as the nature and extent of any allegations made. Any comments made are based on the belief that there is some substance at least to so many allegations. Links to Site Maps Central Initial USA Australian International Corporate Practices (to print) Path to this page Home Australia Markets & aging Nursing homes The Companies overview Health care Hospital Corporatisation   Entry to Privatisation   Privatisation Background   Australian states Pathology & Radiology Gen. Pract. Corporatisation Aged Care Story of corporatisation   Nonprofit dilemma Aging bonanza Banks Nursing homes Home Care Breadth health corporat. Retirement Villages Nursing Homes Government    1985 to 1998    Correspondence    1998 to 2001    2002 to 2005    2006 Accreditation Nurses    People farming Residents & Relatives The Companies Not for profit homes Nursing Hm Comp The Companies overview Listed Companies Milstern DCA    Audit problem   DCA Sale Ramsay Hlth Care Aevum Retirement Care Aus. Bigger unlisted Comp. Moran Hlth Care Tricare Regis Grp Unlisted Comp. Vic. A Illawaong Saitta/Neviskia CIS Holdings Unlisted Comp. Vic. B Eildon McKenzie SRS & Marnotta Enhance Peel Street Muskjest Lasalto & Easyplan etc Ellis & Elfam Dampier Bay Hastings Regional Navatha & Locksley Unlisted Comp. Other Aegis Sauve/Craigcare Kennedy Thompson Alchera Park Trans Dominion/Farad Gonzales Bresant Tolega & Karoona Peninsula Introductory page This corporate web site addresses the issues of corporate health care within a broad framework. A web page describing this broad context should be considered as an introduction to each page on the web site. If you have not yet read it then CLICK HERE to open it in another tab or web page. Content of this page This web page documents the difficulties Affinity Health had in securing licences for its hospitals in NSW and the implications of this for the takeover of the nursing home operator DCA in 2006.  Australian section    Affinity Health Hospital Licenses

CVC Asia Pacific and CVC Capital Partners (Citigroup's European operator) have now purchased the far more vulnerable DCA nursing home empire. CVC Capital Partners and Citibank were joint founders of CVC Asia Pacific. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals.

When Citigroup subsidiary CVC Asia Pacific led the purchase and turn around of the money losing Mayne hospitals to form Affinity Health, the health department in NSW mounted an 18 month probity investigation. This was because of Citigroup's involvement in a series of scandals and its exploitation of vulnerable investors whose interests it was required to serve. NSW Health granted licenses subject to conditions. The letter from NSW below tells the story. Since that time Citigroup has paid about $10 billion to settle lawsuits related to its involvement in setting up frauds for other companies including Enron and Worldcom.

Nursing homes are far more vulnerable to the misuse and exploitation of those they claim to serve than hospitals. This is because doctors in Australia (unlike the USA) are financially independent of hospitals. Their professional standing among colleagues depends on the quality of their work. They bring the patients and if the hospital threatens the care they provide then they take their patients elsewhere. They exert economic leverage.

Doctors have no leverage in nursing homes, as they do not refer patients. Instead it is the nursing homes that recommend and call in a doctor when a resident is ill. This gives them some leverage over the doctors' incomes. Those who upset the home by criticising are unlikely to be called again. This is the situation that existed in those hospitals, which misused patients in the USA. The hospitals gained control of admissions and referred to the doctors.

The other problem in Australia is that the federal government removed the probity requirements under which NSW mounted its review from commonwealth aged care regulations in 1997. I corresponded with the minister's department about this.

It will be interesting to see if approved provider status will be granted to this group for vulnerable nursing homes when the activities of the same purchasers were curtailed in NSW for the much less vulnerable hospitals. To what extent has the federal aged care approval process been a corporate friendly government stacked initiative? Have they any teeth and is anyone ever turned down. Their track record to date is not good. ( see McKenzie Aged Care Group, Tolega and Karoona, Dampier Bay Pty Ltd and Peninsula Care Pty Ltd .)

SEE UPDATE AT FOOT OF THIS PAGE

After the sale was out of the public eye there was an interesting reply to my objection from the federal department. The government had legislated (presumably in 1996/7) to ensure that multinationals buying local companies were automatically granted approval status and were not assessed for suitablity. The department had delayed telling me for 4 months. The press reports and the corrrespondence is particularly revealing and interesting. I have therefore written a separate web page addressing what happened.

Click Here to go to the "Citigroup Buys DCA " web page.

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Web Page History This page created Sept 2006 by Michael Wynne update March 2007