Dudensing Law Supports the “Stop Wall Street Looting Act”
October 5, 2026
Originally published by
dudensinglaw.com
Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal led the reintroduction of the Stop Wall Street Looting Act, and Dudensing Law supports this legislation.
When a family chooses a long-term care facility, they usually see a name on a building, but they rarely know the investors behind it. Real estate investment trusts (REITs) and private equity firms have bought into long-term care at alarming and increasing rates. REITs now own about one-fifth of the nation’s senior housing and hold investments in roughly one-in-six nursing homes, according to KFF Health News. These investors often describe themselves as passive landlords with no role in day-to-day care, even when their financial decisions shape how a facility operates.
However, when big finance controls long-term care, profits often come before patients. Investor owners often enforce understaffing policies at their facilities to cut costs. When there are not enough caregivers on shift, residents can suffer severe and preventable injuries, including falls and fractures, pressure injuries (bedsores), dehydration and malnutrition, infections such as sepsis, medication errors, and wandering away from the facility unsupervised. A National Bureau of Economic Research study of more than 7 million Medicare patients found that private equity ownership of nursing homes reduced frontline caregiver hours by 3 percent. It also found that patient death rates were 10 percent higher at these facilities.
The Stop Wall Street Looting Act would hold private equity firms and their insiders liable for the debts and other liabilities of the companies they control, including court judgments. Today, when a facility harms a resident, the family may win in court and still struggle to collect if the operator has few assets. This bill would make it harder for investors to keep a facility’s profits while leaving its debts behind.
The bill would also shut out of federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid any provider that sells assets to a REIT or newly uses them as collateral for a REIT loan. And it would end a tax rule that lets REITs share in a health care facility’s profits, not just collect rent.
Our firm has seen what happens when investors overlook the care being provided. For example, in March 2026, Dudensing Law tried a case where a Sacramento County jury returned a $110 million verdict against Colony Capital (now DigitalBridge), a publicly traded REIT, and private equity investment firm Formation Capital. Mildred Hernandez was a 100-year-old resident of Greenhaven Estates who had Alzheimer’s disease and was a known elopement risk. She left the facility through an unsecured door, was found in the outside courtyard in 38-degree weather and was later pronounced dead at a hospital. Unfortunately, this is just one of many cases we have seen where the influx of Big Finance in long-term care has had deadly consequences for vulnerable residents.
Families should not have to fight through layers of corporate ownership to hold the people who profit from their loved one’s care accountable. That’s why Dudensing Law supports the “Stop Wall Street Looting Act.”