The Nursing Home Industry's Political Playbook

At Rawls Law Group, we spend our days fighting for people who have been harmed in nursing homes. We see the consequences of inadequate staffing, weak oversight, and a regulatory environment that too often tilts toward industry interests rather than patient welfare. So, when a new CBS 6 investigation revealed that the nursing home industry has become one of Virginia's top political donors heading into the 2026 legislative session, it was troubling—but it wasn't surprising.

This past General Assembly session, there was real momentum for nursing home reform. A staffing standard bill, which would have required facilities to provide a minimum level of care staff, was introduced by Delegate Rodney Willett. Virginia remains one of a minority of states without such a standard, and the research is unambiguous: more staff means safer outcomes for residents.

Despite supporting research, Delegate Willett’s bill was ultimately watered down from its original purpose. The bill was amended to direct the Joint Commission on Health Care to study the issue—an issue that the Joint Commission on Health Care studied in 2021 and concluded that nursing home staffing standards need to be implemented.

As Peter Anderson has stated, staffing significance in nursing homes has been studied more than enough: "It's extremely disappointing. This issue has been studied ad nauseam. And all of these studies show the more staff that a nursing home has, the safer the patient population."

In addition to Willett’s introduced bill, Glen Sturtevant, Virginia state senator and attorney at Rawls Law Group, introduced two bills that targeted nursing home reform and facility oversight. One bill would have withheld bonus Medicaid funding from facilities that pay themselves excessive rent—a practice that diverts money away from patient care and into the pockets of ownership structures. Another bill would have increased physician oversight in nursing homes by mandating physician-patient contact. Both bills were either killed or significantly weakened before passage—a frequent occurrence when targeting nursing home accountability.

In an interview with CBS 6, Senator Sturtevant has been direct about what happened to the bills he introduced: “When you're trying to put in place regulatory oversight… there's going to be a lot of pushback from the nursing home industry." The nursing home industry puts a lot of money behind making it very difficult to get reforms through." 

The bottom line, and what should give every Virginian pause, is that nursing home reform has bipartisan support in Richmond. The common denominator restricting nursing home reform is not policy disagreement; it is money.

According to CBS 6 and data from the Virginia Public Access Project, a newly formed political action committee (PAC) called Organizing for Virginia Seniors emerged as one of the top political donors in the Commonwealth, funneling over $300,000 to Virginia politicians before the 2026 legislative session began. The top contributors to this PAC are out-of-state companies linked to nursing home chains that, according to federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data, perform below average on overall quality indicators. One chain carries a quality rating of just 1.3 out of 5 stars.

Let that sink in. The facilities with some of the worst care ratings in the country are among the biggest spenders in Virginia politics. Despite Virginia consumers filing more than 1,500 complaints against nursing home facilities in the past year alone, effective oversight and accountability legislation targeting nursing homes is difficult to come by.

Our firm will continue to advocate for nursing home residents and their families—in courtrooms, in legislative hearings, and in public conversation. If you, or a family member, has suffered harm in a Virginia nursing home, contact our office today and schedule a free consultation.

Link to CBS 6 Article: Nursing home industry group among Virginia's top political donors