Nearly a dozen older residents faced eviction after Brookdale San Marcos South, an assisted living facility, was purchased by Gemstone Senior Living, causing residents on a Medicaid program to lose housing.
Gemstone Senior Living, an assisted living and memory care facility for older residents, left 11 residents of Brookdale South San Marcos vulnerable and faced with eviction after acquiring the company and no longer accepting the Medicaid waiver program. The deal between Gemstone and Brookdale was finalized on June 30, and residents in the program were ordered to move out that day.
The Medicaid waiver program allows stat to use community-based and home based services to provide long-term care to individuals with disabilities or special health care needs in community settings providing medical or non-medical services, according to Texas Health and Human Services.
Alora Ferniz, the granddaughter of a Brookdale resident who resided at the facility through the Medicaid waiver program for 13 years , said residents and their families were informed of the sale of Brookdale to Gemstone at the end of May, and that Gemstone would not be honoring the Medicaid waiver program, giving the residents less than a month to find housing.
“Brookdale said they would help with moving and housing, but all they did was send us a list of skilled-nursing facilities and their help with hiring movers was on their timeline, and that timeline was shorter than the 30 days,” Ferniz said.
A Brookdale Spokesperson sent a statement to The Star, stating that the incoming owners of Gemstone made the decision to end the Medicaid program was related to the operation plans, not a decision made by Brookdale.
“Gemstone has never taken Medicaid, Brookdale was fully aware that they were never going to continue a Medicaid contract, and that this would displace these people, and it is a financial thing,” Ferniz said. “I understand they have a different business model, but Brookdale had different options that they could’ve taken.”
The spokesperson for Brookdale stated their priority remains the health and well-being of residents throughout this transition, stating that they provided notice consistent with state requirements and have been working individually with each impacted resident and family to help them identify and secure an appropriate new home.
“They haven’t addressed anything. In their public statements to other news organizations, they said, ‘we did legally the bare minimum’, and they did nothing to protect their residents … we didn’t get even an eviction notice, it was just verbal over the phone,” Ferniz said. “Both companies knew that they were displacing 11 people.”
Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra sent letters to company leaders stating that these residents face displacement from their homes, caregivers and support networks, with many having no option other than placement in more restrictive nursing facilities despite having thrived in an assisted-living facility.
“As a Hays County Judge, I am deeply concerned by disturbing reports that 11 seniors are being forced out of Brookdale South San Marcos, a place they have called home for years, because the facility has been sold to Gemstone and will no longer honor the Medicaid waiver program,” Becerra wrote.
According to Ferniz, due to these evictions, her family had to move her grandmother, one of the 11 former Brookdale residents, into a skilled nursing facility in New Braunfels.
“The facility she’s at now is more like a hospital, she doesn’t even have access to a courtyard. I feel like I dropped her somewhere and she’s been stripped of everything. All of her freedom and her independence has been taken away, they’ve taken everything from her, her entire home, it’s devastating,” Ferniz said.
Ferniz said there were multiple bids on the property with Gemstone being coming of them.
“I’ve been talking to corporate employees of Brookdale and Gemstone, and through both of these folks, I’ve come to find out that there were 19 bids on the property, Gemstone was one of 19. Brookdale could not tell me if any of the other bids were capable or willing to continue the Medicaid contract, which I think is really wrong,” Ferniz said.
Gemstone Senior Living declined to comment on the matter.
“I wish they would’ve come to the table to come to a solution that would serve all parties, including the 11 residents, so that they wouldn’t be ripped from their homes and belongings,” Ferniz said. “I would say that we as Americans and as Texans need to do something about the way we care for our elders, especially when we can’t bring them home with us. We need change and that needs to happen at the government level, because these private companies are not going to be the ones to do it.”
