Private equity snaps up disability services, challenging regulators

I used to work for an adult daycare, for people with mental disabilities, and the amount of times people would play fast and loose with state regulations was concerning. This is an area where the government needs to be hyper vigilant, since some of these clients can't easily stand up for themselves.

My hat's off to you. That's often difficult, underpaid and important work.

The clients were usually a pleasure to work with, but management was atrocious, and encourage/allowed things that should not have happened. And this was a sole proprietorship, definitely not private equity. I'm not sure which ownership structure fosters more moral hazard, but regardless, there are a lot of issues in the industry that need addressing

Can you give us some examples on how they would play fast and loose with some regulations?

Things like handing out punishments, restricting access to certain rooms, or just generally not acting like the client is the one paying for the service, but instead like the daycare is their guardian

If they can’t just walk out and leave, the daycare is their guardian, at least while they’re in their care.