About a third of New Mexico’s nursing home beds — some 2,340 beds from Clayton to Clovis, Rio Rancho to Roswell — are operated by a single company.
And it’s going bankrupt.
Genesis HealthCare, one of the nation’s largest nursing home operators, filed for financial restructuring bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas in July 2025 — but that doesn’t mean its New Mexico nursing homes have halted or will cease operation.
Rather, Genesis is in the process of finalizing its court-approved, $1 billion sale to another company, with a confirmation hearing in the case set for Oct. 6.
“Once the sale is finalized, our affiliated centers in New Mexico will remain open under the ownership of 101 W State Street Holdings, LLC, and will continue providing quality care and services to our patients and residents,” Genesis spokesperson Nerida Brennan wrote in an email.
However, lawyers representing plaintiffs with pending litigation and settlements against Genesis argue that plan is unlikely to make injured patients whole or improve quality issues at the company’s facilities in New Mexico.
Records from the Delaware Department of State show 101 W State Street Holdings, LLC, incorporated as a Delaware limited liability company Jan. 6 — just days before an auction in which it was named the successful bidder for Genesis’ nursing homes.
Bankruptcy court documents list 101 W State Street as “a newly-formed affiliate” of California-based NewGen Health.
That company was previously in business with Genesis to operate 19 facilities in California, Washington and Nevada, bankruptcy records indicate.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stacey Jernigan previously rejected a bid by Genesis insiders to maintain control of the company, demanding a more competitive and transparent process.
A third of Genesis facilities received one-star overall ratings in the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ five-star rating system. That’s higher than the statewide average, in which about 24% of facilities earn one-star ratings.
“We’re still all in limbo,” said Jennifer Foote, a partner at an Albuquerque-based law firm that specializes in nursing home abuse litigation and has brought dozens of cases against Genesis since its founding 2005. “People are still left wondering if there’s going to be any recourse whatsoever.”
One of Genesis’ worst offenders, Santa Fe’s Casa Real, is currently unrated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “due to a history of serious quality issues,” according to the federal agency.
Those quality issues have resulted in dozens of personal injury, negligence and wrongful death lawsuits, New Mexico court records show.
Brennan wrote plaintiffs with pending lawsuits will have claims like other creditors in Genesis’ bankruptcy proceedings.
“Key stakeholders have agreed to the terms of a global settlement that, if effectuated, would provide material recoveries to all unsecured creditors,” she wrote.
Even if that agreement secures court approval in October, plaintiffs’ attorneys said they worry their clients will ultimately receive a tiny fraction of what the company once owed them.
For plaintiffs, the fact that Genesis can sidestep the majority of its financial obligations to injured patients represents an “infuriating” lack of accountability, said Tyler Atkins, founding partner of another Albuquerque-based law firm that takes on nursing home abuse and wrongful death cases.
“They just feel cheated by the entire system, like there’s no accountability,” he said.
Care, dignity, safety
Nursing homes — which provide short- or long-term care to people who need 24/7 medical care as well as assistance with activities of daily living such as feeding, bathing and using the toilet — are responsible for providing three main things for their residents, Atkins said.
“When there’s a lack of any of those three — of care, dignity or safety — that’s when people like me become involved to try to hold these big corporations accountable for not providing the things that they promise to provide,” Atkins said.
Care and safety are relatively straightforward. Inspectors from the state Health Care Authority’s Division of Health Improvement are responsible for conducting certification and compliance surveys at nursing homes on behalf of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. They check for things like proper medication management, adequate food storage and preparation protocols, appropriate staffing to meet residents’ care needs and procedures to protect residents from physical and mental abuse.
Dignity is harder to quantify, Atkins said, but it’s about ensuring patients can live as well as possible while receiving nursing care. That might mean they get enough baths, or they’re able to use the bathroom, with help, in a timely manner.
Often, Atkins added, patients’ dignity is tied to staffing: Are there enough people working in a facility to accomplish those tasks?
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ rating system serves as a similar rubric. It gives star ratings based on health inspections, quality and staffing, plus an overall measure.
Genesis facilities in New Mexico run the gamut in terms of ratings. Two of the company’s facilities — located in Albuquerque and Clayton — secured five-star overall ratings from the agency. Three more, located in Albuquerque, Belen and Gallup, earned four-star ratings.
But 13 of Genesis’ 21 New Mexico nursing homes received one- or two-star overall ratings, the data shows.
Often, families are selecting a nursing home under pressure, when a loved one is going to be discharged from the hospital but can’t safely return home, Foote said.
“There [are] so many families where there’s a crisis, and then there’s this : ‘Where do we go? What are our options?’ “ she said. “I think families here are finding they’re really limited, and the quality across the board is not great.”
That’s the case in Santa Fe.
Citations at Casa Real
Genesis’ Casa Real is just one of two nursing home facilities currently operating in Santa Fe County, though a third skilled nursing facility is under development in a lot on Galisteo Road. That’s equivalent to fewer than 250 skilled nursing beds in a county with more than 45,000 people 65 and older.
Nathan Burton/The New Mexican
During Casa Real’s latest inspection in January, inspectors issued 29 health citations, well over New Mexico’s average of 17.8 and the national average of 9.3. Those violations were identified by inspectors as causing “minimal harm or potential for actual harm,” as opposed to posing a more imminent threat to residents’ health and safety.
Still, the 36-page report from that inspection details some worrying patterns, like inadequate protocols to limit infectious disease exposure, improper medication and food storage, and delays in assisting patients with the activities of daily living.
The report documents one case in which a quadriplegic patient was not changed or toileted for about 22 hours. It indicates staff at Casa Real also failed to adequately separate a resident engaging in sexually explicit behavior from other residents. And it states a third patient was offered and received just six baths over the course of a month.
Little recourse
Atkins estimates New Mexico families with pending settlements against Genesis will receive about 10% of what the company originally agreed to pay them.
Those plaintiffs are currently standing in a long line of creditors, who will be paid out from remaining assets if the court approves the company’s sale and settlement agreement.
The state Department of Justice is “actively monitoring” the Genesis bankruptcy case, spokesperson Chelsea Pitvorec wrote in an email.
The agency “will intervene if doing so becomes necessary — which could include, but is not limited to, ensuring any business filing bankruptcy in New Mexico [fulfills] its tax liability to the State as part of the process,” Pitvorec added.
New Mexico could make some policy changes to improve the care available in the state’s nursing homes, Foote said. She and Atkins argued for stricter nursing home staffing ratios — ones that go beyond the existing state standard of 2½ hours per patient day.
However, Vicente Vargas, executive director of the state trade group representing long-term and assisted living operators, argued such an increase won’t be a “silver bullet” for better care. Instead, he said, higher staffing standards could reduce the number of beds facilities are able to operate — especially in staff-strapped rural New Mexico.
As Genesis facilities continue to operate — likely under new ownership, if the court approves its pending proposal — in New Mexico, Atkins said, “The key question is: This new company taking over all these Genesis facilities, how are we going to hold them to a reasonable standard of providing … dignity, care and safety?”
“What I hope happens is that the new people come in and they commit to doing a safe, good job for all of our elderly population and they break the Genesis mold,” he said. “My fear is that they’re going to do the exact same thing.”
Margaret O’Hara reports on issues affecting healthy communities in New Mexico. Her work is funded by a grant from Anchorum Health Foundation. Anchorum will not have any role in editorial decisions. The New Mexican and its Public Service Journalism Fund retain full editorial control. Philanthropically funded stories by The New Mexican are made available to all readers without a paywall.
