The retirement home sector is once once more the subject of much criticism. Following the publication in The world (dated January 25) from the good sheets of the book-investigation The Gravediggers (Fayard, 388 p., 22.90 euros), written by journalist Victor Castanet, the shares of several groups fell sharply on the stock market on Tuesday January 25, for the second day in a row.
The action of the group of retirement homes Orpéa, severely pinned, lost more than 15% on the Paris Stock Exchange on Tuesday, following a suspension of twenty-four hours of its quotation.
The title lost 15.01%, to settle at 58.88 euros around 1:45 p.m. On Monday, it had fallen more than 16% before the company requested the suspension of trading shortly following midday. . The storm did not spare Korian (−14%), the European number one, nor LNA Santé (−5.2%), in a market in sharp decline (−4%).
Orpéa is accused, testimonies and supporting documents, of favoring profitability over the well-being of residents: food and hygiene products “rationed”, old people sometimes abandoned in their excrement or left unattended for days. Its leaders, who refused to answer the journalist, “Formally contest all of these accusations”, calling them “false, outrageous and prejudicial” and adding that they translate a “manifest intention to harm”. They say they seized their lawyers to give “all the consequences, including on the judicial level”.
The remainder to be paid is very high for the people accommodated – obliged to draw on their assets and ask for help from their children
Orpéa, also present in private clinics, manages 1,156 establishments in 23 countries in Europe and Latin America (Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay). It forecast, in November 2021, a turnover of 4.3 billion euros for the year 2021 (+ 9%) in a sector which is growing with the aging of the population… particularly in France, where the public authorities estimate the need for 108,000 additional places in nursing homes by 2030.
Without the implementation of a “fifth risk” of Social Security financed by compulsory contributions, promised by several governments and postponed due to lack of funding, the remaining costs are very high for the people accommodated – forced to dip into their heritage and ask for help from their children. Half of them spent at least 1,850 euros per month to finance their care, following the payment of allowances (personal autonomy allowance, for example) and the contribution of families, according to a survey published at the end of 2018 by the Department of Studies, Ministry of Solidarity.
The rest to be paid even reached 2,420 euros for half of the elderly in private for-profit establishments such as those of Orpéa (compared to 1,800 euros for the other establishments).