What happened
Massachusetts regulators moved on October 13, 2026 to revoke all of the nursing home licenses held by RegalCare, a New Jersey-based company that went on a buying spree in the state after the pandemic, slashed costs, and gutted the quality of care at many of its 12 homes. The action came directly after The Boston Globe's Spotlight Team chronicled how CEO Eli Mirlis cut nursing and other services while steering funds to businesses he owns. The homes do not change hands immediately; they fall under enhanced monitoring while RegalCare challenges the revocations at a hearing.
The record behind the move is stark. The federal quality rating for RegalCare's Taunton home fell from five stars to one star after the company bought it in late 2022. The state public health commissioner also flagged a recent settlement with the US Attorney's Office in Boston and the Massachusetts Attorney General in which Mirlis admitted billing MassHealth and Medicare for medically unreasonable and unnecessary physical therapy on frail, elderly patients — a $1 million resolution announced weeks earlier.
The report also surfaced a misrepresentation: in 2018, New Jersey regulators determined Mirlis lied about completing continuing education requirements and permanently revoked his nursing home administrator license, yet his Massachusetts applications indicated he had never had a professional license revoked — something Massachusetts regulators did not know until the Globe told them. The report examined eight other out-of-state chains with questionable records that together own nearly one in five Massachusetts nursing homes.
What it cost
All 12 Massachusetts licenses moved for revocation; Mirlis would be barred from operating in the state for a decade; the homes sit under enhanced monitoring now.
Why it happened
After acquiring the homes, management made steep cuts to nursing and other care services while routing money to related businesses owned by the CEO.
Care quality collapsed under the cost cuts — the clearest single marker being a five-star home falling to one star federally.
His Massachusetts applications said no professional license had ever been revoked, while New Jersey had permanently revoked his administrator license in 2018 for lying about continuing education.
The chain had just admitted billing Medicare and MassHealth for medically unreasonable therapy on frail elderly patients, paying $1 million.
The lesson
Cost cuts that strip away the service you exist to provide turn an acquisition spree into an enforcement case, and regulators eventually read the star ratings.
Aftermath
RegalCare said it will contest the planned revocations through the appeals process and pledged no disruption in care; if the state prevails, Mirlis is barred from operating nursing homes in Massachusetts for ten years. Commissioner Robbie Goldstein tied the action to a comprehensive review of RegalCare facilities across states and to the Globe findings. A 2024 law meant to let regulators weigh operators' out-of-state records remains unimplemented pending regulations the Public Health Council is scheduled to vote on the day after the announcement.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE