Here’s a reason why we don’t want to see private equity ownership of nursing homes: Using nursing home funds to start up other ventures.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ The state has begun investigating the finances of a nursing home chain owned by a Nashville recording studio executive.

Haven Healthcare, which provides about 1,800 beds in the state, has been sued by at least 12 creditors since 2005, the Hartford Courant reported Sunday.

That is about the time that Raymond Termini, Haven’s chief executive, launched Category 5 Records, which has signed artists including Travis Tritt.

Should we write letters to Mr. Tritt informing him that his career comes at a high cost?

Termini has acknowledged that he used assets from Haven to finance the record label and buy a house, but said none of that money had come from government Medicaid or Medicare payments.

Haven Healthcare received about $130 million in such funding last year.

It also was not improper to use cash from refinancing Haven homes in other New England states to invest in “non-health care companies,” which he hoped would someday generate a return to the nursing-home chain, he told the Courant.

It’s not illegal or against laws to use “profits” and other incomes from nursing homes- to buy and finance other companies. But we have to question the ethics of it. The fall out is bad and sadly not to many people seem to care. The neglect of nursing home residents on the back of these so called investment opportunities needs to be re-examined. Health care and profits do not mix.