| Major reporting today from the Lexington Herald Leader reveals that Kentucky congressional candidate Ralph Alvarado was cashing checks from the nursing home industry and overseeing facilities that were sued multiple times while actively serving as Tennessee’s state health commissioner – raising fresh questions about his record of corruption.
The Herald Leader uncovers that “a review of the Kentucky nursing homes Alvarado reports serving as medical director while also working in Tennessee show that several — like his previous employers — have quality of care problems.”
The report shows that Alvarado oversees two facilities that “have been sued at least 13 times between them since 2023 for personal injury, medical malpractice and wrongful death.”
Alvarado’s job was to protect patients – but instead, he was cashing checks from the health care industry and overseeing failing facilities.
DCCC Spokesperson Eli Cousin:
“We already knew that Ralph Alvarado worked to shield nursing homes from accountability while serving as a medical director for several nursing homes that neglected patients and settled wrongful death lawsuits. Now, this bombshell report raises even further questions about Alvarado’s record of cashing checks while using his position in power to look the other way as people suffer. Central Kentuckians can’t afford Ralph Alvarado’s corruption.”
Read key details from the Herald Leader’s reporting for yourself:
Lexington Herald Leader: Ralph Alvarado kept outside jobs while working as Tennessee health commissioner
By John Cheves | September 9, 2026
- According to his financial disclosure reports, Alvarado, who is a doctor and former Kentucky state senator, maintained a portfolio of paid health-care employment across Central and Eastern Kentucky during his years in Tennessee state government.
- His disclosure reports generally don’t provide much detail about Alvarado’s income from each of his jobs. But a report he filed with the U.S. House on Nov. 11, 2025, indicates that in 2024, he was paid $199,586 by the state of Tennessee and at least $126,462 for his outside work.
- Appointed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee, Alvarado was Tennessee’s state health commissioner from Jan. 16, 2023, to July 11, 2025, and kept a home just northeast of Nashville. Days after he quit that job, Alvarado declared his candidacy for Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District in the 2026 election.
- Apart from his pay, some of Alvarado’s congressional campaign money also comes from the nursing home industry.
- Questions have arisen before about Alvarado’s outside employment.
- A review of the Kentucky nursing homes Alvarado reports serving as medical director while also working in Tennessee show that several — like his previous employers — have quality of care problems. Dover Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Georgetown, for example, is rated by the federal government as a one-star facility, or “much below average,” with 29 deficiencies in the last three years and a $163,742 fine levied in December 2023.
- Nicholasville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center is likewise rated a one-star facility, with 18 deficiencies cited by state inspectors over the last three years.
- The two facilities have been sued at least 13 times between them since 2023 for personal injury, medical malpractice and wrongful death […]
- A national authority on nursing homes said he has a scheduling question for Alvarado: How could someone with an important leadership post in Tennessee oversee the medical care in multiple facilities across parts of Kentucky, a seven-hour round-trip away? “It sounds impossible. I mean, how could it be possible?” asked Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, a national nonprofit in New York City working to improve the quality of care in nursing homes.
- Alvarado had to file disclosure reports listing his sources of income for three years as a high-ranking officer in Tennessee state government. For the past two years, he’s had to do the same with the U.S. House as a candidate for Congress.
- Outside sources of income he listed during this period included his Winchester medical practice; Cambridge Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Lexington; Dover Nursing and Rehabilitation Center; Robertson County Health Care Facility in Mount Olivet; Nicholasville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center; West Liberty Nursing and Rehabilitation Center; Wesley Village in Wilmore; Boonesboro Trail Senior Living in Winchester; Isaiah House Treatment Center in Willisburg; and Eventus WholeHealth in Concord, N.C.
- Given Alvarado’s many ties to nursing homes, [Tennessee state Rep. Aftyn] Behn said, it seems worth noting that the state Department of Health at some point “scrubbed its website” of nursing home inspection reports, instead requiring citizens to file time-consuming open records requests in order to read individual reports that might embarrass a facility.
- “That’s how bad it is,” she said. The state health commissioner is the chief healthcare regulator, Behn said. He should not represent the public interest at the same time he’s getting paid by different parts of the healthcare industry, she said. “I’m very shocked to hear that he had private employment and especially at nursing homes,” she said.
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