


60 Seconds with Swett: An End to the Public Health Emergency
After more than three years in effect, the federal COVID-19 public health emergency ended on May 11. That seems like a moment worth celebrating, after the upheaval the country has experienced since the beginning of the pandemic. The vast majority of Americans wouldn’t have noticed the switch, since life has been pretty much back to normal for over a year now. But health care facilities will feel the change. Although states and localities may have different rules, staff vaccine mandates that caused a lot of consternation and even reached the Supreme Court will end at nursing homes, thereby hopefully relieving some of the staffing stresses on facilities. Continuous enrollment policies... Read More »
60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: Out of Touch With SNF Reality
Is the Biden Administration so out of touch with reality that they would actually shove a mandate down the throats of providers to require additional staffing in our nation’s nursing homes? Don’t answer that. Although we have heard that they are “talking” with the industry about how and what to do, let’s hope it is more frequently than they have talked with Republicans about the debt ceiling problem. Some sort of pronouncement on the staffing mandate is now expected in June, but it would be better to wait and have a workable way to move forward than to set the industry up for failure. Unfortunately, there are too many people who would like to see the entire industry go out of... Read More »
Financing for Seniors Housing and Care in 2023 and Beyond
The upheaval in the capital markets has directly impacted the seniors housing and care M&A market by terminating a number of deals, dissuading property owners from even selling, lowering property values and by making the deals that do close that much harder to get done. But the financing world, nor the M&A market, hasn’t come to a standstill. Far from it, especially putting today’s deal activity in historical perspective. That is because there are sellers that still have to sell for a variety of reasons, buyers that are prepared to buy (at a discount, to be sure), owners that have maturing debt and need to refinance, and different types of lenders that still want to put capital out... Read More »
300 Seconds with Steve Monroe: Silverado, COVID and Lawsuits
I have been uncharacteristically quiet about the news last month from the People’s Republic of California, or should I say, from Comrade DA George Gascon of Los Angeles. No more. I am referring, of course, to the criminal charges against Silverado, its CEO Loren Shook, Kimberly Butrum, SVP of clinical services, and Jason Russo, the administrator at the Silverado Alzheimer’s facility where there was a major COVID outbreak in early 2020. The trio faces a total of 13 felony counts of elder endangerment and five felony counts of violation causing death. The company itself also faces charges. What we know is that a retired physician flew in from New York City to Los Angeles late on March... Read More »