Is Ageism Dead?
Young people flock to see septuagenarians perform because they are rock stars. But aren’t all 70-somethings rock stars in some one’s mind? Asking if Ageism is dead might seem like a funny question. We see ageism every day. But last week I was fortunate enough to go to a sold-out Billy Joel concert at Madison Square Garden. I was expecting to see an average age close to 60, since most of Billy Joel’s hits were from the 1970s, back when I was a teenager. And I remember them well. But I was shocked to see so many people in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. For one 20-something I met, it was his fifth time seeing Billy Joel. He played all his hits, from the 1970s, and when they finally... Read More »
Signing Off For The Decade
The past decade has been quite the ride, but we are ready for the roaring 2020s. Can you believe it? We are just a few days from leaving this decade and entering the 2020s. That will be a relief, because calling the past decade the 20-teens, or whatever, just never sounded right. But what a decade it was. It started with coming out of the worst financial calamity in 70 years, with nobody knowing what would happen next. Capital dried up, values dropped, M&A activity almost disappeared, development came to a standstill, at least for some, and unemployment soared. But look what happened. Talk about resiliency. Capital is more abundant today than ever in the past. Values are mostly... Read More »
Seniors Housing Rates: Actual vs. Asking
For years, NIC MAP has been presenting quarterly changes in seniors housing asking rates, but it is now trying to get beyond that and get the actual rental rates. That will add a lot more needed transparency. As many of you know, NIC is working hard to develop its database of actual rents in seniors housing as opposed to the “asking” rents that have been used in their NIC Map numbers for years. This is very important because not until the market sees the actual rents communities are getting will we have a better understanding of the extent of price discounting in various markets. We have been a little vocal about the asking rent number because when times are tough, like they... Read More »
Negative Operating Margins for SNFs?
Always be careful about terminology in health care, and make sure you understand what things mean, like operating margin. It is always important to understand the definitions of certain terms, especially when it comes to health care. There has been a lot of news lately about how the median “operating margin” for skilled nursing facilities nationally has now sunk below zero. I have to admit, this drives me crazy. The implication is that for the median nursing facility, it is operating at a breakeven level….from operations. Operations are usually defined as labor, food, maintenance, utilities, basically everything that is needed to “operate” the facility. As I said last week, if half... Read More »
Required Staffing Increases, Now?
This is no time for Congress to start penalizing skilled nursing facilities and raising staffing minimums. Are people in our nation’s capital really that out of touch with reality on the ground? Yes. Finding quality staff is hard enough in skilled nursing facilities, but then getting reimbursed to pay for them is even harder. So, my senator from Connecticut is a co-sponsor of the Quality Care for Nursing Home Residents Act. Now, who doesn’t want quality care for nursing home residents? I assume everyone, except those who would like to put the sector out of business. For your standard 120-bed nursing facility, the bill proposes having three RNs om duty at night, four during the... Read More »Schedule a demo
Gain access to the best healthcare and long-term care investment intelligence, data, and analysis.
