MedPAC Margin Myopia
Too much focus on Medicare margins results in MedPAC’s recommendations ignored every year. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) does a lot of worthwhile research as it relates to health care and Medicare. But the commissioners must get tired of banging their heads against the wall year after year when it comes to their recommendations to Congress for Medicare payments to SNFs. For years, they have believed Medicare payments to nursing facilities were too high, and every year recommend cuts or no increases. This year was no different. MedPAC recommended no increase in SNF payment rates for two years. This was partly because they believe Medicare margins are too high, and... Read More »
Thoughts On NIC Dallas
The recent spring NIC conference in Dallas was a little more sober than recent conferences. Coming right after Brookdale Senior Living’s various announcements and stock plunge, plus the bankruptcy filing of HCR ManorCare, some people were a bit more circumspect about how the sector was doing. I did continue my poll of private company CEOs and the impact of the flu season on operations. Still batting 1,000, as everyone I asked said the flu was having minimal, if any, impact on census. It was the other factors we highlighted in the March issue. There was something else we noticed. The traditional sessions on things like private equity investing or lending to the senior care market were... Read More »
Brookdale, HCR ManorCare and NIC
Two major companies make decisions, one with a path forward and the other still unclear, and they will be the talk of Dallas at the NIC conference. As the senior care investing world descends on Dallas today for the Spring NIC conference, the giddy tone of the newcomers may be sobered by the recent events at Brookdale Senior Living and HCR ManorCare. Brookdale was the worse story, with its share price now down 80% from three years ago. The announcement last week that HCR ManorCare will submit a pre-packaged bankruptcy filing and become a wholly-owned subsidiary of landlord Quality Care Properties was not a surprise, but just confirmed that the skilled nursing sector has a long struggle... Read More »
Skilled Nursing Price Drops
When the average price per bed for skilled nursing facilities drops, the consistency in that drop is unparalleled. Here is something to ponder. We know that after a nice five-year run-up, the average price paid per bed in the skilled nursing market dropped by 18% last year, according to our new statistics. That was obviously a significant plunge, especially since the average had doubled in the previous five years. So, I decided to go back and see what happened in other years since 2000 when there was a drop. It turns out there were four years when there was a price drop of any significance. These included 2003, 2008, 2011 and 2017. What is weird is that the decline in each of those four... Read More »
Bad Flu Season, But That’s Not The Story
It is a horrific flu season, but it may be unfairly blamed for current seniors housing woes. So, we have all been hearing about this horrible flu season, especially with the unusual number of children’s deaths, including in my home town. But what I fear is that it will be blamed for more than its fair share of census problems in the senior care market. Granted, when the worst flu season in nearly a decade hits, it is bound to impact senior care communities, where the residents are much more frail than the population as a whole. But for some reason, this flu season is impacting seniors housing communities, and companies, in very different ways. Believe it or not, some have seen little to no... Read More »Schedule a demo
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