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 »
National Health Investors Shares Jump
When National Health Investors announced its first quarter earnings results last week, investors liked what they heard and sent the shares up by 8%, and they stayed up. The REIT has been dealing with problems at a few major tenants since the onset of the pandemic, and while the problems are not entirely over, most indicators are moving in the right direction. During the quarter, cash collections hit a near-term high of 98%, which should give investors a lot more confidence in the durability of the dividend. Total year-over-year occupancy increased by 400 basis points to 81.3%, driven by a 440-basis point increase in seniors housing and a 350-basis point increase in skilled nursing. ... Read More »
Sonida Senior Living Showing Some Life
It is nice to see that the rising tide of the post-pandemic recovery is lifting all ships, including Sonida Senior Living. As you will recall, they issued a “going concern” opinion last quarter, with cash balances declining every month and a debt load that will be difficult to ever pay off. While they are not out of the ICU yet, perhaps the respirator can be turned off, at least for a few quarters. The company is small, with 62 owned communities, which they should be able to use to their advantage and laser focus on operations, marketing and census. Occupancy has not been the problem, as at about 84% they are beating some of the larger companies as well as the SHOP portfolios of REITs.... Read More »
Ventas Continues To Improve
We are rounding out the first quarter earnings announcements, and like most everyone else, Ventas posted improved results, especially in its SHOP portfolio. And like everyone else, we are sure management would have liked to see a faster pace with the improvements. We can probably be criticized for focusing so much on census improvement over the now-25 months since the bottom of the market, but census is a good indicator for the health of the industry, as well as the demand for seniors housing units in an environment when supply is at its slowest growth point in years. With new supply constrained because of construction costs and a financing market contraction, combined with the beginning... 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 »Schedule a demo
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