Industry Leader Passes Away
I was saddened to learn that my friend George Chapman has just passed away. I had known George since the 1980s when he was working under Bruce Thompson, the co-founder and CEO of Health Care REIT (now Welltower). We started with a very friendly relationship when Bruce found out that he and I both went to the same Connecticut prep school. Bruce never let it drop, and George continued on with the teasing over the years. Back then, I never saw one without the other. Not many people know that Health Care REIT started as the Health Care Fund, and then changed its tax status to a REIT. It was the first healthcare-focused, and really long-term care focused, REIT in existence. And this was when... Read More »
Brookdale Senior Living Census Drops
As you may remember, in October 2020 we did a comprehensive study of seniors housing occupancy for the 10 years leading up to the pandemic. What we found surprised us in many ways. We used assisted living occupancy as a proxy for the entire seniors housing market, mostly because it is the largest segment, using the NIC MAP census numbers. What we found was that for the 11 years prior to the pandemic, occupancy had never increased in the first quarter of any year. In the first quarter of 2022, however, Brookdale Senior Living beat those odds by posting a 50-basis point increase in month-end occupancy after dropping 30 basis points in January. Weighted average occupancy for that quarter was... Read More »
Biden Administration Wants More SNF Transparency
The Biden administration is at it again. While he had just a passing reference to skilled nursing in his State of the Union address, Joe Biden is back at it now. They are continuing with the mantra that after private equity firms buy nursing homes, the mortality rate increases by 10%. However, they do not say why and what other influences there may be, such as higher acuity rates, which would by definition result in more deaths. Private equity firms always try to get their operators to increase the Medicare census in facilities they purchase because that is where the profits are, not in custodial care Medicaid patients. This is partly why there is an increase in taxpayer spending after a... Read More »
Good News For Ventas, and Seniors Housing
Ventas just released its fourth quarter earnings as well as full-year 2022, and its seniors housing portfolio is looking up. Year-over-year same-community performance improved in all categories. Average occupancy increased by 140 basis points to 82.5%. While this is not a great increase for a 12-month period given the lows they were coming from, we’ll take it. Same-community cash net operating income increased year over year by 19.1% to $150.5 million, and the operating margin expanded by 220 basis points to 24.5%. Now, this is not even close to the old days, but a nice pickup. We believe, however, that these numbers include the various government payments which are going away, so the... Read More »
Baier’s Brookdale Butcher Block
On Friday the 13th (kind of cute, isn’t it), Brookdale Senior Living announced some major C-Suite changes, including the removal of Steven Swain as EVP and CFO effective February 24th, with the current Chief Accounting Officer taking over those roles while remaining the CAO. In addition, Kevin Bowman is out as EVP of Community Operations (basically the COO) effective January 12th. The two division VPs for the East and West will now report directly to CEO Cindy Baier. We are not sure what happened, but this seems a little like blaming these two senior executives for the 50% plunge in Brookdale’s share price as a result of the recent dilutive equity raise. We don’t know where this equity... Read More »Schedule a demo
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