Residents of Washington State Getting Bamboozled
In just five short weeks, the residents of Washington State will begin paying a new payroll tax to fund a “long-term care” benefit, called the WA Cares Fund. It is the first state-wide mandated LTC tax, and we have previously voiced our concerns about it. But it will be a reality for residents soon. Years ago, we went very public against the Class Act that was part of the Affordable Care Act, basically calling it a financial fraud that was never going to pay out for anyone. Even the authors of the ACA finally admitted it would not work, and eventually withdrew it. Like in Washington State, the federal program was well-intentioned (well, sort of) to try to fund some long-term care... Read More »Private Equity-Owned SNFs
Here we go again. According to a new study published by JAMA Health Forum, private equity-owned nursing homes are not cutting it compared to those nursing homes owned by other for-profits. In addition, PE-owned homes were more likely to have an acute coronary syndrome ER visit and more likely to have a resulting hospitalization. In addition, total Medicare costs (revenues) were higher. This needs some context. First of all, the size of the PE-owned group was just over 3% (300+ facilities) of the size of the larger for-profit group, so a pretty small group. Second, most PE firms, after a skilled nursing acquisition (and usually a portfolio) do try to change things to increase the... Read More »
‘Tis The Season To Borrow
So, inflation is at a 30-year high, but interest rates have not increased much. It is actually all relative since they are much higher than when the 10-year Treasury hit a low of 0.54% in March 2020. But seriously, that was a bit silly, just like oil at a negative price per barrel. If the inflation numbers stay high for a while, and end up not being “transitory,” something we heard several months ago but not so much lately, at some point that has to get embedded into interest rates. Which leads us to conclude that now is not a bad time to shore up your capital structure and borrow or refinance before rates rise. Two REITs are taking advantage of the market conditions, both with... Read More »
Genesis HealthCare Makes Changes
Just after announcing that its CEO would be stepping down, Genesis HealthCare revealed more changes. The current COO, Paul Bach, the Chief Nursing Officer, JoAnne Reifsnyder, and the CFO, Tom DiVittorio, have all announced they will be leaving the company. They have spent the past 38 years, 10 years and 25 years, respectively, at the company, so a lot of institutional knowledge will be walking out the door. The new COO will be Melissa Powell, who most recently was the President and COO of The Allure Group, a New York City-based nursing home operator. Orrin Feingold joins Genesis as the new CFO. He has had similar positions... Read More »
Chartwell Retirement Residences Sees Census Slowdown
North of the border, Canada-based Chartwell Retirement Residences has seen a small uptick in its weighted average occupancy rate for its retirement residences, but nothing like what we have seen in the U.S. For Chartwell’s same-community portfolio, occupancy ended July at 76.3%, gained 30 basis points in August and 10 basis points in September, to end the third quarter at 76.7%. But October saw just a 10-basis point increase again to 76.8%, and they are forecasting occupancy to remain there through the end of the year. We have not heard any U.S. companies believing they would remain flat for the rest of the year. Management claims that move-ins have... Read More »Schedule a demo
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