• 60 Seconds with Swett: The Problem with CMS Interpretive Guidelines

    Just a day after we highlighted the potential downsides of overregulation of assisted living from the federal level, a case of regulatory overreach involving a nursing home just headed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth District in hopes of overturning a $1.8 million civil monetary penalty. Without getting into the minutiae too much, the... Read More »
  • Kayne Anderson Fund Tops Target

    The familiar refrain continues, with more capital continuing to flow into the seniors housing industry, property prices should keep rising. Kayne Anderson Real Estate, the real estate private equity arm of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P., has closed the largest opportunistic equity fund in its history, at more than 70% above its initial... Read More »
  • Well-Performing Full-Continuum Community Sells

    Blueprint announced its role in the sale of Morningstar at Golden Ridge, a seniors housing community in Peoria, Arizona (Phoenix MSA). Built in 2019, the community has 38 independent living, 65 assisted living and 35 memory care units. It is nearly fully occupied. The community is one of the newest and most well-appointed assets within a... Read More »
  • Kaplan Development Divests to Cedarwood Group

    Cedarwood Group closed its acquisition of Saranac Village at Will Rogers, a 75-unit independent living community in Saranac Lake, New York. The seller was Kaplan Development Group, which took over Will Rogers after the first year of it being open as a senior living community. The community was originally built in 1928 as a Tudor-style... Read More »
  • Omega Welcomes New CEO and CFO

    Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc.’s President, Matthew Gourmand will become the REIT’s Chief Executive Officer in conjunction with the planned retirement of Taylor Pickett, effective October 1, 2026. Pickett will also step down from the Board of Directors upon his retirement, and the Board of Directors intends to appoint Gourmand to the Board,... Read More »

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

‘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

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

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 »
Labor Woes to Continue?

Labor Woes to Continue?

The American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living issued a report last week which showed that the long-term care industry is facing its worst job loss ever, and has not showed any kind of recovery like other healthcare sectors.  Industry employment in the nursing home sector has fallen by 14%, a loss of 221,000 jobs, while assisted living employment fell by 8%, a loss of 38,000 jobs during the pandemic.   Initially, hospitals saw a huge drop in employment, caused by the sharp reduction in elective surgeries. But it has mostly recovered, and total employment sits at just 1.6% below pre-pandemic levels. Even though that means hospitals are down 86,000... Read More »