• 60 Seconds with Swett: The Great Debates of Senior Care

    Next week for our Second Quarter Investor Call, sponsored by Ziegler, we’ll be trying something different that is sure to be both entertaining and useful for our audience of operators, investors, brokers, lenders and everyone else. We’ll be tackling The Great Debates of Senior Care, covering some of the most important issues facing the industry.... Read More »
  • Thank You Ortelius?

    Brookdale Senior Living just reported June occupancy, and the increases were much better than we expected for a second quarter, which historically has been a mixed bag for the industry. Let’s just say, we were impressed. June’s same-community weighted average occupancy was 81.1%, up 220 basis points year over year and up 50 basis points... Read More »
  • SLIB Sells SNF in New Jersey

    Toby Siefert of Senior Living Investment Brokerage got a skilled nursing sale in New Jersey over the finish line after survey issues caused a buyer switch-up. Built in 1980, Medford Care Center is located in the town of Medford (about an hour east of Philadelphia) and features 180 beds on an 11-acre campus. Operations were not strong, and the... Read More »
  • Carnegie Capital Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary with Texas Portfolio Deal

    Carnegie Capital, the national seniors housing debt brokerage founded and run by JD Stettin and David Farhadian, celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a $124 million, or $117,100 per bed, portfolio acquisition transaction. Carnegie provided a combination of advisory work and debt placement for the nine-skilled nursing facility portfolio with... Read More »
  • 12 Oaks Senior Living Appoints New CFO

    12 Oaks Senior Living appointed Elliott Westerman as CFO, effective immediately. Westerman has more than two decades of leadership experience across senior living, healthcare, and real estate sectors. As CFO, Westerman will oversee all aspects of financial management, including financial planning and analysis, capital structure strategy,... Read More »
The New York Times Is At It Again

The New York Times Is At It Again

The New York Times decided to use Labor Day weekend as its bully pulpit to bash the nursing home industry yet again in one of the longest editorials we can remember. They called it “The Shameful Toll of Nursing Homes.”   Surprisingly, there were actually some decent recommendations and even a few actual facts that we can’t dispute. But, like always, they just don’t get it when it comes to health care, money and policy.  First of all, they started with the proposition that the nation’s nursing homes “had months of warning about the coming threat.” Come again? Warning from whom? The first confirmed death “by” COVID-19 did not occur until the end of February, and most... Read More »
Financial Relief For Seniors Housing

Financial Relief For Seniors Housing

Federal financial relief may be coming to assisted living and memory care providers, but will it be enough? The folks at ASHA, Argentum and NCAL have been working overtime to obtain some federal financial relief for their private pay members to deal with the burdens associated with COVID-19.  It’s supposed to be coming soon, but will it be enough? For now, the formula will be based on how it worked for Medicaid providers, which is 2% of 2019 revenues. For an 80-unit assisted living/memory care community with an average $5,000 monthly rate, that might come in at close to $80,000. If you have 50 communities, that is $4 million. Now we’re talking. For a more modest community with 50 units in... Read More »
Death “Because of” COVID

Death “Because of” COVID

Who would have thought that a relatively short story called “Death By or With COVID” would have had so many responses from readers? It must have hit an industry chord because it does ring true. Most of the people dying in nursing homes or other senior living communities had serious health issues before COVID struck. And if it wasn’t COVID, it was going to be one of their co-morbidities, if not the 2020-2021 flu season.  And then the “news story” hit that only 6% of the COVID deaths were solely from COVID. Apparently, the conspiracy theorists took to their twitter accounts, President Trump included, obviously to downplay the role that COVID has been playing. We swear, we had nothing to do... Read More »
It’s Not As Bad As It Seems, And It Is Getting Better

It’s Not As Bad As It Seems, And It Is Getting Better

We have been having a series of off-the-record conversations with CEOs in the senior living industry, and while most are a little cranky about the past six months, many are also becoming a little more optimistic and see the light at the end of the tunnel. That’s the good news.  The bad news is that for most of them census remains at low levels they have never seen before. That is beginning to change as leads, tours and move-ins are now moving in an upward direction, especially in the Northeast which was hit first by the pandemic and recovered first as well.   We have also been hearing that staffing is returning to more normal levels, with staffing costs for some companies... Read More »
Death By or With COVID

Death By or With COVID

We are sure every provider is sick and tired of hearing about how many residents have died of COVID-19 in a nursing home or assisted living community. The problem is that the classification may be all wrong.  Unfortunately, there may be a financial reason for such classifications, as in more reimbursement, or more governmental aid. And for those who can profit from making this pandemic seem worse than it is (yes, they do exist), piling up the number of COVID deaths helps to make their case. It has certainly helped the mainstream media and their advertising dollars.  But here is the problem, at least as it relates to the deaths in assisted living, memory care and nursing homes.... Read More »
Financial Relief For Seniors Housing

Beware The Flu Season?

Fears of the flu season compounding the effects of the “second wave” of the coronavirus are overblown, and this is why. Almost every conversation surrounding the coronavirus and outbreaks in nursing homes or assisted living communities eventually gets around to the double whammy of a “second wave” combined with the upcoming flu season. Yes, providers will have to be vigilant, but they have never been as well prepared for the flu season as they are today. Think about it. Less than a year ago, do you remember ever walking into any senior care facility where the staff were all wearing masks, where hand sanitizers were everywhere, where your temperature was taken at the entrance,... Read More »