The “Forgotten Middle” Returns
As occupancy levels continue to drop or remain subdued because of the pandemic, there seems to be less talk about the so-called “forgotten middle,” those seniors who can’t afford, but may need or want, some sort of senior living option. The NIC presented the findings of its study on this topic last year, and it created a lot of excitement. But the focus has shifted to dealing with declining census and profits. Mary Ann Donaghy, formerly the Chief Marketing Officer at NIC and now an independent consultant, recently posted an interesting article on LinkedIn about the topic, specifically how to move from theory to reality in developing a real plan for dealing with this... Read More »
Regaining The Trust of the Consumer
If you believe the results of a recent survey done by Transcend Strategy Group, the senior living industry has a lot of work to do to get the consumer back on board. A company called Transcend Strategy Group just came out with the results of a survey of 1,000 family caregivers. Of this group, 65% said that COVID-19 has completely changed their opinions about the best way to care for aging seniors, and 68% did not agree that quality care can be provided in “facilities.” Worse yet, 78% are concerned about their loved one catching the virus in a “facility.” These are not good numbers for our sector. But, there were ways to change these opinions. They centered on facilities providing... Read More »
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
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
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 »Schedule a demo
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