In case you missed them the first time around, here’s some of the biggest stories from the world of skilled nursing this week, including a rapidly unfolding pas de deux between a major skilled nursing REIT and its largest tenant, less-than-stellar occupancy projections from NIC, and insights into cultivating a dynamic, multigenerational nursing staff.
Quality Care Properties (NYSE: QCP) started laying the groundwork for a complete equity takeover of its primary skilled nursing tenant, HCR ManorCare, just a few days after the REIT claimed that the operator came up short on its June rent. And just in case there wasn’t enough QCP-ManorCare drama this week, the New York Post reported — citing unidentified sources — that ManorCare’s CEO was looking for the immediate payment of a deferred $100 million compensation package.
Zooming out to more macro-level industry troubles, skilled nursing occupancy was trending downward at the end of the first quarter despite an overall increase from Q4, according to a new report from the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC). Bill Kauffman, NIC’s senior principal, pointed out that the first quarter tends to be the highest of the year due to seasonal factors such as flu season — but given the lower starting point compared to previous years, occupancy could hit record lows before 2017 is out.
A new study dove into the ways that skilled nursing operators can manage the generational differences that arise when baby boomers, Gen Xers, and millennials work together at the same facility. Baby boomers, for instance, tend to think that management doesn’t understand their problems, while millennials have more issues with workplace climate than their older counterparts.
AARP exposed some of the potentially troubling demographic math behind the GOP’s Obamacare replacement plan, pointing out that Trumpcare’s Medicaid funding would increase at a fixed rate based on fiscal year 2016 spending — which could be problematic as the proportion of Americans aged 85 and older increases in the coming decades.
Also in the News
Philadelphia’s Largest SNF Operator Exits City — Mid-Atlantic Health Care, Philadelphia’s erstwhile largest nursing home operator, sold off its entire portfolio to a New Jersey-based company at the end of May, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Mid-Atlantic operated five SNFs in the City of Brotherly Love — totaling 1,176 beds, or 16% of the city’s total — and a sixth in Royersford, Pa., about 30 miles away. The buyer was MIMA Healthcare of Cherry Hill, N.J., and the transaction marks the latest in a string of exits among Pennsylvania SNF operators, the Inquirer reported.
Eye on Oversight — Nursing Home Abuse — The Department of Health and Human Services released a video detailing nursing home abuses that its Office of the Inspector General has discovered recently, from overmedication to insufficient staffing.
Written by Alex Spanko
