It’s the end of a holiday-shortened week, but the days off didn’t stop a wave of SNF news. In case you’ve been enjoying some extra time away from the office, here’s what you missed.
We continued to untangle the strands in Kindred’s deal to exit the SNF business, a blockbuster transaction that’s worth $700 million, $910 million, or $210 million — depending on how you look at it. While analysts from UBS and other firms that watch the industry cast a skeptical eye toward the terms of the deal, in which Kindred stands to see the most value over time, the post-acute giant told SNN that many of Kindred’s upfront expenses have already been accounted for — and termed the decision to buy out properties leased from Ventas as “the best way to approach the transaction.”
In other tales of SNFs and REITs, HCR ManorCare missed its July rent payment as its forbearance agreement with landlord Quality Care Properties, Inc. (NYSE: QCP) expired, the latest step in an extended dance between the two companies. The Bethesda, Md.-based QCP also stated in an 8-K that negotiations over a potential out-of-court equity takeover have proven fruitless.
And closer to the ground level, we took a look at how some SNF operators could actually see cost savings after implementing pricey disease-preventing design upgrades, from private rooms to bacteria-fighting materials on handrails to subliminal messaging systems that help staff remember to wash their hands.
Around the Web
Time magazine joined the growing chorus of mainstream publications realizing the effects that the Senate’s health care bill — the Better Care Reconciliation Act — would have on skilled nursing, listing the ways it would “hurt” seniors in a piece from earlier in the week. The CEO of a nursing facility in the nation’s capital told Time that the law would force operators into a “Catch-22,” in which they would be morally, and in some cases legally, obligated to maintain staffing levels but not have the Medicaid funding to achieve it.
“Our income would be cut by well more than half,” the CEO told Time. “I’ve got a 94-year-old mom and I’m a baby boomer. What in the world will happen?”
Written by Alex Spanko
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