Skilled Nursing Must-Reads: ManorCare’s Win, Genesis’s Reinvention

Earnings season has brought a flurry of news from publicly traded skilled nursing operators and landlords, so in case you missed them the first time around, here’s a quick glance at the biggest stories in the SNF world from the past week — including a major structural shakeup at a leading provider.

After a judge ordered the Department of Justice to cover HCR ManorCare’s legal fees in a False Claims Act case, the federal government decided to drop the case altogether, handing the provider a major legal victory. The Toledo, Ohio-based company also recently received another extension from its landlord, Quality Care Properties, Inc. (NYSE: QCP); ManorCare now has until December 1 to respond to a receivership claim.

Genesis Healthcare (NYSE: GEN) trumpeted restructuring deals with landlords Welltower, Inc. (NYSE: HCN) and Sabra Health Care REIT (Nasdaq: SBRA), which CEO George Hager said will help improve its fixed-charge coverage ratio from 1.1 to 1.3 going forward. The out-of-court plan — about which the parties offered few concrete details — also means the company is not threatening bankruptcy, as one media outlet reported this week, according to Hager.

LCS will have a new CEO starting on New Year’s Day, and Joel Nelson told SNN that he’ll be focusing on the company’s evolving post-acute care strategy. A little sample: “We do have some post-acute, transitional care and high-acuity rehab, but our strategy is we’ll often partner and coordinate that care.”

And finally, a recent survey of registered nurses found that the staffing shortage in the profession may be deepening: More than half said the lack of RNs across the care continuum has become more noticeable over the last five years, and a predicted wave of boomer-age nurse retirements is already happening.

QCP Earnings Provide Peek into ManorCare Financials

QCP quietly released its earnings report for the third quarter this week, showing a net loss of $34 million — a serious swing from the same quarter in 2016, which saw the Bethesda, Md.-based real estate investment trust (REIT) report $53.5 million in net income.

QCP also presented ManorCare’s financial information in the report, which show a net loss of $94.2 million for the third quarter of this year, up from $38.7 million during the same period last year. The provider has lost $182.7 million so far in 2017, according to QCP’s filing.

The numbers hint at the depths of the issues between the operator and REIT, which was spun off from HCP, Inc. (NYSE: HCP) last year specifically to serve as a “pure play” skilled nursing landlord.

Written by Alex Spanko