Josh Jergensen, president and COO of PACS Group (NYSE: PACS), said Tuesday that the nursing home giant is just getting started on its growth plans following its latest transaction to acquire 32 facilities in Florida.

The transaction comes on the heels of PACS’ 34-facility acquisition of Eduro facilities, announced in June.

“We’re kind of revving the engines up a little bit,” said Jergensen. “We anticipate this being one of many deals that we’re going to do in the future as our space begins to be more consolidated with high quality operators like PACS.”

PACS is committed to growing its footprint, although the pace of acquisitions this year has so far been slower compared to 2025, he said.

“We feel like we’re one of the very few numbers of providers who can actually grow at that sort of scale,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chairman and CEO Jason Murray said his company remained committed to its core strategy of taking over underperforming facilities and deploying PACS’ operating model, strong leadership and capital to improve their performance.

“As we take over these underperforming facilities, typically they are broken in many ways. Clinically, they are not performing at the level that they should,” Murray said. “[After the take over] we start to see the clinical product improve and the clinical outcomes improve, and then that creates a virtuous cycle within the facilities where reimbursement improves, the occupancy levels improve, and the referral patterns improve.”  

PACS currently operates at more than 90% occupancy overall, according to Murray, and he expects occupancy to continue increasing as the company expands into new markets and improves existing facilities.

Murray and Jergensen, alongside CFO Carey Hendrickson, discussed PACS’ acquisition pipeline, 2026 guidance, facility-selection criteria, real estate strategy and reimbursement environment during their joint appearance at the 2026 Jefferies Healthcare Services Conference.

How PACS chooses facilities and allocates capital 

At September’s start, PACS agreed to acquire the operations of 32 skilled nursing facilities with a total of 4,049 licensed skilled nursing beds across Florida. The facilities will be leased from subsidiaries of one of PACS’ existing REIT landlords, Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc. (NYSE: OHI). 

Also, PACS has completed the acquisition of 31 of the 34 facilities it is taking over from Eduro, with the remaining three facilities expected to close in the fourth quarter, Jergensen said. 

The Eduro portfolio comprises 3,633 nursing beds across six states, with 22 in Texas, 6 in Montana, three in South Dakota, one each in New Mexico, North Dakota and Utah.

As with all its transactions, the integration of these acquisitions will revolve around ensuring adequate staffing from day one, assessing and upgrading IT infrastructure, implementing PACS’ electronic health record and real-time KPI systems, and evaluating each facility’s clinical capabilities and local referral opportunities, Jergensen said.

The company’s acquisition strategy remains centered on underperforming facilities where PACS believes its operating model can create significant value, he said. 

PACS evaluates the administrator and the broader management team, including nursing, therapy and other department leaders. The company then determines whether to develop the existing team or make changes, Jergensen said. 

PACS also considers the facility’s ability to improve clinically, increase occupancy, attract higher-acuity patients and establish a stronger reputation with hospitals and managed care organizations.

“Our model is to go in to assess the talent that we have, and so that will be a big part of the Eduro acquisition as well as the Florida acquisition,” Jergensen said.

Jergensen pointed to the Eduro acquisition as evidence of the company’s ability to absorb larger transactions.

As for its current acquisition pipeline, PACS has a significant one, and executives expect a rapid pace of growth.  

PACS overseas a mix of owned and leased facilities. Early in the company’s history, however, PACS generally lacked the capital to purchase real estate. Instead, it focused on taking over underperforming operations, improving them and using the resulting cash flow to fund additional growth.

As the company generated more cash, it began purchasing real estate and has since built a meaningful owned portfolio.

PACS currently overseas 358 facilities.

Reimbursement environment and a stronger 2026 Outlook 

PACS entered 2026 with midpoint guidance of approximately $565 million in EBITDA and subsequently increased it to approximately $650 million, reflecting strong first- and second-quarter performance and expectations for a solid second half, Hendrickson said.

The reimbursement environment remains generally favorable, with Hendrickson saying that PACS liked the 2.4% increase in Medicare payment for SNFs, while the outlook for Medicaid payment rates for states in which PACS operates, also remains generally favorable.   

“Some states are certainly better than others, but we like the states we’re in,” Hendrickson said.

Hendrickson also noted that PACS’ mature facilities generate margins in the mid-teens, compared with roughly 11% for the company overall, indicating additional room for margin expansion as newer facilities mature.