President Biden on Wednesday proposed a $400 billion plan designed to significantly bolster Medicaid coverage of long-term care outside of institutional settings, marking the first concrete step toward achieving a central campaign promise to support caregivers and expand access to home-based care. Pitched as part of a $2 trillion infrastructure package dubbed “the American Jobs […]
Like many senior living and care executives, Jill Wilson’s first reaction to the “small home” model of nursing homes was a mixture of curiosity and skepticism. The year was 2004, and Wilson was the chief financial officer of Otterbein SeniorLife, a Lebanon, Ohio-based non-profit that runs senior living communities and standalone nursing campuses. The CEO […]
For the second time in as many weeks, federal lawmakers scrutinized private equity investment in nursing homes as the probes into the COVID-19 disaster in long-term care continue to intensify. “How many grandmothers and grandfathers died because profits were prized above lives, with our taxpayer dollars funding this?” Rep. Bill Pascrell, who chairs the House […]
The COVID-19 vaccination clinics that started rolling out in late December brought swift, substantial drops in infection and death rates in nursing homes, but a new report warns that it’s far too soon to declare victory over the virus in post-acute and long-term care. In fact, 437 nursing facilities across the country reported their very […]
Vaccine hesitancy among nursing home and senior living workers has substantially declined since the first shots received emergency approval last December, according to a new industry survey. About 62% of post-acute and senior living workers polled by software firm OnShift indicated that they would be willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, up from 32% in […]
PatientPing, a software company that has garnered significant venture capital funding as it looks to ease care transitions between nursing homes and other settings, has sold to Appriss Health, the companies announced Tuesday. PE Hub initially reported the news Monday, citing “people familiar with the transaction”; the two firms formally confirmed that they had reached […]
Families of nursing home residents have spent the past year appealing to policymakers that COVID-19 lockdowns were having a significantly negative effect on their loved ones’ health — and a new study put some sobering numbers on the physical impact of loneliness. The proportion of residents experiencing unexpected weight loss accelerated by 150% during the […]
Over the last several years, regionalization has dominated the mergers-and-acquisitions narrative in nursing homes, with operators and investors increasingly questioning the utility of massive scale in a landscape that depends so heavily on local market factors such as Medicaid rates and hospital referral flows. But as former giants such as Kindred Healthcare exited the industry […]
The federal government last week ended a year-long nightmare for families across the country when it announced the relaxation of visitation bans at nursing homes in all but a few limited cases. But for the family members who spent 2020 working to reunite with their loved ones, the work won’t end along with the expiration […]
The nation’s nursing homes have shed 182,000 jobs since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020, according to a new analysis, a significant drop for a sector that struggled to keep facilities fully staffed even in pre-COVID times. That works out to an 11.5% drop between February 2020 and the end of last […]
Sen. Elizabeth Warren this week wrote another letter to executives at Genesis HealthCare (NYSE: GEN), raising concerns about the nursing home giant’s recent deal to significantly restructure its operations in part through a $50 million private equity investment. Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, made headlines in late January when she publicly questioned the operator’s decision to […]
The top federal Medicare advisory body this week formally recommended against raising rates to skilled nursing facilities in fiscal 2022, arguing that the sector will eventually recover from COVID-era financial strains. “While the projected level of payments indicates that payments need to be reduced to more closely align aggregate payments and costs, the lasting impacts […]
The passage of the Social Security Act in 1935 was a landmark moment in the history of aging in America, but it also created a novel problem for the federal government: how to keep track of payroll information for the millions of workers who would now be paying into the new retirement insurance program, and […]
The state of California on Monday filed a lawsuit against Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD), accusing the company of submitting false nursing home staffing data to the federal government and improperly handling resident discharges. California attorney general Xavier Becerra — President Biden’s pick to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services […]
Diversicare Healthcare Services (OTC: DVCR) this week reported a financial boost from its decision to outsource therapy services, along with a significant cache of stimulus funds waiting for deployment. The Brentwood, Tenn.-based nursing home operator in November announced a shift from its wholly-owned Diversicare Therapy Services to Reliant Rehabilitation, a move that Jay McKnight predicted […]
LTC Properties (NYSE: LTC) late Thursday announced that it will transition 11 skilled nursing facilities currently controlled by Abri Health Services/Senior Care Centers to a new operator after sending a notice of default over non-payment of March rent. The Texas-based HMG Healthcare will assume operation of the 1,400-bed portfolio sometime in the second quarter of […]
The ink on ProMedica’s deal to acquire the operations of nursing home giant HCR ManorCare was barely dry, but the health system’s David Parker already had his eyes on further expansion. The Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica made a huge splash in the post-acute and long-term care world in 2018 when it teamed with real estate investment […]
The federal government’s sole attempt at linking nursing home Medicare reimbursements with outcomes is broken and requires an overhaul, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) determined. The Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Payment (SNF VBP) Model has rewarded strikingly few facilities while the majority have lost money — though the amounts involved in either direction were […]
The federal government on Wednesday issued updated guidance for nursing home visitations, calling on facilities to allow “responsible indoor visitation at all times and for all residents” — regardless of vaccination status — with a handful of situational exceptions. “CMS recognizes the psychological, emotional, and physical toll that prolonged isolation and separation from family have […]
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a sweeping $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that contains some additional support for the nation’s beleaguered nursing homes, with President Biden expected to sign the package into law Friday. The American Rescue Plan specifically includes $200 million to support COVID-19 vaccination efforts and infection control improvements in nursing […]