Lawmaker: Declining Nursing Home Bed Count ‘What We Wanted’

Medicaid-rate shortfalls and other struggles have claimed more than 30 nursing homes in Washington state since 2010, and at least one lawmaker thinks that the pruning is necessary. State Rep. Eileen Cody, who chairs the state’s House Health Care and Wellness Committee, said a drop in available nursing homes beds is “what we wanted as […]

New York Times Probes HUD-Backed Nursing Homes on ‘Secret List’ of Special Focus Candidates

Merging two overarching storylines in the nationwide coverage of skilled nursing facilities, the New York Times on Monday identified 74 properties on a list of potentially troubled nursing homes that have received federally backed loans. The facilities appeared in a previously unreleased collection of more than 400 SNFs considered for inclusion on the Special Focus […]

Adult Day Centers Provide Middle Path in Shift to Home — and More Competition for Skilled Nursing

Amid the macro-level shift of care from institutions to the home, adult day providers are positioning themselves as an in-between option for caregivers and their families — as well as direct competitors to skilled nursing facilities. In the last six years alone, the number of adult day providers in the United States has doubled, according […]

Trillium to Shutter Three Nursing Homes in Nebraska; $23M Development Plotted in Maine

Trillium Healthcare Group has announced the impending closure of three nursing homes in Nebraska, the Lincoln Journal Star reported this week. The three facilities — located in Crete, Fremont, and West Point, Neb. — will close sometime in August, after a 60-day window in which Trillium will assist residents with finding alternate accommodations. Around 140 […]

Hospital Exec: ‘Almost Nothing’ Won’t Move to the Home Amid Shift to Lower-Cost Care Settings

The siphoning of residents from skilled nursing facilities into the home health space remains a troubling trend for institutional operators, and an executive at one of the nation’s largest health systems sees nothing but acceleration ahead. “There’s almost nothing that won’t eventually move to the home,” Scott Powder, chief strategy officer of Advocate Aurora Health, […]

Paramount’s Portfolio Pickup in Philadelphia; Dwight Capital’s $15M SNF Month

Paramount Care Centers picked up a 169-bed portfolio in Philadelphia with the help of Chicago-based specialty investment bank Ziegler. The Newark, N.J.-based Paramount offers a variety of skilled nursing services — including orthopedic rehab, cardiac care, and respite care — with a footprint in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Ziegler’s involvement as a capital […]

ACOs Generated Slight Medicare Savings from 2013 to 2016 in New Calculation

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) have generated a slight reduction in overall Medicare spending, a new analysis found — adding another viewpoint to a growing and occasionally contradictory body of research. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) determined that ACOs led to a 1 to 2 percentage-point drop in Medicare outlays between 2013 and 2016, though […]

ManorCare Revenues Help ProMedica Offset Insurance Losses in First Quarter

After blaming its acquisition of HCR ManorCare for a significant annual loss in 2018, non-profit health system ProMedica credited its new skilled nursing assets for helping to offset a rough first quarter for its insurance business. The Toledo, Ohio-based acute- and post-acute giant logged a net loss of $9.8 million in the first quarter of […]

MedPAC: SNFs, Other Post-Acute Providers Base Assessments on Payments, Not Resident Need

A top government watchdog and advocate for Medicare payment reform on Friday accused post-acute care providers of using mandatory functional assessments to boost payments instead of accurately recording patient needs. As part of its sprawling annual report to Congress on reimbursement issues, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) probed the differences between individual residents’ functional […]

PDPM Could Create Risk-Sharing Opportunities, Headaches for Skilled Nursing

Risk-sharing has loomed large in health care reform efforts over the last decade, and the new Medicare payment model for skilled nursing facilities could open up additional avenues for operators to take control — along with pointed questions from partners along the spectrum. The Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) marks a step toward a long-teased site-neutral […]

Skilled Nursing News, Aging Media Network Take Home Multiple SIPA Awards

Skilled Nursing News and its parent publishing company, Aging Media Network, last week received multiple honors in a nationwide competition hosted by the Specialized Information Publishers Association of SIIA (SIPA). In its first year as a contestant, SNN received third-place recognition in the Best Spot News or Single News Article — Health Care/Regulatory/Education category for […]

NIC: Skilled Nursing Occupancy Rose Year-Over-Year for First Time Since 2015

After four years of declines, skilled nursing occupancy inched up year-over-year between the first quarters of 2018 and 2019, a major industry data tracker announced Wednesday. Nationwide occupancy at skilled nursing facilities ticked up 28 basis points to 83.7% in the first quarter of the year, according to the most recent data release from the […]

OIG Calls on CMS to Crack Down on Abuse in Nursing Homes, Other Settings

The federal government’s top health care watchdog on Wednesday released a new report accusing the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) of not doing enough to monitor and punish elder abuse in nursing homes and other settings. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) determined that CMS could perform detailed analyses of diagnosis […]

Vendor Objects to Skyline Receivership Transfer Plan in South Dakota

A few weeks after a lender attempted to hold up the transfer of nursing homes formerly operated by Skyline Healthcare in South Dakota to a new permanent provider, a new report reveals that another party has jumped into the fray. Avera, a regional health system based in Sioux Falls, S.D., moved to stop a planned […]

Even as Demand Rises, Nursing Homes Face Major Behavioral Health Hurdles

Adding behavioral health services has frequently been floated as a way that nursing homes can diversify their offerings and attract new residents — particularly as demand for the treatment of depression and other mental health issues continues to grow among older Americans. But a significant swath of operators report persistent challenges in caring for residents […]

Skilled Nursing Dealmakers Could Be Overlooking PDPM’s Potential for ‘Biggest Year’ in Decades

The market will still need to determine whether the new Medicare reimbursement structure for nursing homes will be a net positive or negative for the industry, but at least one insider says buyers and sellers in the space aren’t optimistic enough. Current prices for skilled nursing facilities don’t typically account for the potential of cost […]

Illinois Nursing Homes Receive $240M Funding Increase

Nursing home operators in one of the toughest states for Medicaid reimbursements will receive a $240 million reprieve in the next fiscal year. Illinois lawmakers approved the funding boost as part of the state’s most recent budget, which Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law Wednesday; Capitol News Illinois initially reported the nursing home windfall […]