Even skilled nursing industry insiders may not know a whole lot about the investor who recently bought Diversicare Healthcare Services properties – Ephram “Mordy” Lahasky. The private investor doesn’t maintain a corporate website and has “largely avoided reporters for years,” according to a MarketWatch article published Wednesday. MarketWatch spoke with Lahasky for its story; Skilled […]
Bank and finance company executives have found skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) to not only be increasingly changing hands in the last year, but are also changing from a tax-exempt, not-for-profit status to a for-profit facility. That’s according to commentary collected during an executive survey published by speciality investment bank Ziegler and the National Investment Center […]
Some design firms that cater to the skilled nursing community have not built traditional, more institutional nursing homes for some time, steering clients toward single-occupancy, small home models. For firms like Roanoke, Va.-based SFCS Architects, the Biden administration’s call to promote private rooms in the nursing home industry meets the moment and plans for future […]
The value-based purchasing program (VBP) available to skilled nursing facilities, while garnering the attention of the Biden administration in its sweeping reform initiatives, was already under the microscope with federal agencies. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) already has been authorized to apply nine measures to the program in adherence with the Consolidated […]
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC)’s value incentive program (VIP) seeks to standardize the many value-based purchasing programs that are available to different care settings, including skilled nursing. In its most recent report on Medicare payment policy, MedPAC devoted a chapter to the design of a VIP for post-acute care (PAC) in order to highlight […]
As the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) vaccine mandate deadline looms this week, nursing homes across the country have stepped up to get their staff vaccinated in time – while still lagging on booster numbers. Nearly 85% of nursing home staff per facility are vaccinated, according to CMS data, and 87.3% of residents […]
Industry leaders, including nursing home executives, believe margins will increase between 1% and 5% in the next six months, thanks to an easing pandemic and occupancy recovery. Only 5% of long-term care leaders expect their margins to decrease during that time, according to the latest National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) executive […]
Movement at the state and federal level has prompted an expedited shift to more private settings in nursing homes. While the trend isn’t entirely new for the industry, the push from government agencies to make it a compliance issue has garnered mixed reactions. The Biden administration called for reduced room crowding in nursing homes in […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is in a “full court sprint” toward fulfilling the Biden administration’s proposed nursing home reforms first announced last week, CMS Principal Deputy Administrator Jonathan Blum said during a stakeholder call on Thursday. Twenty-one initiatives across five strategic goals will have short-, mid- and long-term timelines for implementation, […]
The value-based purchasing program (VBP) may not be offering sufficient incentives for nursing homes to improve, particularly for low-performing facilities in areas with underserved populations. Only 0.7% of poor-performing skilled nursing facilities were able to improve enough to avoid a financial penalty under VBP, a JAMA study found – the program didn’t “offer a viable […]
It may seem impossible to remove agency use completely during the ongoing staffing crisis, with 238,000 caregivers that have left the profession since the pandemic began and workforce levels at the lowest that have been in 15 years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, nursing home operators may pay three to four […]
Nursing homes are battling a continued workforce crisis while being three years deep into a pandemic that has disproportionately affected its residents. Looking ahead to next year, as many as 40% of residents may be displaced, as the sector’s operating margin is projected to be between -3% and -8%, according to a report released by […]
Nursing homes gained 1,600 jobs in February, a modest increase compared to home health and physician offices at 20,000 and 15,000, respectively, according to data compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The sector added 3,800 hires from December 2021 to January 2022, BLS data found. To put this data in perspective, nursing […]
Facing skyrocketing agency rates, long-term care providers have taken it upon themselves to launch in-house agency services to meet an increasing demand for flexibility among a dwindling number of staff. Operators market the business line as the “best of both worlds,” Eileen Caffey told Skilled Nursing News – additional pay, experience in different care settings […]
While other ProMedica divisions have seen near pre-pandemic recovery, its senior care division patient volumes – which includes skilled nursing assets – are needing more time to recover. A combination of Covid-related admission volume declines, elevated expense levels and reduced government stimulus funds all played a role in stymied recovery last year, the Toledo, Ohio-based […]
Close relationships with local educational institutions – colleges and high schools included – and a reinvented company culture five years in the making have helped Indiana operator Providence Health Care at the Woods recruit and retain staff. Providence president and CEO Mandy Lynch and Jessica Zook, director of health information, shared details on these initiatives […]
Nursing homes will be among the recipients of more than one million doses of Pfizer’s antiviral pills made available this month – that’s hundreds of thousands more doses than expected, with more than double that amount to be made available in April. Heightened production of antiviral pill Paxlovid, designed to treat COVID-19, is part of […]
Facing mounting agency costs and a continuing workforce crisis, skilled nursing operators are having to be strategic in what staffing options to embrace and which to avoid. A workforce survey report published in December by software company OnShift found 76% of senior care organizations, including nursing homes, often rely on overtime to fill shifts. It’s […]
The Biden administration rolled out a comprehensive set of intended nursing home reforms on Monday to “crack down on bad actors.” The White House zeroed in on setting minimum staffing requirements and took aim at private equity ownership of nursing homes, among several other priorities and provisions in its plan. Steps toward reform were developed […]
Georgia nursing home provider A.G. Rhodes will make private rooms a requirement for future builds at its three campuses, a plan 10 years in the making and further propelled by the pandemic. Just this month, the nonprofit operator announced a $35 million plan to transform its Marietta campus to include private rooms through new construction […]