Net Health to Acquire Rehab Software Provider Optima Healthcare Solutions

Outpatient software provider Net Health on Tuesday announced a plan to acquire Optima Healthcare Solutions, expanding its presence into the post-acute marketplace. The Pittsburgh-based Net Health — which offers software platforms for about 3,000 urgent care, physical therapy, and other outpatient clinics across the country — positioned the move as a strategic push to extend […]

CareTrust Picks Up Cascadia Facility for $12.8M; Ciena Healthcare’s $20M Construction

CareTrust REIT (Nasdaq: CTRE) expanded its existing relationship with operator Cascadia Healthcare with the $12.8 million purchase of a transitional care facility in Nampa, Idaho. Cascadia of Nampa, a 99-bed facility one block away from the Saint Alphonsus Medical Center, became the 12th building from the Eagle, Idaho-based operator to enter the CareTrust portfolio. “We […]

Despite Scrutiny, HUD Lending ‘Essential for Nursing Homes to Function’

The federal government’s lending program for nursing homes has come under national scrutiny in the wake of a record-setting default, but financial leaders in the space say the initiative is vital to the overall health of the industry. The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Section 232 program gives skilled nursing operators and investors […]

Mass. AG Slaps Skyline Owners with 15 Citations for Unpaid Wages, Missing Pay Stubs

A month after the last Skyline Healthcare-operated nursing homes in Massachusetts closed their doors, the state’s attorney general hit the company with multiple citations over unpaid wages and missing payroll documentation. Skyline leaders Joseph and Michael Schwartz failed to pay nearly $65,000 owed to 106 employees in a timely fashion, AG Maura Healey’s office alleged […]

New Private Equity Firm Eyes ‘Good Buying Opportunity’ as Skilled Nursing Prices Cool

Private equity interest and investment in the skilled nursing space is growing as the sector goes through rounds of tumult and transformation. The trend was apparent in 2018, even though most of the private equity interest focused on senior housing. As real estate investment trusts (REITs) sold off their underperforming SNF assets, private equity buyers […]

Berkadia’s $104M Nursing Home Financing; $11M Refi in New Jersey

Commercial real estate lender Berkadia landed a $104 million loan for a skilled nursing facility in the Bronx, N.Y., the company announced Monday. Berkadia secured the financing for the Workmen’s Circle Multicare Center, operated by the Woodbury, N.Y.-based Cassena Care, through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 232/233 program; the loan closed just 13 […]

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 […]

Cost of Nursing Home Care Consistently Outpaces Inflation, Study Finds

The out-of-pocket cost of receiving care in a nursing home has consistently grown faster than gains in consumer and medical care prices, raising questions about the affordability for seniors without Medicaid coverage or long-term care insurance, according to a study published in the journal Medical Care Research and Review. The study — which drew from […]

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 […]

OIG Clears Nursing Home with 93% Very High, Ultra-High Therapy After Review

In an unusual outcome, the federal government’s top health care watchdog arm publicly cleared a nursing home it suspected of providing unnecessarily intensive therapy services. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week determined that the skilled nursing facility at an Oklahoma continuing care retirement community (CCRC) properly supported all its therapy minutes […]

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 […]