The vaccine is working, especially in places where it is needed the most, according to a new study. “The vaccine is associated with decreased spread of SARS-CoV-2 in both residents and staff at nursing homes as well as decreased deaths among residents,” the study, published last week in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, […]
Category: News
The Senate’s landmark $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package contains a temporary 2% bump on Medicare fee-for-service reimbursements across the board, but aside from increased funding for the federal government’s infection-control crackdown, skilled nursing facilities were largely left out of the post-acute relief. The bill, which the Senate passed by a vote of 96-0 on Wednesday […]
As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise in New York City, state officials this week announced the novel step of leasing a brand-new nursing home for use as emergency hospital. New York State has leased the 600-bed Brooklyn Center for Rehabilitation and Health Care from Centers Health Care, a Bronx, N.Y.-based owner-operator of […]
Less than a week after the federal government proposed a new warning symbol for nursing homes with a history of abuse, a leading trade group has asked for a less severe icon. The American Health Care Association (AHCA) late last week called on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to ditch its red, […]
The percentage of residents discharged from hospitals to skilled nursing facilities dropped from 45% to 26% in just three years amid the implementation of a mandatory bundled payment program in New Jersey, a new study found. Since April 2016, 38 hospitals in the Garden State have been required to participate in the Comprehensive Care for […]
The federal government on Wednesday again defended its work to regulate and punish underperforming nursing homes, as the controversy surrounding a “secret” list of troubled skilled nursing facilities entered its third day. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) chief medical officer Kate Goodrich confirmed a Tuesday report that the agency will soon begin releasing […]
Federal officials could soon begin releasing a previously undisclosed list of underperforming nursing homes targeted for potential inclusion in the Special Focus Facility program, SNN has learned. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) roster of “candidates” for Special Focus Facility status became public on Monday, when a bipartisan pair of senators released the […]
A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators on Monday released a previously undisclosed list of more than 400 nursing homes under consideration for placement on the federal government’s roster of properties with serious quality issues. The list, furnished by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), consists of “candidates” for the Special Focus Facilities (SFF) […]
Under the leadership of founder and CEO Stephen Rosenberg, Greystone has grown from a small consulting shop to a heavyweight in the health care and multifamily lending space, with its hands also extending into operations and development. Rosenberg has seen a few decades’ worth of change in the industry in his time at the helm, […]
The current presidential administration’s hard-line stance on immigration has caused serious concerns among health care employers, as any efforts that could shrink the available pool of workers will only exacerbate persistent workforce pressures. But in addition to representing a sizable chunk of the average nursing home’s staff, immigrant workers also contribute more to the trust […]
The federal government recovered $2.3 billion in allegedly fraudulent health care reimbursements in fiscal 2018, with several big-dollar skilled nursing settlements contributing to that total. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) last week released a joint report on their health care fraud activities for the previous fiscal […]
Data has quickly become king in the increasingly challenging skilled nursing world, but the question of how different providers along the care continuum can use that data remains a sticking point. Upgrading a building’s electronic health record (EHR) distribution system from fax machines to cloud data solutions is the first step. The information, however, doesn’t […]
Among the many skilled nursing landmines — from a new Medicare payment system to underfunded Medicaid programs to a shifting regulatory landscape — providers would be wise not to ignore the ongoing effects of bundled payment programs. In fact, at the end of a recent discussion on his research into the cost-savings successes and failures […]
Eastern Union has only been in the skilled nursing real estate space for about three years, but the executive in charge of its health care group has “lofty goals” for deal volume. The New York City-based mortgage brokerage has handled about $12 billion in real estate deals over the last three years, with health practice […]
When the Allure Group decided to pursue a new physician telehealth partnership, leadership didn’t want to jump in headfirst — and instead turned to a kind of audition process to pick its eventual partner. For about a year and a half, the six-building chain tested out two separate telemedicine providers in two facilities, with president […]
As the director of finance for The CHMS Group, Gabe Guttman says many days feel like “a war on many fronts.” With compressed Medicaid rates, a Medicare Advantage market dominated by a duopoly that holds most of the cards, and coming changes to the Medicare payment system for nursing homes, accurately capturing reimbursements is more […]
The final three former Skyline Healthcare nursing homes placed in receivership in Massachusetts have closed. The properties in New Bedford, Fall River, and Dighton, Mass. formally closed Friday, according to a report from the Providence, R.I.-based CBS affiliate WPRI. All of the residents had found new places to receive care, Bedford Village nursing supervisor Grace […]
Lancaster Pollard landed a pair of bridge loans for skilled nursing operator The Arboretum Group, pulling off a total of $42 million in recapitalization efforts at five properties. The first loan, a $12 million product with a 12-month term, refinanced existing debt on two skilled nursing facilities in southern Texas. The second deal saw the […]
From the outside looking in, the flood of capital in the skilled nursing space may seem strange. After all, the main Wall Street headlines about SNFs and their publicly traded landlord partners always come with a heavy dose of caution: Reimbursement pressures, staffing strains, and liability risk make nursing care a bitter pill to swallow […]
Skilled nursing utilization and occupancy have been on the decline in recent years, as both payers and consumers migrate to home health and other community care options for cost and preference reasons. But as low Medicaid reimbursements force operators to scale back their long-term services or shut their doors entirely, available beds for residents who […]