Healthcare, Senior Living, Economics
Political and health policy information specific to Wisconsin
Happy Hump Day! A favorite movie series of mine is Back to the Future, particularly parts 1 and 2. Made in the 80s, both are fun to watch in terms of their references to points in time, especially in part 2 where the “future” is 2015! Having lived through 2015, my memories don’t quite compare … Read more
Today’s post is rather short by comparison to others. It is an adjunct to yesterday’s post regarding the credit market status for senior living and post-acute providers. Readers/followers that read the post will note that I included a fair amount of economic discussion, including some Federal Reserve minutes, to frame where I think rates and … Read more
Happy Hump Day! The National Investment Center released its third quarter 2023 lending trends report and while the data is a bit old, it is reflective of current market conditions. The report is available here: NIC_Lending__Trends_Report_3Q2023 Suffice to say since I last provided an update on this subject area, things have not improved. Capital access … Read more
Across this site, there are 400 plus posts spanning more than a decade. Sprinkled throughout, are posts on staffing and the need for labor, especially nurses. In other words, the U.S. health system, all provider segments, needs nurses and the pandemic exacerbated this need. The need is most critical at the bed side, direct care. … Read more
Yesterday, the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living plus the National Assocation of ACOs released a white paper that includes a set of recommendations for CMS, designed to increase the participation of long term and post-acute care (LTPAC) providers in accountable care organizations (ACOs). The white paper is available here: AHCA … Read more
Working on a number of things today with other projects in the fire as well. Haven’t had much time to sit and think, let alone compose much of a post or do much research into current topics so this quicky via the notebook will have to do – Happy TGIF Eve! Tuesday’s CPI report and … Read more
Welp, it’s Fat Tuesday and the King Cake isn’t any cheaper compared to last year. Nothing in today’s January CPI report bears good news for senior living or healthcare providers as the headline inflation number was up .3% from December and 3.1% Year over Year. The Core (all items less food and energy) rose 3.9%. Soft … Read more
Happy Hump Day! My apologies right off for such a head scratching title but this is where I am most days when I see economic reports like the recent jobs report (last week) from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (report is here: January BLS Report 1 24 ) The news is good, maybe, kind of, … Read more
In 2023, regulators re-instituted audits of facilities for inappropriate diagnoses of schizophrenia (justification for anti-psychotic use), plus a five-claim audit of every nursing home. The purpose of the audit was to address a long-standing concern that inappropriate coding was driving higher Medicare reimbursement under PDPM, despite documentation in patient records, not substantiating the level of care … Read more
TGIF! A report I get and enjoy comes from Altarum (a non-profit consulting organization) looking at various economic data elements with regard to healthcare spending across a number of metrics (percent of GDP, time series growth, etc.). Granted, the report is a bit “wonky” but given what I do for a living, “wonky” is kind … Read more