Due Diligence and Acquisitions: A Review of Common Pitfalls

A regular, although not necessarily routine, exercise that I go through is a re-evaluation of recent acquisitions in the senior housing/long-term care industry to see “how they are doing or performing” post transaction.  Perhaps the primary reason that I do this is my curiosity regarding the effectiveness of the due diligence process and the accuracy … Read more

Senior Living/Housing M&A and Fitch

The title of this post likely appears a tad bifurcated but as you read through it, the title should make a bit more sense.  In the past two weeks, I’ve had numerous conversations with potential buyer’s looking at or for (to acquire), senior housing projects  (AL, IL, some CCRC and a few SNFs).   Invariably, the conversations … Read more

Five Things Every Administrator Should Focus On

I had a phone conversation earlier today with a friend and colleague (he’s part owner of a rehab consulting and management company) and as we talked, the conversation reminded me about the host of issues facing health care administrators.  Our conversation flowed to long-term care and specifically, SNFs (he spends a lot of his time … Read more

Strategies for Accomplishing New Development or Major Capital Projects

One of the focal areas of my consulting practice/work is assisting health care organizations in accessing sources of funding (securing financing basically) for major projects and/or new development.  Given the state of the economy, most specifically the capital markets over the past eighteen months, getting funding for capital projects and/or development has been challenging, though … Read more

The Housing Market and CCRC Prospects: What Each Means to the Other

It has been a world-wind few days (make that a week) analyzing all that is or was, health care reform.  In some respects, I’m glad that the meat of health care reform is done for now though admittedly, I’m disappointed at the outcome.  Suffice to say, I will catch-up on the ramifications of the legislation … Read more

Property Tax Update for Wisconsin Senior Housing

The 2009-2011 Wisconsin budget (Act 28) incorporates a specific change to how the state defines property tax exemption for non-profit senior housing projects.  Up to this point, the existing statutory law was vague and providers were left to contend with a precedent set by an even more vague Supreme Court decision (Columbus Park) and patchwork … Read more

Non-Profit Health Care Outlook for 2010

Moody’s Investor Service released their annual sector outlook today for not-for-profit health care organizations, stating that they (Moody’s) continue to maintain a “negative” outlook on the industry.  Important to note in this report is that the focus is principally on hospitals and since the report is produced by Moody’s, its primary perspective is on credit … Read more

Sharpen the Sales and Marketing Efforts in 2010

I lost track this past year of how many people I talked to that told me that, “organizationally, we are kind of stalled in developing new business because of the economy and health care reform”.  I know that in down economic periods, promotion budgets (advertising, sponsorships,etc.) are some of the first line items trimmed but … Read more

Better Productivity, Better Retention: Labor Strategy for 2010

For the vast majority of providers, productivity and retention are ongoing labor hassles.  Salaries and benefits are typically, the single largest expense item for health care providers and when analyzed by all of the components, a surprising percentage is allocated for labor related expenses that can and should be, reduced.  Expenses such as Worker’s Compensation, recruitment, turnover, … Read more