Healthcare, Senior Living, Economics
In 2021, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. Within the Act, a new Medicare provider was created – the Rural Emergency Hospital (REH). The final rule is available here: Rural Emergency Hospital Final Rule REHs were created to improve and increase, access to emergency services and ideally, expanded outpatient services in rural areas. Starting … Read more
Fourth quarter data is out from the National Investment Center regarding senior living/senior care occupancies and the trend remains positive. See the NIC summary here: 4Q23-NIC-MAP-Market-Fundamentals-PDF Senior Housing occupancy, 4th quarter, came in at 85.1%, up 80 basis points from the 3rd quarter. Nursing home/SNF occupancy rose to 83.1%, up 70 basis points. Assisted Living … Read more
The Fitch Ratings Public Finance outlook dropped earlier this week and not surprising, their outlook for Life Plan Communities and Non-Profit Hospitals/Health Systems remains negative or in their terms, “deteriorating”. Their forecast is for deteriorating credit conditions in these two sectors due primarily to labor and cost pressures (insufficient supply of labor at higher comp levels … Read more
Two articles in my email caught my attention to start the week. Both have to do with SNF closure risks, one regarding rural facilities and the other regarding staffing challenges. Interesting enough, both cross the same issues for closure, approached however, somewhat differently. I’ve written about this subject for years now yet, attention has only become acute … Read more
TGIF! The U.S. is aging. Its median age is 37.7, just behind China’s median age of 37.9. Comparatively, the U.S. would be considered young in relationship to Japan where the median age is 48.4. While it is true that the Japanese have a longer life expectancy than the average American (84.6 years vs. 77.29 years), … Read more
Happy First Hump Day of 2024! Short weeks aren’t really deserving of a Hump Day, but it is officially a Wednesday that is not a holiday in a workweek (though I’m sure many are still off from the Christmas/New Year’s season). Thus, no matter deserved or not, it is my first Wednesday Feature and therefore, … Read more
Happy 2024! I trust everyone had a blessed and happy holiday season and rang in the New Year with joy and optimism. Across the last two months of 2023, JAMA (Journal of American Medical Association) has published two studies on private equity ownership in healthcare, specifically in hospitals and SNFs. Not to accuse JAMA of having … Read more
Happy Hump Day! I hope all readers, followers, and visitors had a great Christmas Holiday. This post will likely wrap-up 2023 for me as tomorrow, I begin a bit of travel to see some long-time friends and celebrate the New Year. I am not much for resolutions into the new year as I try to … Read more
The oldest boomers are about to turn 80 in 2026. This age point is typically the trigger point for advancing needs in secure living environments, services increase (ADL and IADL support), and increasing healthcare consumption. The baby boom generation is defined as folks born between 1946 and 1964. The “boom” reference is the rapid number of children … Read more
TGIF! It is the Advent season for Christians and the end (another day) of Hanukkah for Jews. Both seasons to me, bring joy and hope. I have good Jewish friends, so I get a bit of a celebratory joy from them, especially since they reciprocally enjoy Christmas celebrations. As readers know, I follow health care and health … Read more