Healthcare, Senior Living, Economics
According to a recent Gallup study, 42% of employees who left their jobs believe management could have prevented their departure. The study also found that as of May, over half of U.S. workers, 51%, are actively looking for new employment opportunities. Gallup highlighted the substantial cost of employee turnover, noting that the expense of replacing … Read more
Mergers and acquisitions activity in the seniors housing and care sector set a new quarterly record with 183 publicly announced transactions in the second quarter of 2024, as reported by LevinPro LTC. This represents a 21% increase over the 151 transactions from the first quarter of 2024, and a 49% rise compared to the 123 … Read more
According to data released by NIC (National Investment Center) last week, senior living occupancies ticked up in the first quarter. This is a trend that has continued since the pandemic occupancy “crash”. Other economic data, however, suggest that challenges remain for continued growth, especially within the CCRC/Life Plan sector. The NIC data is here: 2Q24-NIC-MAP-Market-Fundamentals … Read more
Late June, the Department of Justice released its 2024 Healthcare Fraud Enforcement Action, detailing actions against nearly two hundred individuals, encompassing Medicare fraud totaling $2.75 billion in recovered losses ($1.6 billion in actual cash losses). One of the major problems with Medicare, aside from its structural financing, is that it is bureaucratically bloated, full of … Read more
From May 2023 to May 2024, the overall healthcare costs accelerated (increased) by 3.4%, marking the most rapid increase since December 2007, as reported in Altarum’s monthly Health Sector Economic Indicators brief, released yesterday. The report is available here: Altarum-June-2024-HSEI-Combined Expenditures on nursing home care increased by 4.8% year-over-year, while home healthcare spending saw a … Read more
Happy Hump Day! Yesterday, I wrote a post regarding the economy and elements that correlate to CCRC performance. In that post, I referenced Fitch Ratings and their “deteriorating” outlook for the sector. Interesting enough, on the same day, Fitch issued a comment that reinforces a deteriorating outlook for CCRCs. The quick comment from Fitch is … Read more
Recently (June 12), the Federal Reserve held its latest FOMC (Federal Open Markets Committee) meeting and decided to maintain the current Fed Funds rate within the range of 5.25% to 5.50%. The reasoning remains the current position of the economy, inflation therein, signals that inflation is a bit more persistent, and that without more definitive … Read more
In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, nursing homes across the United States faced daunting challenges. One such example is The Ensign Group Inc., the second largest for-profit chain in the country. A descriptive case study delves into the financial and quality metrics of this publicly traded U.S. nursing home chain during the age of … Read more
It was only a matter of time before cases involving telehealth fraud/False Claims Act cases became public. This week, two press releases from the DOJ illustrated how aggressive the agency has become in the pursuit of telehealth related fraud. I suspect more, larger in implication (dollar value, geographic spread), will drop publicly in the next … Read more
Private equity investment in the nursing home and assisted living sector (other post-acute as well) continues to be a focus of regulatory activity in Congress. This is despite private equity investment in the nursing home sector to be involve about 5% of facilities. Home health has seen an increasing investment interest as well from private … Read more