Healthcare, Senior Living, Economics
Suffice to say, I am behind in getting this post “out”. My best intentions of a month or so ago were quickly dashed by other more pressing commitments. Nonetheless, I did read the proposed regulations as produced by the Department of Health and Human Services/CMS on April 7 and worked through a stack of research on the subject of Accountable … Read more
Creeping slowly out of a period of recession where financing was nearly impossible to get, providers, operators and developers are starting to look favorably at new development and refreshment of existing properties and infrastructure. Though capital is less than free flowing, money is entering back into the long-term care and seniors housing world fluidly enough … Read more
MedPac (Medicare Payment Advisory Commission) just released its March report to the Congress on Medicare program and rate recommendations for the FY 2012 (beginning October 1, 2011). The full report is available in PDF form on the Reports and Other Documents page on this site. Below I’ve provided a summary of the key recommendations contained … Read more
The news we all hoped for came forth this afternoon, wrapped with a big bow just in time for the Holiday season – RUGs IV is here to stay. The House this afternoon passed a companion version of the bill passed in the Senate yesterday. President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law … Read more
Forty- five days past the October 1 conversion to MDS 3.0 and the interim RUGS IV payment groups and I still am getting a great deal of requests for analysis tools, questions on payments, liabilities, dates and rates for the Hybrid (RUGs III) groups, maps between RUGs III and RUGs IV, etc. While I lost … Read more
Recently I gave a presentation on strategic pricing and senior housing (see Presentations page). A key theme that I often refer to centers around the “value proposition” or in other words, the concept that pricing is both monetary and non-monetary and as such, the value proposition is about not only the price but also about … Read more
Due to a fair amount of travel recently, I’m a tad behind in pushing out updates, etc. Despite my rather harried schedule, I have kept track of questions, issues, etc. and in the next week to ten days, I will endeavor to get caught up. Please know that I do appreciate the comments and questions … Read more
In the past month with October 1 looming closer, I’ve been fielding lots of questions regarding the transition from RUGs III to RUGs IV. Instead of listing the questions and trying to recap my answers (my memory is good but not that good), I’ve settled on an overview or “summary”; the core of what SNFs … Read more
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
In previous posts I’ve written about the need for providers in all industry sectors to fully understand the compliance and legal risks that are inherent to the appropriate industry sector, as well as to health care today in general. As someone who has been immersed in health care operations and health policy for the past … Read more