Sr. Living Capital Access Still Challenged

Last week, a report from NIC (National Investment Conference) dropped covering the fourth quarter (2023) lending activity in senior living. As in prior quarters, capital access remains challenged. Data for the report came from 17 lenders, including banks, commercial real estate services, financial services companies, government sources, investment management firms, and real estate investment trusts. … Read more

Maryland SNF Class Action Suit: Nursing Home Residents Seek Mandatory Inspections

Happy Hump Day! Reg’s Blog is back up and running! Lots of stuff has happened over the past couple of weeks that the site was under construction or should I say, remodeling. I’ll try to get caught up on the important stuff and ultimately, get current as new events, etc. happen. Yesterday, an interesting lawsuit dropped … Read more

FTC Bans Employment Non-Compete Provisions – Healthcare Implications Aplenty

On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission issued a final rule effectively, banning non-compete agreements, provisions, etc. for employees, including executives. The final rule contains separate provisions defining unfair methods of competition for the two subcategories of workers. Specifically, the final rule provides that, with respect to a worker other than a senior executive, it is … Read more

Regulation Monday: SNF Staffing Mandate and Medicaid Access Rule

Just announced this morning, CMS has finalized two hotly debated proposed rules into final rules. The final rules involve the SNF staffing mandate proposed last year and the Medicaid Access Rule, requiring 80% of payments for Medicaid HCBS programs go to compensation for direct care workers. The Medicaid Rule follows the original proposed rule while … Read more

Friday Feature: Back to the Future and Care Rounds

TGIF! A frequent reader sent me a note earlier in the week and asked if I would drop in more clinically oriented stuff from time to time. I asked for details, and she said stuff “that is germane to patient care and operational improvements – QA/QI stuff”. So, today’s post is by request, sort of. … Read more

Challenges Persist in Staffing for U.S. Life Plan Communities and Skilled Nursing Facilities

Monday, Fitch Ratings dropped a Non-Rating Commentary about staffing challenges in Life Plan and SNF organizations. Per the release, “Though growing for some time, payrolls for U.S. life plan communities (LPCs) and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are still well off the pace needed to reach a full post-pandemic recovery.” Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data … Read more

Wednesday Feature: Budget Stuff…Cubed

Happy Hump Day! Busy day so far but wanted to sneak this post in, wrapping up the last two days of posts on budget (federal, Medicare) stuff. This being the third day and post on budgets (and last for a while, I promise), the title fits – cubed. https://rhislop3.com/2024/04/15/monday-budget-day/ https://rhislop3.com/2024/04/16/medpac-report-to-congress-a-wrap-with-monday/ What follows is a different … Read more

MedPAC Report to Congress: A Wrap with Monday?

Yesterday I wrote a post on President Biden’s healthcare budget. Today, I thought a quick visit back to March and MedPAC’s Annual Report to Congress on payment and program adequacy would be a good “wrapper” – for now. Every year, MedPAC (the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission) reports to the Congress in March on the Medicare … Read more

Monday = Budget Day

As much as politics consumes the news, little on policy is included. Most days, the political stuff such as trials, Congressional hearings, back and forth tabloid (almost) stuff is front and center, missing is the “meat”. Reminds me of the 80’s Wendy’s commercial titled, “Where’s the beef?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riH5EsGcmTw While I know that the national election, … Read more

Friday Feature: An End to Arbitration Clauses?

TGIF! It’s been a long week with the eclipse and lots of economic news plus all the stuff going on in the Middle East. My inbox is flooded so weekend reading will need to include a lot of parsing and pitching. On Tuesday in the Senate, a bill was introduced by Senators Blumenthal (CT) and … Read more