Healthcare, Senior Living, Economics
In my reading stack this weekend (ok, virtual stack), I came across a number of articles on leadership and management. Some were good, some were not, and lots were focused on “old” issues and problems. One in particular, caught my attention – “Management as We Know it Is Broken: How can Leaders Fix It?” What … Read more
Working on a number of things today with other projects in the fire as well. Haven’t had much time to sit and think, let alone compose much of a post or do much research into current topics so this quicky via the notebook will have to do – Happy TGIF Eve! Tuesday’s CPI report and … Read more
Welp, it’s Fat Tuesday and the King Cake isn’t any cheaper compared to last year. Nothing in today’s January CPI report bears good news for senior living or healthcare providers as the headline inflation number was up .3% from December and 3.1% Year over Year. The Core (all items less food and energy) rose 3.9%. Soft … Read more
Late last week, I ran across a number of news posts regarding a proposed class action lawsuit against the hospital/health system giant Advocate Aurora, alleging that the organization used its market mass to limit competition and in return, impose excessively high prices on commercial health plans and their insureds. The suit was filed in Wisconsin (where … Read more
TGIF! I live and have an office in Illinois, though my part of the state differs dramatically from the Illinois most people recognize. I live and work in a small town (Galena) in an area known as the driftless region. The driftless region is “original” terra-firma, where the glaciers did not touch. This area is in the far northwest … Read more
Happy Hump Day! My apologies right off for such a head scratching title but this is where I am most days when I see economic reports like the recent jobs report (last week) from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (report is here: January BLS Report 1 24 ) The news is good, maybe, kind of, … Read more
While it is important to celebrate that senior living occupancies are up to pre-pandemic levels, it is also important to note that in most cases, the data quoted via NIC for example, is regionalized and nationalized. Likewise, the results (the occupancy levels) are still not capable of generating strong, positive margins. Occupancy levels in the 87% to … Read more
In 2023, regulators re-instituted audits of facilities for inappropriate diagnoses of schizophrenia (justification for anti-psychotic use), plus a five-claim audit of every nursing home. The purpose of the audit was to address a long-standing concern that inappropriate coding was driving higher Medicare reimbursement under PDPM, despite documentation in patient records, not substantiating the level of care … Read more
TGIF! A report I get and enjoy comes from Altarum (a non-profit consulting organization) looking at various economic data elements with regard to healthcare spending across a number of metrics (percent of GDP, time series growth, etc.). Granted, the report is a bit “wonky” but given what I do for a living, “wonky” is kind … Read more
Senior Housing News and Lument conducted a survey (November of 2023) of senior living organizations and executives regarding their outlook for 2024. They consolidated the responses into a report. That report is available here: 2024-shn-lument-outlooksurveyreport-vf.original The highlights from the report are below. The general consensus of respondents was a positive outlook (87%) for 2024, buffered mostly … Read more