Fast-Track Nursing Programs: Meeting America’s Growing Need for Nurses?

Across this site, there are 400 plus posts spanning more than a decade. Sprinkled throughout, are posts on staffing and the need for labor, especially nurses. In other words, the U.S. health system, all provider segments, needs nurses and the pandemic exacerbated this need. The need is most critical at the bed side, direct care. … Read more

Unlocking the Potential: Overcoming Challenges for LTPAC Providers in ACO Participation

Yesterday, the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living plus the National Assocation of ACOs released a white paper that includes a set of recommendations for CMS, designed to increase the participation of long term and post-acute care (LTPAC) providers in accountable care organizations (ACOs).  The white paper is available here: AHCA … Read more

Wednesday Feature: Navigating the Evolving Landscape – Enhancing Ethics and Compliance Programs for Risk Mitigation

Happy Hump Day! Long title for what is going to be, a rather brief post.  As followers and regular readers know, my firm (I am the co-founder and part owner) H2 Healthcare, LLC has a practice area uniquely concentrated on clinical compliance and complex litigation support.  The practice area is headed by Diane Hislop, RN (yes, … Read more

Why Managers Need to Shift Focus from Putting Out Fires to Empowering Their Teams

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

My Notebook: Econ Tuesday Recap

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

Econ Tuesday: CPI Report Out, Heat Still On

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

Unveiling the Allegations: Lawsuit Claims Advocate Aurora Health’s Monopoly on Health System is Hiking Prices in Wisconsin

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

Friday Feature: Litigation, Arbitration, and COVID

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

Wednesday Feature: Healthcare Job Growth and the Economic Disconnect

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

Occupancy? The Hidden Senior Living Market

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