We ensure quality care through
Interim Management, Skilled Monitoring, and Reinvention
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Greetings!
Greetings and Happy Friday from our new pop-up office in Guadalajara Mexico and our office and cafe-sitting spots in and around Culver City. As we see in The New York Times State of the Virus, a ll of the key Covid-19 indicators are down, therefore we have for this issue cut the national and global data review. We must balance the good news of declining cases and deaths with the reminder that as of this issue, there has been in the U.S. over 80 million case and 983,000 deaths.
As always, we lead with the NY Times "State of the Virus" summary and remind you that links to their data-filled "Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count" pages are embedded in the text found directly below.
- After two months of sustained declines, reports of new coronavirus cases in the United States have been generally flat in the past two weeks.
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The outlook at the state level is mixed. New virus cases have increased recently in about half of all states and territories, particularly in the Northeast where the BA.2 subvariant is widespread. But cases have decreased in the other half of the states.
- Even as case reports have leveled off some, coronavirus hospitalizations across the country have continued to decrease. Hospitalizations have fallen to an average of roughly 15,000 per day in the past two weeks, the lowest they have been since the first weeks of the coronavirus pandemic.
- Deaths also remain on the decline. Around 600 deaths from Covid are being reported each day, a decrease of more than 75 percent from the peak in February amid the Omicron surge.
This edition focuses on the issues raised by Jerry and his two great coauthors, attorneys Cecily Dumas and Scott Prince, in the just-posted American Bankruptcy Institute Journal's “Operating Nursing Homes: Is the Worst Behind Us?” We follow with articles that answer the question “Is the Worst Behind Us” as well as previously-posted and new articles on what is ahead for the industry that “provide(s) care and housing for many elderly, disabled and the most vulnerable;” and to which “Covid-19 brought disease, increased costs and death to nursing homes.” Included are Jerry’s prior article with David Hoffman and Lou Cisz in that same ABI Journal [September 2020], and David Hoffman and his Op Ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer [February 2021].
As we completed our recent article, the White House was using the State of the Union address to introduce its nursing home industry reform package. Posted in the March 3, 2022 issue and reposted here “Fact Sheet: Protecting seniors by improving safety and quality of care in the nation’s nursing homes.”
Our friends at Skilled Nursing News have been reporting in depth on the White House Nursing Home initiative including the industry’s often critical response. Reviewing a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, reporter Alex Zorn offers us the linked “A broken system: New proposals to overhaul nursing homes laid out in landmark report.” The report concludes: "The way care is financed, delivered and regulated in the nursing home sector is both ineffective and inefficient.” The authors propose that a "significant strategic investment will be needed to improve what has become a fragmented and unsustainable system.”
One of our favorite researchers and occasional Berkeley lunch companion is Dr. Charlene Harrington, who has for many years led the research on quality indicators in nursing homes. She has published, with University of Kansas professor David Kingley, "COVID-19 had little financial impact on publicly traded nursing home companies" which finds based on their extensive research that "Despite statements suggesting severe financial problems for the nursing home industry, the data on publicly traded companies do not show insolvencies, bankruptcies, and severe losses of overall industry revenues." A must read whose findings clearly shaped the current White House drive to improve nursing homes is linked.
We promoted over the past few issues When World's Collide: The Effects of Private Equity on Health Care Conference. Coverage on the conference is found in the linked Skilled Nursing News article: “Matching profits with quality: Transparency reforms could lead to new care standards for Nursing Home Owners, Operators.” If and when available, we make sure that our readers have access to the transcript and/or recordings.
We leave the SNF focus for one article from Kaiser Family Foundation, which offers a must read “Issue Brief” on the just signed executive order to eliminate "The ACA family glitch."
We close with a great podcast of the week from Andy Slavitts’ “In the Bubble.” As described in the show notes: “Andy talks with Dr. Peter Marks about the FDA’s authorization of a fourth round of vaccines for those 50 and older. As the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the Food and Drug Administration, Marks is the man most responsible for our vaccines and the speed at which they were developed. Andy gets the inside scoop from him to help answer questions from listeners about boosters, such as: Who should get another shot? Should you mix and match? And when will we see vaccines for kids under 5.” The show does all of the above and much more and we think you can and should listen to all of it or stream to the parts that answer your questions.
From Rebecca’s pop-up office in Guadalajara and our offices and in Culver City, this is Revitalize for April 8, 2022:
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Revitalize: The week in health-care news you need
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Operating Nursing Homes: Is the Worst Behind Us?
Jerry Seelig, Cecily Dumas and Scott Prince.
Painful Impact of COVID-19 on the Troubled Skilled-Nursing Industry. Jerry Seelig, David Hoffman and Louis J.
Nursing homes still deserve better, a year into the pandemic: Opinion. More funding would tackle pandemic challenges and the many obstacles to care that predate COVID-19.
Protecting seniors by improving safety and quality of care in the nation’s nursing homes.
A broken system: New proposals to overhaul nursing homes laid out in landmark report. The way care is financed, delivered and regulated in the nursing home sector is both ineffective and inefficient, a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found, as significant strategic investment will be needed to improve what has become a fragmented and unsustainable system.
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Financial and quality metrics of a large, publicly traded U.S. nursing home chain in the age of Covid-19. Identifying the difference between nursing home landlords, lenders and operators, and even setting new requirements for each, may help ensure profits better match quality in the space moving forward. That’s the argument being put forward by some academic researchers who have focused on nursing home ownership structures.
Despite statements suggesting severe financial problems for the nursing home industry, the data on publicly traded companies do not show insolvencies, bankruptcies, and severe losses of overall industry revenues. Genesis and Five Star Senior Living companies, exceptions to the rule, require more in-depth analysis to understand the role that their prepandemic financial problems played in restructuring or divesture decisions.
The ACA family glitch and affordability of employer coverage.
Andy talks with Dr. Peter Marks about the FDA’s authorization of a fourth round of vaccines for those 50 and older. As the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the Food and Drug Administration, Marks is the man most responsible for our vaccines and the speed at which they were developed.
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Jerry Seelig, CEO
Fax: 310-841-2842
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