Senior Housing News recognizes the seriousness of the Covid-19 pandemic, so we will be updating this bulletin to keep you apprised of the latest developments, focusing on news and information that we identify as especially pertinent to senior living. The team at SHN knows how important your work is right now; we thank you and your teams, and encourage you to reach out to us individually or at editor@seniorhousingnews.com with news items, topics that you believe are important for coverage, or other feedback.
Bulletin for Friday, April 10 – Sunday, April 12
The CARES Act federal stimulus package included a $100 billion fund for health care providers, and that money is now being disbursed — still with no guarantee that senior living providers will be among the recipients.
On Friday, payments began to be distributed to hospitals and other Medicare and Medicaid fee-for-service providers. They will receive the first tranche of payments, which will total $30 billion. The second tranche will be released within the next 10 days and will go largely to providers serving Medicaid beneficiaries.
Argentum and the American Seniors Housing Association (ASHA) have been urging the Department of Health and Human Services to allocate $20 billion of the fund for senior living providers. ASHA continues to call on members to contact their Congressional representatives, and is now urging more focus on getting access to the fund, versus pushing for a particular dollar amount.
ASHA President David Schless and Argentum CEO James Balda still believe that senior living providers could gain access to the CARES Act fund, they told Senior Housing News in a joint interview Friday.
“I have not lost hope that there will be funding in that grant program that our members will be able to take advantage of,” Schless told SHN.
The senior living industry is facing a potential financial hit in the range of $40 billion to $57 billion due to Covid-19, a recent analysis found.
The CARES Act also established a $350 billion forgivable loan program through the Small Business Administration (SBA), which is an option for smaller providers.
A fourth federal stimulus package is under discussion, which could provide another vehicle for the senior living industry to receive financial assistance.
Also in the news:
— In the first quarter of 2020, senior housing and care merger and acquisition activity fell to its lowest level in two years.
That’s according to the latest data from Irving Levin Associates, which showed 93 deals occurred in Q1 2020. This is the lowest level since Q1 2018 and well behind the pace of 2019, when 450 transactions were publicly announced and more than 600 were likely completed, Ben Swett wrote Friday on the Senior Care Investor.
In terms of deal breakdown, senior housing accounted for 62% of transactions closed in the first quarter of this year, compared with 38% for skilled nursing.
Considering that M&A activity was ongoing until Covid-19 reared its head in mid-March, the pandemic cannot account for all of the decline in deal volume, Swett noted.
On Thursday, the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) released data showing the rolling four-quarter cap rate for senior housing deals was at 5.9% in the fourth quarter of 2019, while the rolling four-quarter price-per-unit was $209,595.
Needless to say, Covid-19 has disrupted not only the volume of deals being completed but valuations, with senior housing among the property types to take a hit, perhaps as much as 30%, according to a Green Street Advisors analysis released last week.
— Industry associations are urging assisted living and skilled nursing providers to report all cases of Covid-19 to local health departments and other authorities, to support efforts to distribute personal protective equipment — which is in critically short supply.
“As reported cases of COVID-19 continue to increase, good data is more important than ever before in this pandemic,” said Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge. “We underscore our earlier recommendation to our nursing home members that reporting COVID-19 positive cases to their local health departments is paramount. With supplies of personal protective equipment and testing resources in extremely short supply nationwide, case numbers are a critical piece of information to help determine supply prioritization. We fully expect that consistent reporting of cases will lead to adequate and timely access to PPE and testing.”
The American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) is calling on long-term care providers to report Covid-19 cases to their state survey agency, as well as health departments, and all residents, families and staff.
“Today, AHCA/NCAL updated guidance to long term care providers about the need to notify their state survey agency about COVID positive residents and staff,” AHCA/NCAL President and CEO Mark Parkinson stated in a Saturday press release. “We encourage this information be shared with CMS, CDC and FEMA. We believe this information can help identify long term care providers who are most in need of testing and PPE resources.”
— The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a $2.3% increase to the skilled nursing facility Medicare rate for 2021. The agency floated a 2.6% hike for hospice providers.
— More than 2,000 nursing home residents in the New York region have died of Covid-19, The New York Times reported.
— Aegis Living and the Clark Family Foundation have launched an initiative called Seattle Seniors Strong, in an effort to provide services and supports for the city’s population of homeless and homebound seniors as they face Covid-19 challenges.
Through May 31, Aegis and the Clark Family Foundation will be matching all donations by businesses and individuals, up to $50,000, to two organizations: Sounds Generations and Pike Market Senior Center.
— Architects with Bremerton, Washington-based firm Rice Fergus Miller suggest how Covid-19 could change senior living communities in the article “Designing for a Pandemic.” The authors contemplate ways to facilitate resident isolation when needed and create buildings that are more robust from an infection control standpoint.
— ATI Advisory, a research and consulting firm focused on health care and aging, has released a Covid-19 framework for post-acute care. The framework suggests a “four-stage, regionally oriented approach to achieving optimal, system-wide resource allocation across a region’s post-acute service settings and providers over time.” The Covid-19 crisis is changing the role that post-acute and senior care providers play within the health care system, as they are being called upon to take patients who otherwise might go to acute-care hospitals, and are under more pressure than ever to prevent residents from going to the emergency room or other settings where they could contract the novel coronavirus.
— Pen pal programs have sprouted up around the globe to connect residents of senior living communities with kids and teenagers, who are out of school due to Covid-19, The New York Times reported.
“It makes a connection between a younger person and an older person,” a 79-year-old Bickford Senior Living resident told the Times. “It’s interesting for me to hear what these young people are doing.”
Click here to see Covid-19 News Bulletins from previous weeks.
The post Covid-19 Bulletin: Senior Living Still Waiting As Stimulus Relief Flows Elsewhere; M&A Activity At 2-Year Low appeared first on Senior Housing News.
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