gdp's Comments

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : Annual Caregiving Costs Still Cheaper than Assisted Living

Thu, 25 Sep 2014 12:31:15 +0000

Are You Quick Enough? When I talk with the owners of family-based senior housing facility operators, there's not always the sense of urgency about following up on prospective residents that I see when I'm talking with the larger, regional operators of seniors housing. Jason Oliva in his SHN article "Annual Caregiving Costs Still Cheaper than Assisted Living" writes that "For 43% of family caregivers, deciding on a senior care or senior housing option only took one month..." For family-owned properties, one key is to make sure that every new prospective resident inquiry is contacted and pursued within minutes & hours (not days), because within 30 days, 43% of inquiries will find a new home somewhere. Being quick follow-up with prospective new residents is one of the keys to maintaining high occupancy. ,,,and maintaining high occupancy is one of the key metrics to maintaining a healthy, viable senior living community.

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : Health Care REIT Completes New $1.1 Billion Stock Offering

Fri, 19 Sep 2014 12:36:00 +0000

Health Care REIT - More Money is Better With $1.1 billion directed into the seniors housing market and HCN's investment partnering with Main Street Development, it certainly signals an institutional change toward new construction PLUS the continuation of the consolidation of the senior living market via acquisitions. This is Good News for Operators looking to cash out of their seniors housing investment because it means that there is money in the market to pay top-of-market prices -- especially for assets kept in good physical condition and maintaining profitability.

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : Prescription Drug Abuse New Target For Senior Living Attention

Tue, 16 Sep 2014 15:26:49 +0000

Big Bucks. No Wammies. How is prescription drug use and the TV show, "Press Your Luck," similar? ("Press Your Luck" YouTube Link Here: bit.ly/1s4S3KH ) For Nursing Care Owners who are able to work with doctors and pharmacists to reduce their resident's use of prescription drugs, they may be saying the same thing as contestants on this once-popular TV show "Big Bucks. No Wammies." Prescription drug costs are a significant cost of nursing home care. Oftentimes, each prescription's cost is not reimbursed individually. A flat amount is usually provided to the nursing home who is then charged by the pharmacy on a prescription by prescription basis. Some patients may have 20+ prescriptions. That's "Big Bucks." If by working with resident's doctors and pharmacists, nursing homes are able to reduce the use of prescription drugs, then it may be "No Wammies" to the nursing home. I believe that we will start to see even more attention to the use of prescription drugs throughout healthcare. The biggest impact may not only be for nursing homes who are able to successfully work to reduce their use but also, more importantly, the biggest positive impact may be in the daily lives of individual residents. Helping people to reduce their use of potentially unnecessary prescription drugs can be another instance of "doing good is good business."

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : Another Pioneer ACO Calls It Quits, Citing Regional Challenges

Fri, 29 Aug 2014 15:57:27 +0000

ACO Model Crashing to the Ground? With one-third of the ACO's backing out of the program, it's looking like it's not exactly working. Excellent balanced reporting by Cassandra Dowell of Senior Housing News @srHousingNews. From the article, it looks like the ACO model may be salvaged with better metrics and accountabilities (pun intended). From what Operators are telling me, it looks like the re-admission rate adjustments to reimbursements are having the intended, positive effect of helping residents and rewarding good outcomes for the care providers. Let's hope that details for other programs may become equally positive. Cassandra Dowell, SHN Reporter: http://linkd.in/1wNMrXe Link to Story: http://bit.ly/1pcCbh7 Chris Foley Sr. Vice President - Equity Seniors Housing Advisors cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com (614) 915-8835

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : Dished: How Five Star is Overhauling Senior Living Dining

Mon, 18 Aug 2014 12:55:38 +0000

Operations is Marketing If you're a senior living operator and you want to keep your location 100% occupied, be the best Operator in your area and... let people know about it. This SHN article headlined: "Dished: How Five Star is Overhauling Senior Living Dining" by Emily Study ( http://bit.ly/VyHz7i ) shows how one company is using their operations (in this case, their food service) as marketing (letting people know about what they do in a creative, memorable way). P.S. - Look out for the 50 pound, Southern California-caught sea bass. ( http://bit.ly/VyIoND ) BTW, for the Owners & Operators: The best way to maximize the value of a seniors living location is to run it well and re-invest back into the business through innovative & well-done business practices AND updates to the physical buildings. Chris Foley Sr. Vice President - Equity Seniors Housing Advisors CPA (RETIRED) cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com (614) 915-8835

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : Private Equity Group Taps EB-5 to Fund $750 Million Assisted Living Pipeline

Fri, 15 Aug 2014 14:42:23 +0000

EB-5 Promotes Legal Migration It looks like PDC Capital Group ( @PDCCapitalGrp ) is doing the EB-5 Program in a Big Way with $750 million investment (as reported by Jason Olivia @srhousingnews ). The EB-5 Program, when done right, can be a great way to combine capital to create seniors housing jobs AND aid legal immigration. It's been available for years and mostly done on a much smaller scale, however, this $750 million investment certainly gives the financing technique more publicity. Chris Foley Sr. Vice President - Equity Seniors Housing Advisors CPA (RETIRED) cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com (614) 915-8835

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : CMS: Skilled Nursing Faces Uncertain Future, Negative Margins by 2040

Mon, 11 Aug 2014 12:37:14 +0000

One of the most fascinating ideas about seniors housing over the years that I've been involved in nursing home acquisitions is how dynamic of an industry it is. The industry and the owners & operators who choose to provide care have weathered over-building in the 1990's, multiple funding source overhauls, the introduction of electronic medical records and more regimented oversight while serving an increasingly sicker resident. Thirty years ago, nursing homes cared for what today is considered "assisted living" residents as well as bed-bound residents. In today's higher acuity nursing homes, a high percentage of the residents are unable to walk on their own. Challenges abound. Yet, for the keen operator who is ready, willing and able to stay flexible and make changes & re-investments as the market for nursing home care changes, success is achievable. Chris Foley Sr. Vice President - Equity Seniors Housing Advisors CPA (RETIRED) cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com (614) 915-8835

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : Senior Living Providers Devise New Strategies to Tackle ACOs

Thu, 31 Jul 2014 12:27:02 +0000

ACO Model Causes Shifting Sands for Construction of Facilities Senior Housing News' Jason Oliva (http://linkd.in/UNtzGe) writes that "In an ever-evolving healthcare landscape that demands higher care quality at lower costs, several senior living providers are engineering various strategies to establish themselves as partners in Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs)." One of these trends is to build new facilities physically close to hospitals and other ACO's. This could be a power shift in the making from community-based facilities (i.e., in communities where people live) to more centralized healthcare campus controlled by hospitals. So, in the real estate world, this could mean that the "sands are shifting" to a health campus with medical offices, nursing homes, assisted living and possibly independent living within a centralized services. Contrast this with the trend in the last few decades of having stand-alone facilities dispersed throughout a region. Is it time to invest in land near hospitals again? Chris Foley Sr. Vice President - Equity Seniors Housing Advisors CPA (RETIRED) (614) 915-8835 cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : Developers See Opportunity as Old Nursing Homes Become Obsolete

Wed, 23 Jul 2014 13:31:18 +0000

Sometimes, There's Not an Easy Solution The SHN headline reads: "Developers See Opportunity as Old Nursing Homes Become Obsolete." The informative story by @CassandraDowell discusses how developers are building new nursing homes because the old nursing homes dated buildings and structural designs can't compete with a new building's private bathrooms and internet & healthcare technology. Opportunity for developers, yes. What about the owners & operators of the older nursing homes? For family-owned nursing homes with older buildings, potential options are to a) make multi-million dollar upgrades to their existing facilities, b) build a new building themselves, c) keep operating as-is and hope for the best or d) consider whether it's time to cash-out and let somebody else make those multi-million dollar upgrades to their facility. Chris Foley Sr. Vice President - Equity Seniors Housing Advisors CPA (RETIRED) cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com 614-915-8835

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : 4 Ways Senior Living Breaks Down Community Walls

Fri, 18 Jul 2014 12:20:57 +0000

Marketing Checklist for Seniors Housing Operators Even though larger seniors housing operators like @MatherLifeWays may hire staff and have formal marketing programs, Senior Housing News writer @CassandraDowell provides a quick checklist for developing an outward-bound marketing program that can be modeled by family-owned Operators too. Family-owned senior living operators know that they are building community too. Outward-Bound marketing will help you show it off (and bring new residents to your doorstep). 1. Café Plus Model 2. Café Without Walls 3. Neighbor-to-Neighbor 4. Telephone Topics and Online Community Chris Foley Sr. Vice President - Equity Seniors Housing Advisors CPA (RETIRED) cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com (614) 915-8835

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : Senior Housing Still Booming, But Wild Card Remains

Fri, 18 Jul 2014 11:49:55 +0000

Seniors Housing - Best Real Estate Investment? Considering low, long-term interest rates combined with a relatively high cap rate (a cap rate is a type of real estate investor ROI measurement), seniors housing is one of the best real estate investment segments in the United States to place capital. SHN's reporter, Emily Study, writes that companies like NHI that have a significant investment in seniors housing coupled with low interest rate debt financing means that they are positioned for healthy earnings now and in the long-term future -- especially, when -- not if -- interest rates rise. As a real estate investor looking for above-average yields (compared to other real estate asset types like apartments, office buildings and retail), now is an incredibly good time to invest in assisted living, independent living and select nursing home properties. Chris Foley Sr. Vice President - Equity Seniors Housing Advisors cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com (614) 915-8835

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : CCRC Face-Lifts Keep Aging Communities Competitive

Mon, 14 Jul 2014 12:23:44 +0000

The Valuation Teeter-Totter In this Seniors Housing News article by @CassandraDowell , CCRC Owners recognize that re-investing capital into their properties via physical plant upgrades enhances the value of their year-to-year cash flow but ALSO increases the value of their property. One mistake that some Owners of seniors housing properties make is not re-investing into their properties to stay competitive in the ever-changing nursing home and assisted living marketplace. When it comes time to sell their single most important financial investment of their lives (i.e., their facility), it's good to remember the "Valuation Teeter-Totter." The Valuation Teeter-Totter rule says that the more money that a new Owner has to put into the physical plant of the property, the less the property is worth. It's almost a 1:1 relationship. Meaning, for every dollar that a new owner has to put into the purchased property, the value of the property & corresponding business goes down by another dollar. http://bit.ly/1twVF60 Chris Foley Sr. Vice President - Equity Seniors Housing Advisors CPA (RETIRED) cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com (614) 915-8835

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : 5 Secrets of a Top-Performing Senior Living Salesperson

Fri, 11 Jul 2014 14:36:59 +0000

Increase Occupancy by Going Home. Single facility Operators may have a tendency to make sure that things are going right in the facility before they leave the facility for other tasks. Interestingly, Traci Bild, founder of national health care consulting firm Bild & Company recommends Home visits at prospective residents homes. "Home visits are critical to the sales process, she says, adding that they help create a relationship between the operator and the prospective resident. " Chris Foley Sr. Vice President - Equity Seniors Housing Advisors cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com (614) 915-8835

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : Surging Memory Care Construction Pushes Developers to Innovate

Wed, 9 Jul 2014 14:37:23 +0000

Enough Demand For Memory Care - How Long? As this SHN article suggests, construction of new Memory Care facilities is gearing up. With both specialty Memory Care Operators building smaller communities for the unique challenges of memory-impaired residents AND traditional assisted living facilities converting or adding memory care beds to their buildings, it may be a small window of time to build new memory care space and successfully ramp-up to full occupancy. It is becoming more important to ensure the market will support the existing need for memory care services. Although It's a lot of work for those organizations that provide care, yet, for the benefit of the residents and their families, we hope that, Joseph Jasmon, chief operating officer for The LaSalle Group is correct -- “As more players come into the space it challenges everyone to do better.” Of course, for Operators considering adding to their memory care bed inventory, building sooner would be better than building later to attract residents before your competitors build near you.. Chris Foley Sr. Vice President - Equity Seniors Housing Advisors cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com (614) 915-8835

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : Social Settings Key to Senior Housing Retention Rates

Wed, 25 Jun 2014 15:25:45 +0000

It's all about People! Even though I write (and talk) a lot about how an Owner can improve the value of their Assisted Living facility or nursing home, in the end, it's always about the people! Taking care of people and helping them stay involved with each other is not only good business, it's just plain good. Congratulations to those Owners of seniors living properties who are "encouraging people to interact with each other” through simple, low-cost improvements in their physical environments. Read more here: http://bit.ly/1jOkQd7 Chris Foley Sr. Vice President - Equity Seniors Housing Advisors CPA (RETIRED) cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com (614) 915-8835

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : Rule Change Sparks St. Louis Senior Housing Construction Boom

Wed, 25 Jun 2014 11:46:56 +0000

Missouri Nursing Home Operators - Watch Out! SHN reports that there's a boom of building Assisted Living facilities in Missouri due to a relaxation of laws related to assisted living licensing. As assisted living facilities proliferate, it can be expected that there are nursing home residents who would be candidates for assisted living. In a business SWOT Analysis of Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats, nursing home operators may be wise to consider the building of assisted living facilities to be a competitive "T" - for Threat. This also presents an "O" - for Opportunity - for forward-thinking nursing home operators to enter into the assisted living market in Missouri. They may want to consider Jim Tellatin's advice of “grab those beds before your neighbor gets them.” Chris Foley Sr. Vice President - Equity Seniors Housing Advisors CPA (RETIRED) cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com (614) 915-8835

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : 4 Ways Senior Living is Cutting Down on Staff Turnover

Tue, 24 Jun 2014 12:43:08 +0000

Better Staff Retention = More Valuable Company For business owners looking to not only provide exceptional experiences for seniors & their employees, but to also build a business, a side-benefit to lower staff turnover is that it builds a more valuable company. Chris Foley Sr. Vice President - Equity Seniors Housing Advisors CPA (RETIRED) cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com (614) 915-8835

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : New Online Consumer Takes Senior Living By Storm As Some Fall Behind

Fri, 6 Jun 2014 16:57:14 +0000

It's Still A Local Decision_So, the good news for single facility Owners of assisted living facilities and nursing homes is that it's not too late to get started to get noticed online. It's time to be a "fast follower" and take advantage of today's technologies to be able to compete with the larger chains. http://bit.ly/1ttCE1E __Chris Foley_Sr. Vice President - Equity Seniors Housing Brokerage & Advisors_cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com_(614) 915-8835 _

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : Senior Living-University Partnership Sees Potential in Brain Health Program

Fri, 6 Jun 2014 14:11:25 +0000

Research is the New Marketing? Chris Foley Sr. Vice President - Equity Seniors Housing Brokerage & Advisors cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com (614) 915-8835

Senior Housing News - Senior Housing, Senior Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home News : Health Care REIT CEO: Not Interested in Overpaying for Mediocre Assets

Fri, 6 Jun 2014 12:20:56 +0000

Whether you're selling produce at a farmer's market at the side of the road or a multi-million dollar seniors housing property, generating competition to purchase is the only sure way for an Owner of a seniors housing property to get the best price! Achieving the highest price can be fun too. Chris Foley Sr. Vice President - Equity Seniors Housing Brokerage & Advisors cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com (614) 915-8835