Our Health Care Real Estate Briefing is your comprehensive summary of weekly health care real estate highlights happening across the nation.
Legislators and government agencies are looking for ways to deliver care in new settings. Last week, three U.S. Senators proposed a bill that would create a pilot program that would explore funding the cost of room and board at an assisted living facility for veterans. CMS also announced a grant program that would explore providing certain behavioral services in skilled nursing facilities (“SNFs”). Speaking of SNFs, vaccine rates for SNF caregivers is way up. On average, 88% of SNF caregivers are vaccinated according to one report. Finally, several large projects were announced, including a new ASC in Sacramento, a hospital in San Francisco and a major initiative to open around 100 primary care clinics for seniors.
1. Three U.S. Senators introduced a bill called Expanding Veterans’ Options for Long Term Care Act. The bill, if passed, would create a pilot program for veterans to receive assisted living care paid for by the VA according to McKnight’s Senior Living.
2. The Department of Health and Human Services and CMS want to explore how behavioral health care services can be provided in SNFs. CMS will be providing a $15M grant to one SNF operator to develop a Center of Excellence for behavioral health care services per Healthcare Finance News.
3. Vaccine rates among SNF staff members are up 25% from a year ago. One report suggests CMS’s vaccination mandate may be the reason for the increase – from August 2021 to March 2022, staff vaccine rates increased from 63% to 88%, 12% of SNFs reported 100% staff vaccination rates, 39% of SNFs reported vaccination rates over 90% and 49% of SNFs report rates of 90% or below per Kaiser Health News.
4. Hall Render will be hosting several webinars in June on the following topics: Stark Law Basics; Reimbursement and Physician Compensation Issues; and Trends in Physician Practice Acquisitions. Sign up here today.
5. About 8% of health care facilities are owned by REITs according to a new study. 197 hospitals are owned by REITs (about 3% of all hospitals) and 1870 SNFs are owned by REITs (about 12% of all SNFs). For-profit and urban health care facilities are more likely to be owned by REITs per Jama Network.
6. The Real Estate Roundtable, a group of executives from the top public and private real estate companies, published its Q2 Economic Sentiment Index. The findings include that: 1) Confidence in the real estate industry is down 15 points for the quarter and 26 points from a year ago; 2) Executives remain optimistic, but geopolitical and economic uncertainty are tempering expectations; and 3) Life science, industrial, multifamily and data centers are the most favored assets.
7. Humana announced plans for a $1.2B investment in its CenterWell Senior Primary Care platform. The money will go towards developing about 100 new primary care clinics for seniors per Louisville Business First.
8. UC Board of Regents approved University of California, San Francisco plans and budget for the new Parnassus Heights Hospital. The project will cost $4.3B and will open in 2030.
9. UC Davis Health announced plans for a large ASC on its Sacramento campus. The project will cost $579M and will include 262K sf, 12 ORs, 5 minor procedure rooms and 60 recovery bays per Sacramento Business Journal.
10. Main Line Health announced plans to develop a mixed-use project in Wynnwood, PA on a 43-acre parcel of land that was previously used as a seminary campus. Plans include medical offices, senior housing, apartments, condos and retail per The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Hall Render blog posts and articles are intended for informational purposes only. For ethical reasons, Hall Render attorneys cannot—outside of an attorney-client relationship—answer specific questions that would be legal advice.
