New York, New York — Cost and trust are leading the way when families choose post-acute care, and nursing homes are right in the middle of that calculation, according to a new survey released by U.S. News & World Report. The survey found that affordability remains a major pressure point as families weigh care options for older adults and patients leaving the hospital. Trust in a provider, along with confidence in quality and reputation, also ranked high in decision-making. For nursing homes, that mix matters because operators are competing not only on clinical services, but on whether families believe the…
Author: Mordy Y
Atlanta, Georgia — In the span of 15 months, Journey Healthcare has transformed from a single-facility startup into a 39-building skilled nursing company. The Indiana-based operator completed its latest round of Georgia acquisitions in early March, adding 13 nursing homes in February alone. That kind of growth rate would be remarkable for any healthcare organization. For a company barely two years old, it raises a natural question: how do you grow that fast without things falling apart? According to President and CEO Bernie McGuinness, the answer is discipline — and knowing when to stop. Big bets on Georgia Journey’s new…
New York, New York — After several years of punishing jumps in long-term care prices, nursing home cost growth finally slowed in 2025. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the national median price for a semi-private nursing home room still climbed to $114,975 a year, according to new CareScout data. The annual survey, released by CareScout, a Genworth Financial company, found that most long-term care settings posted year-over-year increases between 1% and 5%. For nursing homes, the increases came in at the low end of that range. A semi-private room rose 2% to $315 a day, while…
Washington, D.C. — Senior care providers are sending a clear message to federal health officials: without real investment in digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence will never reach the residents who need it most. That was the consistent theme across a wave of industry comments submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services in response to its request for input on accelerating AI adoption in clinical care. Nursing home operators, advocacy groups, and health technology companies all pointed to the same core problem — the long-term care sector has been left behind digitally, and enthusiasm for AI won’t fix that if…
Sacramento, CA — A California jury has awarded $110 million to the family of a 100-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s disease who died after wandering outside her senior care facility and becoming trapped in the cold. Mildred Hernandez, who had lived at Greenhaven Estates in Sacramento for more than five years, died in February 2019 after leaving the building in the early morning hours. According to court filings, she exited the facility shortly before 6 a.m. through a door that automatically locked behind her, preventing her from getting back inside. Temperatures that morning were around 38 degrees. Hernandez was discovered outside…
Washington, D.C. — A day after researchers published a study claiming that state-level nursing home staffing mandates caused little financial harm, the industry hit back hard — and it wasn’t holding back. The study, published in Health Affairs and led by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Lehigh University, concluded that state mandates from 2010 to 2023 raised non-registered nurse staffing by about 5% without driving widespread closures or financial damage. But major industry groups called those findings narrow, incomplete, and shaped by the researchers’ own leanings. Rachel Reeves, spokeswoman for the American Health Care Association and National Center…
New York, New York — Skilled nursing providers in several states are getting a little more time to benefit from managed care organization taxes, but the financial relief will not last. Federal regulators have confirmed phaseout timelines that will cost facilities millions of dollars annually once the funding window closes. A final rule issued this month by federal health officials grants a wind-down period to states that approved or expanded MCO provider taxes this year. It is a short-term win — but the long-term math is stark. In New York, skilled nursing providers had braced for an immediate loss of…
Richmond, Virginia — A New York-based skilled nursing operator has picked up two Welltower-affiliated rehab and care facilities in Virginia for a combined $82.4 million, part of a broader wave of deal activity reshaping the skilled nursing landscape across the country. Hill Valley Healthcare, founded in 2018 and headquartered in the Five Towns area of western Long Island, closed on both properties in January. The company paid $46.5 million for Lakeside Health & Rehabilitation and $35.9 million for Rosedale Health & Rehabilitation, according to property records. Both facilities serve patients with short- and long-term nursing needs, including specialized Alzheimer’s and…
Michigan residents are paying significantly more for nursing home care than the national median, according to new data released Monday from the Cost of Care Survey conducted by CareScout. A recent Cost of Care Survey from CareScout found the median annual price for a private room in a Michigan nursing home reached $143,628 last year, well above the national median of $129,575. The price difference means Michigan families are paying more than 11% above the national average, and the annual cost is nearly double the state’s median household income. The disparity becomes even larger when looking at semi-private rooms. Across…
A widely used infection control framework created by the World Health Organization is getting a second life — this time, in nursing homes. Originally designed for hospitals, the WHO’s Infection Prevention and Control Assessment Framework (IPCAF) has been adapted for use in long-term care settings, and a new pilot study suggests the modified version could become a practical standard for nursing homes looking to sharpen their infection prevention programs. The study, published in February in the peer-reviewed journal Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control, looked at how the tool performed across 14 healthcare groups in the Netherlands. Researchers translated the framework…
