Washington, D.C. — Local paramedics and police officers may soon become a more active line of defense against nursing home abuse, thanks to a new federal training package built to teach them what to watch for and how to act on it. The U.S. Department of Justice partnered with the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care to release a toolkit aimed at frontline first responders. It includes eight short module videos and matching fact sheets that walk EMTs, firefighters, and police through the kinds of situations they’re likely to run into when they’re called to a long-term care facility,…
Author: Sarah K
Atlanta, Georgia — A new wave of nuclear courtroom verdicts is reshaping the legal risk facing nursing home operators, and plaintiffs’ lawyers are no longer stopping at the bedside. They’re going after the investors, asset managers and private equity firms sitting behind the buildings, and juries are rewarding them with awards that are climbing into nine figures. That’s the picture sketched by attorneys, insurers and industry analysts as the legal climate for skilled nursing grows tougher. According to industry sources, an “aberrant” or “nuclear” verdict typically refers to any jury award above $10 million that exceeds what the underlying economic…
Nursing home occupancy is climbing again, rents are rising at the fastest pace since the financial crisis, and yet almost no one is breaking ground on new buildings. That’s the strange picture coming out of a new Marcus & Millichap report, which lays out a sector where demand is finally outrunning supply — but the math on new construction still doesn’t pencil. According to the brokerage, skilled nursing occupancy topped 87% in the first quarter of 2026. That’s the highest mark recorded since 2016, and it’s been enough to push annual rent growth above 5% — a pace the industry…
New York, New York — Skilled nursing facilities are pulling in real estate capital at a pace the sector hasn’t seen in years, and one of the more active private equity voices in the space says three forces are behind the rush. Jonathan Slusher, partner and head of senior living and healthcare at Northwind Group, told industry sources this month that buyers are increasingly treating skilled nursing as part of America’s “social infrastructure” — a framing that’s helping break the stigma some institutional capital still attaches to the space. Northwind has investments in more than 400 health care properties across…
Lebanon, Pennsylvania — A federal bankruptcy judge has signed off on the $40 million sale of Cedar Haven Healthcare Center, closing out months of legal wrangling over a Pennsylvania nursing home that has now stumbled into its second bankruptcy since the county sold it off in 2014. Judge Henry Van Eck approved the deal at a May 19 hearing in Harrisburg, according to local reports. The sale won’t close for roughly 60 days, but the path is set — and it marks another chapter in a privatization story that hasn’t gone the way Lebanon County hoped. The bidding got fierce…
Springfield, Illinois — A measure aimed at tightening oversight of mental health care inside Illinois nursing homes is now one signature away from becoming law. The state Senate approved House Bill 4509 on Thursday, sending it to Governor JB Pritzker after months of debate over how the state vets and follows up on residents living with serious mental illness. The legislation, sponsored by State Senator Dave Koehler, a Peoria Democrat, would require the Illinois Department of Human Services or its designee to visit every nursing home resident diagnosed with serious mental illness within 60 days of admission. It also forces…
Washington, D.C. — Federal regulators are taking a hard look at how nursing homes have been coding patient conditions under Medicare’s payment system, and operators are being warned that the answer could shave real dollars off their margins. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is examining what industry insiders call “case mix creep” — a sharp rise in how often skilled nursing facilities report conditions like malnutrition, depression, and swallowing disorders under the Patient Driven Payment Model. The agency wants to know whether those increases reflect better clinical documentation or something less innocent. One number jumped out during a…
Washington — A group of 17 Senate Democrats has unveiled a long-term care agenda designed to revive the nursing home staffing mandate, crack down on private equity in the sector, and create a Medicare-covered home care benefit — a sweeping package the senators say they’ll move on if Democrats retake Congress. The plan, laid out in a “Dear Colleague” letter circulated this week by Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden of Oregon, signals where the party intends to push once the political math allows it. “Families are confronting a care crisis that threatens their savings, their jobs and their dignity,”…
Washington, D.C. — The federal agency that oversees Medicare and Med making its most aggressive push yet to kill the paper-based prior authorization process that has long frustrated nursing home operators, residents, and their families. CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz announced Tuesday that the agency is expanding its Health Tech Ecosystem to include electronic prior authorization — bringing together EHR vendors, health systems, hospitals, physician practices, digital health developers, and payers under one coordinated effort. The goal is to make electronic prior authorization work end-to-end, on time, for every patient. “A common practice imposed by health insurers on patients and…
Bristol Township, Pennsylvania — When a gas explosion tore through Bristol Health & Rehab Center on December 23, 2025, killing three people and injuring 20 more, firefighters racing into the rubble faced a problem that had nothing to do with the flames: they had no idea who was inside. “There were probably extended searches that went on in that building that were unnecessary because we thought we had everybody, but we continued searching and searching to make sure, because we didn’t know,” Bristol Township Fire Chief Kevin Dippolito said at a news conference last week. Now, Pennsylvania lawmakers want to…
