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…
Author: Sarah K
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…
Washington, D.C. — A new national report is sounding the alarm on what could be one of the most significant rollbacks in home-based care in a generation: an estimated 311,879 fewer individuals enrolled in Medicaid home care services by 2034, the direct result of eligibility changes baked into the 2025 reconciliation law. The findings come from the inaugural 2026 Medicaid Home Care Chartbook, released by the National Alliance for Care at Home and the Research Institute for Home Care. The projections are based on government data covering approximately 3.3 million Medicaid home care recipients in 2023, run through forecasting models…
San Juan Capistrano, California — One of the country’s largest skilled nursing operators just made one of its biggest moves yet. The Ensign Group announced the acquisition of 17 skilled nursing and senior living facilities across Texas, effective May 1, 2026, in what the company’s CEO described as a deal poised to be “a home run” for its Texas operations. The transaction also included two assisted living facilities in Wisconsin. The Texas portfolio spans major markets including Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Katy, and several other communities across the state. Combined, the facilities add hundreds of beds to Ensign’s…
Washington, D.C. — States across the country are scrambling to figure out how to enforce Medicaid work requirements — and many are still making it up as they go, even as the January 2027 deadline for full implementation closes in fast. A sweeping KFF survey of Medicaid officials in 42 states and Washington, D.C., released Wednesday, lays bare just how unprepared most states are to carry out one of the most significant changes to Medicaid in decades. And for nursing homes that rely heavily on Medicaid — both to fund resident care and, increasingly, to source their workforce — the…
