In their recent CFO Hotline Report, Ziegler surveyed the CFOs of over 240 LPCs nationwide on their current and future plans for their SNFs. Predominantly, surveyed organizations were SSOs (60% of respondents) and were almost exclusively NFP LPCs. Encouragingly, most participants reported either significant (36%,) moderate (29%,) or at least slight (18%) improvement in occupancy as compared to their pandemic-era lows. Thirty-seven percent of providers have permanently reduced their number of SNF beds; of these providers, most (44%) had reduced their SNFs by 11-25% of total beds, some (27%) had reduced their SNFs by 26-50% of total beds, and 6% had completely eliminated their SNFs altogether.
Staffing shortages and challenges were the reason for these reductions for 46% of providers; another 43% had reduced their SNF for “some other concern.” Those concerns include all the usual suspects: reimbursement challenges, the regulatory environment, inflation, consumer avoidance, dated buildings and services, and increasing resident acuity. Additionally, 10% of providers said that a reduction in hospital referrals had driven down their SNF offerings, and providers were then repositioning those rooms for other uses.
