In their recent CFO Hotline Report, Ziegler surveyed the CFOs of over 240 life plan communities (LPCs) nationwide on their current and future plans for their skilled nursing facilities (SNFs).

Predominantly, surveyed organizations were SSOs (60% of respondents) and were almost exclusively not-for-profit 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.

Here are some other takeaways from the report:

• 37% 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.
• 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.