For the first time ever, the federal government has released information about the sale of long-term care facilities and hospitals.
As part of an effort from the Biden administration to promote competition in long-term care and the rest of the American economy, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has published information showing all recent mergers, acquisitions, consolidations and changes of ownership among hospitals and skilled nursing facilities enrolled in Medicare. (Occasionally, changes of ownership result in dramatic decreases in nursing home quality.)
The data, which also includes information about each organizational owner, is aimed at helping improve safety and quality of care in nursing homes, as outlined in a recent federal action plan.
The information, covering the period from 2016 to 2022, is available on the CMS website. For nursing homes, the data is here.
“Hospital and nursing facility consolidation leaves many underserved areas with inadequate or more expensive health care options,” said CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure in a press release announcing the data. “This new data gives researchers, state and federal enforcement agencies, and the public new opportunities to examine how mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, and changes of ownership impact access to care, care quality, and prices as a way to enable greater transparency and insight into the hospital and nursing home industries.”
According to the data, one skilled nursing facility in Whatcom County was sold within the past six years, with Shuksan Healthcare Facility (along with Fidalgo Care Center in Anacortes, in Skagit County) being sold to Soundview Rehabilitation and Health Care Inc.
A few highlights from the data, according to a report from the federal Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation:
- Nationwide, changes of ownership have been much more common in nursing homes than hospitals.
- Most (62.3%) of the skilled nursing facilities purchased nationwide during the past six years have a single organizational owner.
- Around 4% of skilled nursing facilities in the U.S. were sold each year during 2016–2021, with 3,236 total sold. In all, there are approximately 15,000 nursing homes certified as Medicare skilled nursing facilities.
- During the past six years, 348 U.S. hospitals also experienced a change in ownership — good for about 1% per year.
- With more than 4% of hospitals sold per year, Washington state is in a higher tier than most of the rest of the country.
Christian Health Care Center has operated as a locally owned nonprofit since its founding in 1956. Patient care decisions are not made by an out-of-state corporation, and that is becoming increasingly rare in the marketplace.
The new dataset from CMS will allow for the monitoring of future changes in the long-term care landscape as it continues to change in Whatcom County and around the nation.