Days after the United State’s AAA credit rating was downgraded rating agency Standard and Poor’s has put all six of its rated for-profit nursing home providers on Credit Watch with a negative outlook, reports McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.
This comes on the heals of CMS’s decision to cut nursing home payments by 11.1 percent starting Oct. 1. And the impact will be far-reaching beyond the big six providers targeted (Golden Living, Genoa Healthcare Group, HCR Healthcare, Kindred Healthcare, Skilled Healthcare and Sun Healthcare). The entire eldercare industry will feel the impact, said Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care President Alan Rosenbloom:
“Banks who lend to regional and other local providers monitor actions by S&P, and this will increase their reluctance to lend to the sector, as well as increase costs for borrowers,” he said. “As the lowest margin provider, nursing homes face rising costs and plummeting Medicaid payments.”
Rosenbloom also warned of more cuts to the industry when the so-called Congressional “Super-Committee” meets to propose deeper deficit-reducing strategies later this year.
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