Private-pay assisted living operators cheered when the Department of Health and Human Services announced that they could apply for COVID-19-related aid from the Provider Relief Fund. The announcement, however, already has at least one industry investor concerned.
Irvine, CA-based real estate investment trust Healthpeak Properties said this week that potential increased federal oversight of assisted living connected to the stimulus money is one reason the company is continuing to consider a future with a smaller senior housing portfolio. The REIT ultimately could exit the sector.
Nursing home funding amounts are tied to COVID-19 infection and mortality rates in residents, but it remains to be seen what data-reporting the federal government will ask of assisted living operators who receive the funding (the revised deadline to begin the application process is Monday).
All types of providers will be required to tell the Department of Health and Human Services how they spend their relief fund payments, according to Morning Consult. An HHS spokesperson told the outlet that all providers receiving funds also must comply with any reporting requirements “specified in future directions issued by the Secretary.”
R. Tamara Konetzka, Ph.D., a professor of health services research at the University of Chicago who testified in May before the Senate Special Committee on Aging, told the outlet that COVID-related data-reporting by assisted living operators “should be mandatory.”
It might be difficult for HHS to enforce nursing home-like data-reporting requirements for assisted living operators after funding is disbursed, however, Morning Consult notes.
The funding formula also is potentially problematic, according to another policy expert.
Eligible assisted living operators applying for the aid will receive an amount equal to 2% of their annual revenue from “patient care,” according to HHS.
Karyn Schwartz, a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said that a formula based on rate, not on need or virus severity, raises the possibility that relief may not be distributed fairly.
