Immigration reform won’t solve long-term care’s fundamental staffing challenge
By
John O'Connor
Apr 05, 2013
Long-term care operators are understandably giddy about the sudden prospect of immigration reform. But they might want to curb their enthusiasm.
The Alzheimer’s investment that’s not being made
By
John O'Connor
Jun 13, 2016
Our best hope to make progress against Alzheimer’s disease probably lies in the form of increased research funding.
Why more long-term care operators are being nudged upstream
By
John O'Connor
Jun 12, 2022
There is continuing debate in long-term care about whether future success lies in upstream (increasingly healthcare focused) or downstream (increasingly service focused) services.
Obtaining critical claims data may soon get easier
By
John O'Connor
Jun 05, 2015
The government plans to make new claims data and other resident-care information available to providers and entrepreneurs as never before. Is it too good to be true?
The truth can set you free — or put your long-term care facility out of business
By
John O'Connor
Jan 11, 2013
Journalists generally get all warm and tingly when previously guarded information becomes available. It must be in our DNA. So I should probably be cheering ProPublica’s announcement that the government...
Unions to the rescue?
By
John O'Connor
Oct 16, 2023
Ben Franklin famously assured us life has two guarantees. They are higher taxes and death. If Ben were alive today and owned a nursing home, he’d probably add a third: Unions will ruin everything.
A new way to think about long-term care funding
By
John O'Connor
Nov 06, 2017
During a talk last Monday at the LeadingAge conference, Harvard Professor Jennifer McCrea served up an interesting take on the warping nature of money.
Promising signs on the regulatory front
By
John O'Connor
Oct 16, 2017
President Trump is no fan of regulations, and long-term care operators have more than their fair share to contend with. So it’s a welcome breeze when Trump says he wants to start eliminating some...
Here we go again: All nursing homes are bad
By
John O'Connor
Sep 17, 2017
There is no way to sugarcoat what happened last week in Hollywood Hills, FL. Eight skilled care residents died in the wake of Hurricane Irma. Our condolences go out to the victims and their families. But...
How not to learn from a nursing home tragedy
By
John O'Connor
Jul 09, 2018
Let’s be clear: A tragedy last year wasn’t a once-in-a-century outlier. It was a disaster waiting to happen.