- According to a recent study, physician-owned hospitals treated some of the most expensive Medicare beneficiaries at significantly lower costs compared to traditional hospitals, despite serving similar patient populations. The study follows a recent Congressional hearing that debated legislation to loosen restrictions on physician-owned hospitals.
- The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will weigh in on the extent to which nonprofit hospitals can reward executives for earning net income and still qualify for local property tax exemptions. The case arose from a lower court denial of property tax exemption for Tower Health’s Pottstown Hospital due to an overemphasis on tying executive compensation to financial performance.
- A U.S. Senate committee led by Sen. Bernie Sanders recently scrutinized 12 major tax-exempt hospitals that dedicated less than 2% of their total revenue to charity care in 2021. The American Hospital Association has countered that tax-exempt hospitals provided $129B in community benefits in 2020, which averages 15.5% of total expenses.
- CMS settled a record-breaking $9.29M in Stark self-referral disclosures in 2022, according to recent data from CMS. By contrast, the data show that, in the prior 10-year period, CMS self-referral disclosures averaged around $3.5M per year.
- A recent research paper found the health care and life science industries continue facing significant challenges, including an estimated $2.6 trillion in loan maturities through 2027. The debt situation has a particular impact on the health care sector, but opportunities may arise for health care real estate investors to acquire distressed assets at a discount in anticipation of long-term growth in the sector.
- Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores is seeking $273M in tax breaks and incentives to build 662 units of mixed-income housing and a new medical research center jointly developed by Henry Ford Health and Michigan State University in Detroit’s New Center area.
- Behavioral health real estate is expected to grow in California as public money is flowing in to support the cause of mental health. The state announced more than $1B in behavioral health grants this summer.
- A recent report from BMO Capital Markets found that only 6% of REIT nursing home assets are in compliance with the recent federal minimum staffing proposal. In the broader nursing home industry, 19% meet such minimum staffing benchmarks.
- Advocate Health is constructing a 60,000-sf medical center inside a shopping mall in Chicago that will include office space, immediate care and an ASC. The project will cost around $75M and will include 50 exam rooms for primary care, family medicine, orthopedics, obstetrics, GI and sports medicine.
- Ascension Seton Williamson announced a $230M expansion to its Round Rock, TX hospital campus. The expansion will include the addition of a 216,000-sf, six-story tower with 160 patient rooms and two operating rooms.
For more information on real estate matters, please contact:
- Andrew Dick at adick@hallrender.com or (317) 977-1491;
- Joel Swider at jswider@hallrender.com or (317) 429-3638; or
- Your primary Hall Render contact.
Special thanks to Gabriel Vaughn, undergraduate intern, for his assistance in the preparation of this article.
Hall Render blog posts and articles are intended for informational purposes only. For ethical reasons, Hall Render attorneys cannot give legal advice outside of an attorney-client relationship.
