Senior living renovation projects have stalled, but work related to most new developments and additions to existing campuses continues amid COVID-19, Larry Graeve, Chris Harrison and Amy Burk of The Weitz Company write in a new issue brief for the American Seniors Housing Association. Some projects have been broken down into several smaller phases in response to the pandemic, however.
The first available vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 should go to frontline healthcare workers — including those who work in assisted living communities — and first responders, according to draft recommendations from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. But application of the recommendations to older adults in long-term care settings — specifically, senior housing — is unclear, according to industry representatives.
Private-pay assisted living communities now may apply for funding under the Provider Relief Fund phase 2 general distribution allocation, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday through the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Senior living providers are expected to have access soon to funding from the federal government to help them with their COVID-19-related expenses, according to the American Seniors Housing Association. Although a total dollar allocation for industry providers has not been disclosed, it is thought that the formula will be similar to HHS funding distributions to other types of healthcare organizations: 2% of 2019 gross revenues.
For months now, industry associations have been making the case for senior living operators to be included in a federal COVID relief package. Increasingly, their messages are being heard, and other voices are joining their pleas.
A federal judge has struck down the Department of Labor’s restrictions on which workers can access a temporary federal paid leave program, according to court documents released Monday.
Several associations representing assisted living providers hope a new data collection portal will bring members and nonmembers one step closer to receiving federal relief for their COVID-19-related costs. The submission deadline is 5 p.m. ET on Aug. 3.
The $1 trillion coronavirus relief package of bills released Monday by Senate Republicans once again leaves senior living on the outside looking in, according to some provider groups.
Senior living operators require “substantial and immediate financial relief” from expenses related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the leaders of four major associations representing operators of independent living, assisted living, memory care and continuing care retirement communities tell President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), with other House and Senate leaders copied, in new letters.
The COVID-19 crisis has not changed consumer sentiment much toward independent living and assisted living, according to preliminary findings from a national survey.
