SavaSeniorCare Exits Market as Skilled Nursing Operators Regionalize
Firm that was 11th-largest US operator transfers portfolio, shutting down.
A company that as late as September was the 11th-largest US nursing home operator expects to complete the transition of its entire portfolio to regional operators by the end of January, when it will shut down as a company.
According to a report in Skilled Nursing News (SNN), SavaSeniorCare is in the process of transitioning the last five nursing homes in a US portfolio that once encompassed nearly 170 facilities nationwide.
Sava is the latest casualty in a trend of regionalization that has resulted in a downsizing of some of the largest national operators of skilled nursing facilities.
In an emailed statement to SNN, Sava said that COVID-related challenges drove the decision to hand off the portfolio to other operators.
“The nursing home industry has experienced significant challenges over the past few years due, in large part, to COVID-19. As a result, Sava and its affiliated operating companies have made the decision to transition the portfolio of nursing centers to regional operators. Sava’s operating affiliates currently operate five nursing centers. We anticipate that all transitions will be completed by the end of January 2023,” the statement read.
Atlanta-based Sava adopted a strategic plan to scale down its operations in November 2020, beginning with the transfer of operations of 48 skilled nursing facilities and assisted living properties across eight states by the end of 2021.
According to the plan, Sava intended to circle its wagons around two divisions with properties concentrated in specific geographic regions.
However, in September 2021, the company transitioned an additional 29 long-term care facilities to four regional operators, effectively eliminating the company’s portfolio in Colorado, California and Wyoming.
In April, Ray Thiverge, Sala’s chief strategy officer, told SNN that the company was projecting that long-term care occupancy at its facilities might never fully recover.
According to a Stifel analysis of data compiled by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Sava was still operating 92 nursing homes in the US as late as September.
According to the ownership data released by CMS in September, the skilled nursing sector remains highly fragmented, with a third of SNFs being single-site operations; 53% of the remaining 606 multi-facility providers have less than 10 facilities; 28 have 50 buildings or more.
Larger nursing home operators are scaling down or rebranding themselves as regional operators. Brickyard Healthcare—formerly Golden LivingCenters, with a national portfolio—now calls itself a Midwest operator after downsizing its operations to 23 locations in Indiana.