According to an article in the Wall Street Journal last week, one of the hottest new financial developments is companies which run assisted-living centers. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal article, early results indicate that the businesses have done very well for themselves. Analysts suggest that there are several reasons for the recent growth in the industry, and that those same reasons predict continued growth. Increasingly, assisted living centers are used as alternatives to nursing home care, at a significantly lower cost. Given strained government and personal budgets, those savings not only look attractive today, but are likely to be even more attractive in the future.
Most states also make building assisted living centers easier than nursing homes.
While certificates of need may restrict the number of new nursing home beds, there may not be such limitations on assisted living facilities. Nursing home beds are not increasing as rapidly as assisted-care facilities. Furthermore, the available nursing home beds are increasingly occupied by acute-care patients who have been eased out of hospitals by managed care, DRGs and other trends in health care. These trends have helped fuel the growth in the assisted-living industry. Most of the principal players in the development of assisted living centers are small, recent start-ups.