Steve Fogg, CFO of Marquis Companies and Consonus Healthcare, sits down with Skilled Nursing News to discuss how senior care organizations with diversified services lines are in a better position to care for residents at this point in the pandemic — and in the future. He talks about the unique insight Consonus Healthcare brings to partnerships because of the operations-driven backbone of parent company, Marquis Companies.
Skilled nursing provider Marquis Companies has been building a diverse offering of services for years now, adding home health, a long-term care pharmacy, a therapy company and, most recently, a special needs insurance plan (I-SNP) to its 25 SNFs and assisted living facilities.
“By having many, many parts of the continuum, that allows us to drive some efficiencies,” Steve Fogg, chief financial officer for Oregon-based Marquis, told SNN. “It allows us to improve the experience for residents, because they have commonality of services from an organization that they know.”
Fogg did say that it’s been challenging to have so many pieces of long-term care in play over the past 18 months.
“As leaders, we have to be knowledgeable and versed in all of these pieces, versus if we just specialize in one. I think that probably keeps (other operators) from doing what we’ve done as well,” Fogg said.
Having an insurance plan that markets to all of its residents across the continuum has helped from a payment perspective, the Marquis CFO said.
Added Fogg: “It helps to fund those physicians and nurse practitioners that are now employed by us in our buildings every day. They’re providing all of those services to the residents and managing their care needs in entirety, something that we never used to do in our industry until we were able to start this insurance plan and provide the economics that allowed us to afford that workforce.”
Out of these service lines, Marquis has focused more on its pharmacy and therapy platforms within the past five years.