Keiro Senior HealthCare’s president and CEO, Shawn Miyake, and chairman, Gary Kawaguchi, said that their board will seek other potential buyers now that the proposed sale of Keiro’s four facilities in Los Angeles and Gardena to the Ensign Group has been rejected by the California Attorney General’s Office.
Miyake and Kawaguchi sent the following message this month to people affiliated with Keiro.
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This mailing of our community update report provides us with the opportunity to bring all of you, our friends and supporters, up to date regarding the transition in ownership of our facilities, a process which has been occurring over the past year.
Some of you may have been aware from recent stories in the press that the transaction we had been working on for the past year was not approved by the attorney general — an essential step in closing escrow.
Many have wondered if an appeal process was available. The answer is no. However, both parties did make additional efforts to reach out to the attorney general. Although these efforts were not successful, we learned some things which will be useful to us as we move forward with the process.
The Board of Directors is determined to move ahead and seek other potential buyers. The conditions which compelled our initial decision to sell our facilities are now becoming more evident as health care reform takes hold. Reimbursement rates are falling, fewer admissions are occurring with shorter lengths of stay, and collecting billed payments from health plans is more difficult.
We anticipated these things occurring. In the end, we still feel that being acquired by a larger operator that is experienced in this new health care delivery environment will position the facilities to be sustainable further into the future.
Our main goal is to make sure the facilities remain available to our community for as long as they are needed. At the same time, we are busy working on expanding our community-based programs and services with some new and exciting resources to be unveiled shortly.
The board has chosen for the Keiro organization to continue “to enhance the quality of senior life in our community” in innovative ways, based on expressed needs.
We want to thank everyone for your understanding, support and encouragement during this transition process.