MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — National HealthCare Corporation (NYSE MKT: NHC, NHC.PRA), the nation’s oldest publicly traded long-term health care company, announced today that it will pay a quarterly dividend of 32 cents per common share to shareholders of record on June 28, 2013 and payable on August 30, 2013. This represents a 6.7% increase over last quarter’s regular common dividend.

The Company will also pay a quarterly dividend of 20 cents per preferred share to shareholders of record on June 17, 2013 and payable on July 15, 2013.

Print Press Release (PDF)

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — National HealthCare Corporation (NYSE MKT: NHC, NHC.PRA), the nation’s oldest publicly traded long-term health care company, today announced net income available to common shareholders for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 of $11,637,000 compared to $10,486,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2012, an increase of 11.0%. Net income was $0.84 per common share basic for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 compared to $0.76 per common share basic for the quarter ended March 31, 2012. Revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2013 totaled $194,378,000 compared to $190,050,000 for the same three months of 2012, an increase of 2.3%.

Operating results for the first quarter of 2013 compared to the first quarter last year were favorably impacted by an improved patient mix, as well as the continued effort to implement cost saving measures to reduce expenses in our skilled nursing facilities.

Print Press Release, with Interim Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income (PDF)

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — National Health Investors, Inc., (NYSE:NHI), National HealthCare Corporation (NYSE MKT: NHC, NHC.PRA), the court-appointed Receiver for two Tennessee nonprofits, SeniorTrust of Florida, Inc., (“SeniorTrust”) and ElderTrust of Florida, Inc., (“ElderTrust), and the Tennessee Attorney General announced today that they have agreed to resolve a long-standing dispute that has been the subject of litigation. The resolution of the litigation, together with the Receiver’s sale of 14 nursing homes and liquidation of the nonprofits’ assets, will ultimately result in approximately $40M for charitable purposes in Tennessee.

The Tennessee Attorney General had previously asked the Davidson County Chancery Court to place both of these nonprofits in receivership. The Receiver subsequently filed suit against National Health Investors, Inc. (“NHI”) and National HealthCare Corporation (“NHC”).

NHI helped to establish SeniorTrust and ElderTrust, two Tennessee 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporations, in 2000. Between 2001 and 2004, NHI sold a group of skilled nursing facilities in Missouri and Kansas to SeniorTrust and a group of skilled nursing facilities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire to ElderTrust. The Receiver’s primary dispute with NHI concerned the financial terms on which NHI had sold and financed the purchase of the facilities to the nonprofits.

In 2007, NHC acquired the lease of a long-term care facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, known as Standifer Place from SeniorTrust. The Receiver’s primary dispute with NHC concerned the financial terms on which NHC acquired the lease.

The Receiver for SeniorTrust and ElderTrust claimed that the financial terms of the various transactions with NHI and NHC were unfair to the nonprofits, a claim NHI and NHC disputed.

As part of the negotiated resolution, NHI will discount amounts it claims remain due from SeniorTrust and ElderTrust. SeniorTrust and ElderTrust will pay those discounted amounts, and NHI will acquire ElderTrust’s skilled nursing facilities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

NHC has managed the skilled nursing facilities owned by SeniorTrust and ElderTrust since the facilities were acquired from NHI. As part of the negotiated resolution, NHC paid additional amounts to resolve the Receiver’s claims. As a result of the settlement, NHC also has agreed to lease from NHI the seven skilled nursing facilities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire which were formerly owned by ElderTrust.

The Office of the Tennessee Attorney General, which oversees Tennessee nonprofits, expressed satisfaction with the settlement of these disputes, which is subject to approval by the court in which the receiverships are pending. “We believe this settlement is in the best interest of the public and upholds the appropriate use of Tennessee charities.” said Attorney General Bob Cooper. “The Court will ultimately determine how these funds can be used for charitable purposes, and the Office of the Attorney General will seek and welcome public input in that process.”

Print Press Release

Stephen F. Flatt, President

MURFREESBORO, Tenn.–National HealthCare Corporation (NYSE MKT: NHC, NHC.PRA), the nation’s oldest publicly traded long-term health care company, is pleased to announce that its President, Steve Flatt, has been selected as a member of the inaugural class of the Nashville Health Care Council Fellows. The Fellows initiative engages industry leaders in addressing health care’s greatest challenges and exploring new strategies to meet these issues facing the U.S. health care system today.

The inaugural class, selected by the Council Fellows Advisory Committee headed by Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D., includes 33 of the nation’s top health care executives.

“We set out to assemble a class whose intellect, experience and industry focus spanned the full spectrum of health care,” said Frist, co-director of the Council Fellows. “These individuals, pulled from the best and brightest our industry has to offer, have a challenging task ahead, and we look forward to their work.”

“I am honored to be a part of a program which has as its goal to create a forum for thought leadership which will help guide the future of the health care industry – in Nashville and around the country,” said Flatt.

The Council Fellows Initiative
The Fellows is the next step in building Nashville’s rich health care legacy of leadership, innovation and creativity. The initiative will engage these key professionals to better implement business strategies, create value, drive industry growth and effect change.

“In this era of unprecedented transformation, it’s critical we take a deliberate approach to shaping the health care industry – and especially training its leaders – so that Nashville continues on a strong path forward,” said Caroline Young, Council president.

The Fellows curriculum includes eight day-long sessions, held between March and June, which will leverage the expertise of the industry’s founding experts in Nashville, as well as nationally-known figures and leading academic institutions. Topics as part of an integrated curriculum include: industry trends, strategic opportunities, leadership skill development, change management, innovation, entrepreneurship and globalization. Personalized leadership training and a unique immersion component are also hallmarks of the specially-designed curriculum. The sessions will be hosted at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management.

“This is the right time and Nashville is the right place for the Fellows initiative,” said Larry Van Horn, co-director of the Fellows and health care management and economics professor at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. “The convergence of this curriculum, these regarded speakers and this impressive list of class members will foster meaningful discussion that we cannot delay any further.”

The Fellows initiative is presented in partnership with: BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Community Health Systems, HCA, Healthways, LifePoint Hospitals and Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management.

More information, including class member biographies, curriculum information and biographies of speakers, will be posted throughout the next month at www.healthcarecouncilfellows.com.

About the Nashville Health Care Council
The Nashville Health Care Council, founded in 1995 as an initiative of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, is an association of health care industry leaders working together to further establish Nashville’s position as the nation’s health care industry capital. Worldwide, Nashville’s health care industry generates more than $70 billion in revenue and over 400,000 jobs, and is Nashville’s largest and fastest growing employer. For more information on the Council, please visit www.healthcarecouncil.com.

About NHC
NHC affiliates operate for themselves and third parties 73 long-term health care centers with 9,221 beds. NHC affiliates also operate 36 homecare programs, six independent living centers and 17 assisted living communities. NHC’s other services include Alzheimer’s units, long-term care pharmacies, hospice, a rehabilitation services company, and providing management and accounting services to third parties. Other information about the company can be found on our web site at www.nhccare.com.

NHC's Maria Wong celebrates her 2013 Champion of Excellence Award from the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence. Also pictured, from left to right: TNCPE President & CEO Katie Rawls, 2012 award winner Dr. David Fleming, Director of Family Services for Knoxville-based Caris Healthcare, and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey.

For release: February 15, 2013
Contact: Gerald Coggin, Sr. VP of Corporate Relations
Phone: (615) 890-2020

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — National Healthcare Corp’s Maria Wong has been named the 2013 Champion of Excellence Award winner by The Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence.

The TNCPE presents the award annually to recognize the accomplishments of an individual who has been a role model in the pursuit of performance excellence within his or her organization.

“Maria believes whole-heartedly that making lives better is the number one priority for hers—and any—health care organization,” said TNCPE President and CEO Katie Rawls in a news release. “She has encouraged NHC Healthcare’s continuous improvement throughout the region and is always willing to work tirelessly in order to further quality and patient satisfaction.”

NHC Senior Vice President Gerald Coggin echoed the praise today: “Maria Wong has been a role model in the pursuit of performance excellence with NHC,” Coggin said. “We are extremely pleased that TNCPE recognizes what so many of Maria’s patients and partners already know that she has the heart and skill of a champion.”

Wong has helped lead the NHC South Central Region’s improvement efforts throughout its 15 skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers. She has served on the TNCPE Board of Examiners and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Board of Examiners. Thirteen NHC Health Care sites and 32 other organizations representing all industry sectors, participated in the TNCPE program over the past year and were recognized by Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey at the 20th Anniversary Excellence in Tennessee Awards Banquet in Franklin on February 20th.

The TNCPE news release is online at TNCPE.org.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — National HealthCare Corporation (NYSE MKT: NHC, NHC.PRA), the nation’s oldest publicly traded long-term health care company, today announced net income available to common shareholders of $49,286,000 or $3.56 per share basic for the year ended December 31, 2012, compared to $55,401,000 or $4.02 per share basic for the year ended December 31, 2011, a decrease of 11.0%. Annual operating revenues in 2012 decreased 1.6% from $773,537,000 to $761,262,000.

For comparative purposes, operating expenses for the 2011 year included a favorable result within our accrued risk reserves of $10,500,000 (approximately $6,825,000 after income taxes or $0.50 per common share basic), thus lowering the 2011 expense. Excluding this adjustment, the year ended December 31, 2012 would have reflected an increase of 4.5% in income before taxes and an increase of 1.5% in net income available to common shareholders (after taxes) compared to 2011.

Fourth quarter of 2012 net income available to common shareholders was $12,266,000 or 88 cents per basic share, compared to $12,358,000 or 89 cents per basic share in the fourth quarter of 2011, a decrease of 0.7%. Operating revenues for the fourth quarter of 2012 increased 0.7% from $192,742,000 to $194,043,000.

Print Press Release, With Financial Tables

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — National HealthCare Corporation (NYSE MKT: NHC, NHC.PRA), the nation’s oldest publicly traded long-term health care company, announced today that it will pay a quarterly dividend of 20 cents per preferred share to shareholders of record on March 15, 2013 and payable on April 15, 2013 and a dividend of 30 cents per common share to shareholders of record on March 28, 2013 and payable on May 31, 2013.

Print Press Release

Click here to download the article in PDF format.

Strides being made against Alzheimer’s

Amid the recent rhetoric surrounding the Affordable Care Act, the “fiscal cliff” dilemma and Congress’ perceived lack of progress, some very good news has been ignored. This good news will help Alzheimer’s patients and their families, who are all victims of this horrible, implacable disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States — the only one in the top 10 that cannot be prevented or cured. One of every eight older Americans is living with Alzheimer’s; in fact, 5.4 million Americans have been diagnosed. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 15 million Americans provide unpaid care valued at $210 billion for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. The annual estimated cost of Alzheimer’s care in the U.S. is $200 billion, including $140 billion in costs to Medicare and Medicaid. With the number of patients expected to rise as “baby boomers” age, these annual costs probably will soar to $1.1 trillion (in current dollars) by 2050.

Barring a medical breakthrough in preventing, treating or, God willing, curing Alzheimer’s, this disease will burden millions of Americans in the years ahead. The good news is that Congress has taken a number of steps to address this crisis, including the National Alzheimer’s Project Act of 2011, which allocated $50 million to finding a cure by 2025.

Congress has recently instituted the “Independence at Home Demonstration,” a pilot program in which patients with chronic diseases like Alzheimer’s will be treated in their own homes by a team of doctors, nurse practitioners, geriatric pharmacists and other health professionals. National HealthCare Corp. (NHC), where I work, operates a full spectrum of care options for elderly patients, from home care to long-term nursing care, including specialized Alzheimer’s units. When properly administered and funded, an “at-home” care option can help many families dealing with Alzheimer’s and other chronic conditions. Coordinated care — whether at home or in a nursing care center — makes sense for the patient and can help reduce the cost of care.

Another helpful provision of the ACA is a Medicare prescription drug rebate for seniors. Currently, Medicare beneficiaries lose their prescription drug coverage at a certain dollar amount — the so-called doughnut hole — leaving many people to pay for expensive Alzheimer’s medications out of pocket. With the cost of caring for an Alzheimer’s patient averaging $100,000, this is an expense that most families cannot bear. The federal government has already sent millions of drug rebate checks to Medicare beneficiaries, and it will soon enforce a 50 percent discount on their prescription medications.

NHC is a national corporate sponsor for the Alzheimer’s Association, which provides much-needed assistance for those stricken by this terrible disease. In our role as sponsor, NHC has raised more than $135,000 this year alone. While we continue our quest for a world without Alzheimer’s, it appears to us that Uncle Sam is making good strides toward helping patients and their families cope with this illness.

Those of us in the business of helping these patients are optimistic that one day Alzheimer’s will join other illnesses relegated to the dusty shelf of preventable diseases. Please help us in this cause. Contact the Alzheimer’s Association at www.alz.org or 1-800-272-3900. You can find more information on ways to help a loved one on our website at http://nhccare.com. Thank you.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — National HealthCare Corporation (NYSE MKT: NHC, NHC.PRA), one of the nation’s leading operators of skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, announced today the purchase of six skilled health care centers from National Health Investors (NHI).  The six centers, which are located in Columbia (2), Knoxville and Springfield, Tennessee, Madisonville, Kentucky and Rossville, Georgia, have been leased by NHC since 1991 and have a total of 650 beds. The purchase price is $21 million and the transaction will close on December 31, 2013.

In addition, the company also announced the extension of a master lease with NHI through December 31, 2026 for 38 skilled health care centers and three independent living centers. With the purchase of the six previously leased centers mentioned above, NHC’s lease payment will decrease by $2.95 million beginning in 2014.

“NHC is pleased to purchase these stable centers from NHI which we have operated for a number of years. This acquisition will result in lower lease cost and an increase in asset value for NHC,” stated Steve Flatt, President.

Print PDF: NHC Announces Purchase of Six Health Care Centers from NHI