Transcript Generated by AI 00:00 Hi Mark Parkinson back with Park Place and we've got a really cool segment today 00:04 where we're going to introduce JJ Rabinowitch, 00:07 who for many of you needs no introduction, but some of you might not know who JJ is. 00:12 He's actually one of the biggest movers and shakers in the sector and he's going 00:15 to be a have a huge impact for Park Place. 00:18 Here's our contributor in Chief of of information. 00:22 We're going to let him tell you a little bit about what he's going to be doing on 00:26 the on the website, but we're just super happy, 00:28 JJ to have you here with us today. 00:30 It's great to be here, Mark. 00:32 I mean, really it's always been a dream of mine 00:34 to work together with you in a more hands on roles. 00:36 I'm very excited about this. 00:36 Well, that's really kind. 00:37 I mean, we work together really closely for the 00:40 last 10 plus years, lobbying mainly in DC, but also in a number of the states. 00:44 And it's been a really good partnership and such to be able to extend it. 00:48 It's meaningful to me too. 00:49 JJ, I will say that a lot of what I do in the 00:51 Digest shaped by the lobbying that I saw up close and personal that you did wallet 00:55 at the American Healthcare Association. 00:57 So it's been very helpful and a lot of what you did there lives on the way. 01:01 We want other people to carry that out. 01:03 It's at the federal level and at the state level. 01:05 Well, it's really kind. 01:05 So JJ, let's let's get into your background 01:07 before we talk about the digest. 01:09 So tell us about, you know, what do you, what have you been up to? 01:13 So I learned the ropes of lobbying at the state level in California, 01:16 where I was a state level lobbyist, one of the largest Orthodox Jewish 01:20 nonprofits in the country called the Good Death Israel. 01:23 I ran the California branch and it was a great introduction to the world of 01:28 lobbying because you really have to think about how to present issues that aren't 01:32 necessarily universally accepted in a world that doesn't always interested in 01:37 hearing what you have to say. 01:39 Sounds like lobbying for nursing homes. 01:40 Sounds exactly like lobbying for nursing homes. 01:42 It's a lot of things that aren't universally accepted. 01:44 It's not a viewpoint that's always shared. 01:46 You have to think about how to tell that story. 01:48 And much like lobbying for nursing homes, there's a lot of really beautiful stories 01:52 that can be told in that world that we're able to then do in the nursing home world. 01:56 So that's where I first learned the books of lobbying. 01:58 I went to law school. 01:59 I am a licensed attorney in two states, but I don't talk about that applied 02:02 company. 02:03 We're both non practicing attorneys. 02:05 We're both former attorneys, recovering attorneys. 02:07 We made it right, right. 02:10 And then, so I was a registered attorney in two 02:13 states. 02:13 I graduated from law school in 2012 and I started a law, 02:18 a lobbying firm with two close personal friends mainly based in Chicago. 02:24 And if you are a lobbyist in Chicago, your number one client is the long term 02:28 care industry and the rest of the safe history. 02:30 I spent eight years there, the five years there at the lobbying firm 02:35 and then in 2020 I launched the Ambassador Group together with a number 02:40 of very, very forward thinking long term care 02:43 organizations. 02:44 These are providers that have spent years building up their organizations and 02:48 recognizing the need for a more grassroots voice in the long term care 02:52 industry. 02:53 And that's where really the American Healthcare Association, 02:56 the Ambassador Group have worked hand in hand for formally for the last five years, 03:00 but even informally before Ambassadors was formed with a number of the people 03:03 that are now part of the ambassadors. 03:05 Yeah. 03:06 In my in my world view, the best lobbying takes place when you 03:09 have the folks that understand the process of lobbying with the folks who 03:13 understand providing long term care. 03:15 And that's what the ambassador was designed to do with the American 03:17 Healthcare Association. 03:18 There's nobody better when it comes to lobbying in DC. 03:21 But they don't run nursing homes. 03:22 They're not nursing home operators. 03:24 So the Ambassador was designed to bring down the nursing home operator so we can 03:27 tell those stories and have the most efficient and effective lobbying possible. 03:31 Great. 03:32 And along the way, you developed a thing called JJ's Digest. 03:35 So tell us about the Digest. 03:37 So I've spent so many years in the long term care space that I started to pick up 03:42 what the folks who run nursing homes like to hear about what matters to them. 03:48 There's a lot of noise when it comes to regulation and lobbying and politics, 03:52 both at the state and federal level. 03:54 And the Digest was the way to try to strip out all the noise and just focus on 03:59 what's important to them in an easily digestible format. 04:02 So bullet points, not that long, just say this is useful information and 04:05 then they'll pick at it and they'll say, OK, 04:07 they'll send it to the people that are responsible in the organizations for 04:10 different portions of it. 04:12 So it's a weekly digest that comes out, let me guess, once a week, 04:15 a weekly digest comes out once a week. 04:17 It's usually between 700 and 1200 words, which is about, you know, 04:21 5 to 10 minutes of reading. 04:23 But broke it down to bullet points. 04:24 I try to break it down at the section, starting with the White House, 04:27 then go to Congress, then the agencies, and then anything else that I find 04:31 interesting from the week throughout the country. 04:33 It can be anything from Pennsylvania's working on a budget to Montana being a 04:38 leader in tech, you know, tech regulation. 04:40 Like, who would have thought Montana would be a 04:42 leader in tech regulation? 04:42 But you see that they do bills at the state level that affect the tech industry 04:47 worldwide. 04:48 And so we're going to. 04:48 The Digest will now be moving to Park Place. 04:51 It'll be posted up on Sunday night. 04:54 And what kind of information can viewers expect to see in the digest? 04:58 So because we're dealing with regulation and because we're dealing with 05:02 legislation, it's important to realize that there's 05:05 two portions to that. 05:06 There's the federal government, which is the White House, the president, 05:10 Congress, and then there's the federal agency, 05:13 CMSHHS. 05:13 These are the agencies that oversee nursing homes, 05:16 but also be the Department of Labor will put out a rule related to overtime pay 05:21 that will matter to, you know, your employees or, you know, the OSHA. 05:25 We'll put out something related to workplace safety, 05:27 which they were prone to do during COVID that affected how you run your nursing 05:30 homes. 05:31 So focus on all these different areas of regulation. 05:34 And then I'm also going to talk a lot of the states as well. 05:36 And it could be the states could be, you know, 05:38 different areas where states are trying to fill in the gap. 05:40 When you have a political setup like you do today, 05:43 we have a president that is so inextricably tied with, 05:46 intertwined with the Republican Party, you'll have states that are typically 05:51 seen as Democratic area that will try to fill a gap in regulation. 05:55 So it's important to be abreast in both areas. 05:56 So the idea is that everything that's happened in the last week that that folks 06:01 that run nursing homes should know about is in the Digest. 06:04 Everything that happened in the last week that I can't claim that I'll get 06:08 everything, but we try very hard to get as much as I 06:11 can. 06:12 It's information that people share with me. 06:13 It's information that I find I've got keywords to that will pop up. 06:18 It can be something you know or it can be something as big as you know. 06:21 Like right now we're filming this on May 27th, 2025. 06:25 The House just passed on the golden reconciliation, 06:27 also known as the one Big Beautiful bill. 06:29 This is a 1118 page bill that will affect every part of the day-to-day life of 06:35 everyday Americans. 06:37 But in that 1118 page bill, I identified 5 provisions that 06:41 specifically impact the long term care market folks who are nursing homes. 06:46 And so I created a supplemental update. 06:49 That's just a definition of what's in this 1118 that affects nursing homes. 06:54 That could be, you know, provider taxes. 06:55 It could be, you know, how far back you can, you know, 06:58 claim a Medicaid application. 07:00 So these are the type of things that the guys who are on nursing homes will want 07:03 to know about. 07:04 So a couple things that hit my mind when I think about the Digest 1 is there's no 07:07 fluff. 07:08 I am incapable of fluff. 07:10 As I've been told many times, you're super focused on what it is that 07:13 people that run or own nursing homes need to know, right? 07:17 The folks who write checks, this is something that either folks who 07:19 run the operations, this is what they're going to want to 07:21 know. 07:22 And sometimes it can be directly related to nursing home. 07:24 Sometimes it could be, hey, I run a nursing home. 07:26 I've invested heavily in an artificial intelligence dashboard that could tell me 07:31 we're in My Portfolio. 07:33 I've got hotspots and there are other places within the Park Place world where 07:36 that's going to be very valuable. 07:38 But if you run, if you're investing in an artificial 07:41 intelligence company, you need to know, are they regulating artificial 07:44 intelligence? 07:45 And then the second thing that jumps out at me is there's a bent towards advocacy. 07:50 Can you could just kind of explain why you do that? 07:52 So my Dave job is something called the Ambassadors Group. 07:54 As you mentioned, the Ambassador Group is designed to give 07:57 nursing home operators the tools to advocate more effectively to get out 08:02 there and to change the world. 08:05 We are heavily regulated by the government that the federal and state 08:08 level, by the federal agencies, by the state level agencies. 08:11 And if you're not talking to them and explain to them what's going on in your 08:14 world, they are simply not going to know. 08:17 They're going to operate in a world of the ivory tower from what looks right 08:21 academically. 08:21 But does that play well on the ground? 08:23 Great example is the minimum staffing mandate. 08:25 The Biden administration trying to mandate a minimum staffing regulation. 08:29 That was true regardless of where you are. 08:32 Maybe they give you a little more time to apply it if you're in the rural 08:35 neighborhood, but at the end of the day, it's uniform at that simply does not 08:38 reflect what goes on on the ground inside a nursing home. 08:41 Every nursing home is different, every location is different, 08:44 every area is different. 08:46 And So what I try to do is to give the people who work in nursing homes, 08:50 everybody from the nursing home operator down to the CNA, 08:53 who is the family of the resident, the opportunity to get involved. 08:57 And so when I put together the digest, I did say, hey, 09:01 this is actionable intelligence. 09:03 Sometimes it can be actionable for an investor, but sometimes it's actionable. 09:06 Hey, there's a PDPM rule that CMS put out. 09:09 Go write a comment, tell them what you think and they 09:11 actually do want to hear from you. 09:13 Great. 09:14 So you're giving them everything they didn't need to know and then also giving 09:18 information on how they might be able to shape the, 09:20 the information and policy out there. 09:22 That's the goal. 09:23 The goal is to help make a more sophisticated, smarter, 09:26 more engaged individual in the nursing home world. 09:29 So when you think about the sector, what's your outlook? 09:33 What do you think we're headed and how do you feel about things? 09:36 So may surprise you all say this. 09:38 I remain optimistic about nursing home care as a modality of care. 09:41 It's proven itself to be a very efficient and frankly, a very warm, you know, 09:48 type of care. 09:49 You walk into an actual nursing home, not what you read in the paper, 09:52 but you walk into a nursing home and you look at the calendar on the wall. 09:54 I mean, they've got a social calendar I'm envious 09:56 of. 09:57 It's amazing. 09:58 And you go into the buildings and you meet the employees and you meet the 10:01 operators and you meet the folks who are the frontline. 10:03 They're the family for the staff. 10:05 So anybody's ever, ever actually walked into a nursing home? 10:07 Again, we're talking the vast, vast majority of nursing homes, 10:10 not the ones in the papers, but the vast, vast majority of nursing homes are a 10:14 terrific place to provide the elderly with a chance to age with dignity and to 10:18 have a real social life and to meet with other folks. 10:21 And so I remain optimistic about nursing homes as a modality of care. 10:25 I don't think it's ever going to be replaced. 10:26 I don't think it's a can we do it better? 10:28 Sure. 10:29 But we can do what it's within the margins of, of an, 10:32 of an operation that really cares about the people inside the building. 10:35 Yeah. 10:36 Well, I think the viewers got a real taste 10:38 today, JJ, and why we're so fortunate that you were 10:41 our contributor in chief. 10:43 And well, I hope to get other contributors. 10:45 The goal is really to make this, you know, Park Place really the place to turn when 10:48 you want to know what's going on in the long term care industry. 10:52 You know, having somebody like you at its head who 10:55 has spent many years from all sides of the table regulating, operating, you know, 10:59 lobbying, advocating, really gives it a chance to to be the one 11:03 stop shop for anything nursing home related. 11:05 Yeah. 11:06 And what what a great service that once a week people are going to be able to find 11:09 out what they need to know at no cost. 11:11 Just come to the website. 11:13 Fantastic that you're doing that that for them and for us and JJ. 11:16 We really appreciate it. 11:18 So on behalf of Park Place, we strongly encourage you to check in on 11:22 Sunday evenings with looking at JJ's Digest. 11:24 I think once you read it the first time, you'll be hooked. 11:28 And again, we really appreciate your support of this 11:31 project and Park Place. 11:32 And until next time, keep on crushing it in your building. 11:36 Oh my God, If you're still watching this, this means that you watch the end of a 11:41 very long video on Park Place. 11:43 I'm not sure what that means. 11:44 It says something about you or maybe there was just nothing else to watch 11:48 today, or maybe your priorities are a little bit 11:50 off. 11:51 But whatever it is, we really appreciate your support. 11:54 And if you want to continue to follow us, follow us on LinkedIn, 11:57 on our various social media sites and, you know, 12:00 try to find something else to do.
