How Supply Data Works

Learn how VisionLTC provides you with competition data.

David Wiggington avatar
Written by David Wiggington
Updated over a week ago

Competition data is an important part of every market analysis. As such, this section will provide some insight into the ways VisionLTC provides you with this data.

VisionLTC is built in a way that Supply is represented in the following layers:

NIC MAP or other provided data → VisionLTC data → No data

Client Provided Data is supply data that you give to VisionLTC for use in your portal. Only you and your team will be able to see data of this type. This is typically sourced from a vendor, though it can also include data that has been collected by you or your team. If you subscribe to NIC MAP, your NIC MAP Property Inventory will be utilized for supply data in your VisionLTC portal by default.

VisionLTC Data is supply data that we have collected for all of our clients – it’s available for everyone in the tool to see, but will only display in a client’s portal if that client doesn’t have conflicting data.

For example, if you provided VisionLTC with supply data that includes the Raleigh, NC MSA, and then run analyses on the Raleigh, NC MSA, then your analysis will only use supply data from your provided dataset. If, however, the provided supply data does not include the Raleigh, NC MSA, then the analyses run on this market area will automatically use the VisionLTC Data.

If there is no data available for a market area, the supply values will default to zero (0).

What Data is available in the VisionLTC Supply File?

VisionLTC has collected some data for all 50 states, including Washington, D.C.; but because each state has different regulations for their IL, AL and MC facilities, the information is not standardized across the nation.

NC (or SNF) facilities are slightly different – because they are federally regulated, the data is consistent across the country. We have NC data for all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

AL and MC facilities have varying degrees of regulations, and some states require facilities to explicitly report both AL and MC bed capacity, while others do not. For states that do not require this explicit reporting (i.e. IA, AL, GA, etc.), we assume a 70/30 split for AL and MC beds on facilities that report offering MC services. For states that do require explicit reporting, we convey that information to you as it is reported.

Independent Living (IL) Bed Data

We use Melissa Data to prepare our IL bed data, because Melissa Data aggregates building unit information from county planning departments across the US and stores it with each building’s unique parcel ID. We use Melissa Data’s unique parcel ID system to cross-reference and combine our expansive database of AL, MC and SNF licensed beds with Melissa Data’s building units’ information. This has allowed us to update the unit count information for over 4,500 IL facilities across the US.

The incorporation of Melissa Data's information allows us to provide you with calculated IL bed counts for 2,747 IL facilities, or 60% of IL facilities in the VisionLTC database. We call them “calculated” IL bed counts because that best describes what they are – a calculation.

This calculation considers the total building units for each parcel and adjusts them for the AL, MC, and SNF beds in the VisionLTC database that are associated with the same unique parcel ID.

The following formula is used to calculate IL beds for each unique parcel ID:

IL Beds = Building Units AL Licensed Beds MC Licensed Beds SNF Licensed Beds

If the formula resulted in a negative number, then we removed the IL facility from our database. This resulted in the removal of 913 IL facilities from our database. If Melissa Data did not have Building Unit information for a parcel ID, then we used a 120-bed assumption for that facility. At this time, we are using the 120-bed assumption for 1,891 IL facilities (40% of IL facilities).

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