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Welcome lenders

Accreditation can help you identify an organization in the senior housing and services sector that is more accountable for its business and financial practices.

Accredited organizations are better prepared because they have applied standards that address:

• Quality of care and services.
• The roles and responsibilities of an organization’s leadership.
• Strategic planning.
• Financial planning and management, including long-range planning.
• Outcomes measurement.
• Effective management practices.
• Formalized risk management programs.

The standards also encourage regular review of financial performance, profitability, cash management, and investments. Accredited Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) annually submit financial audit reports for review of margin/profitability ratios, liquidity ratios, and capital structure ratios.

To further support the long-term viability of accredited aging services organizations, the Financial Advisory Panel (FAP) provides strategic input into the financial standards.

To learn more, we encourage you to review the following resources:

• CARF's Financial Planning and Management standards for CCRCs
  CARF-accredited organizations strive to be financially responsible and solvent, conducting fiscal management in a manner that supports their mission, values, and annual performance objectives. Fiscal practices adhere to established accounting principles and business practices. Fiscal management covers daily operational cost management and incorporates plans for long-term solvency.


• Accreditation Overview (narrated slides)
  This recording is less than five minutes long and discusses CARF, aging services accreditation, and the financial standards. 


• Consumer Guide to Understanding Financial Performance and Reporting
  This booklet is an in-depth consumer guide to understanding financial performance and reporting for CCRCs.


• Financial Ratios & Trends Analysis of CARF-accredited Continuing Care Retirement Communities
  This publication provides key financial ratio data that have been used as benchmark data for the CCRC field. It is important for an organization to assess its financial health in a variety of ways. Comparing actual to budgeted performance, evaluating trends, and utilizing financial ratios are methods available to help evaluate performance.  


• Research validates better quality in accredited, long-term care
  An independent research study compared CARF-accredited nursing homes to those without CARF accreditation. It found that CARF-accredited nursing homes performed significantly better compared to U.S. national averages in six out of seven quality measures upon which the study was focused.