What changed in this filing

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Item 4. Controls and Procedures

2021-05-05 compared with 2020-11-05 · 45 added, 50 removed, 86 unchanged (52% of the section changed)

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Based upon that evaluation, our Managing Trustees, our President and Chief Operating Officer and our Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures are effective.

There have been no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the quarter ended September 30, 2020 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

There have been no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the quarter ended March 31, 2021 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Warning Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

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Forward-looking statements in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q relate to various aspects of our business, including:

• The duration and severity of the economic downturn resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on us and our tenants' and operators' businesses,

• The likelihood and extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath will negatively impact our tenants' and senior living community residents' ability to pay rent,

• The duration and severity of the economic downturn resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on us and our tenants' and operators' businesses, including the ability of our tenants and senior living community residents to pay rent to us,

• Our ability to pay distributions to our shareholders and to sustain the amount of such distributions,

• The ability of Five Star, the manager of our managed senior living communities, to manage our senior living communities during the COVID-19 pandemic and to manage them profitably and maintain or increase our returns from our managed senior living communities, or to limit the extent of decreases in our returns during the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn,

• The ability of Five Star, the manager of our managed senior living communities, to minimize the negative impact from the COVID-19 pandemic on our senior living communities and to manage them profitably and increase our returns,

• Our belief that we are well positioned to weather the present disruptions facing the real estate industry and, in particular, the real estate healthcare industry, including the senior living industry,

• Our belief that the healthcare sector and many of our tenants and our manager provide essential services across the United States and the implication that our and our tenants' and managers' businesses will remain open to provide such essential services,

• Our ability to maintain and increase occupancy, revenues and NOI at our properties, or to limit their decline during the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn,

• Our expectation that we will transition 108 of our senior living communities that are currently being managed by Five Star to new operators by the end of 2021,

• Whether the aging U.S.

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• Our ability to compete for tenancies and acquisitions effectively,

• Our ability to maintain and increase occupancy, revenues and NOI at our properties, or to limit their decline during the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn,

• Our expectations regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our tenants, the healthcare sector and our financial condition,

• The expectation that, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, overall tenant retention levels may increase,

• Our application for additional funds that may be available under the CARES Act Provider Relief Fund may be denied and we may not receive any additional funding,

• The expectation that, other than in our SHOP segment, overall tenant retention levels may increase as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,

• Our application for additional funds under the CARES Act Provider Relief Fund may be denied and we may not receive any additional funding,

• Our expectation that our redevelopment projects will be completed by the estimated completion dates,

• Our acquisitions and sales of properties,

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• Our ability to raise debt or equity capital,

• Our ability to complete our target dispositions,

• Our ability to complete dispositions,

• The future availability of borrowings under our revolving credit facility,

• Our policies and plans regarding investments, financings and dispositions,

• Whether we may contribute additional properties to our joint venture and receive proceeds from the other investors in the joint venture in connection with those contributions,

• Our ability to pay interest on and principal of our debt,

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• Our credit ratings,

• Our expectation that we benefit from our relationships with RMR LLC and RMR Inc.,

• Our expectation that we benefit from our relationships with RMR LLC,

• Our qualification for taxation as a REIT, and

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Risks, uncertainties and other factors that could have a material adverse effect on our forward-looking statements and upon our business, results of operations, financial condition, FFO attributable to common shareholders, Normalized FFO attributable to common shareholders, NOI, cash flows, liquidity and prospects include, but are not limited to:

• The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath on us and our tenants' and operators' businesses,

• The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath on us and our tenants' and operators' businesses,

• The impact of conditions in the economy and the capital markets on us and our tenants and operators,

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• Competition within the healthcare and real estate industries, particularly in those markets in which our properties are located,

• Actual and potential conflicts of interest with our related parties, including our Managing Trustees, Five Star, RMR LLC, RMR Inc.

and others affiliated with them, and

• Actual and potential conflicts of interest with our related parties, including our Managing Trustees, Five Star, RMR LLC and others affiliated with them, and

• Acts of terrorism, outbreaks of pandemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic, or other manmade or natural disasters beyond our control.

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In addition, under the current economic conditions, our tenants and operators may not be able to profitably operate their businesses at our properties, our tenants may become unable or unwilling to pay rent owed to us, or the manager of our senior living communities may be unable to generate our minimum returns for sustained periods.

Additionally, our ability to borrow under our credit facility is subject to us satisfying financial and other covenants, and if we default under our credit facility or other debt obligations due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, we may be required to repay our outstanding borrowings and other debt.

Further, although we have taken steps to enhance our ability to maintain sufficient liquidity, unanticipated events, such as emergencies in addition to, or as an expansion of, the current impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, may require us to expend amounts not currently planned,

• The Conversion was a significant change in our business arrangements with Five Star and has resulted, and will likely continue to result in the future, in our realizing significantly different operating results from our senior living communities managed by Five Star, including increased variability in such results,

• If Five Star fails to provide quality services at our senior living communities, the NOI generated by these communities may be adversely affected,

Additionally, our ability to borrow under our credit facility is subject to us satisfying financial and other covenants, and if we default under our credit facility or other debt obligations due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, we may be required to repay our outstanding borrowings and other debt.

Further, although we have taken steps to enhance our ability to maintain sufficient liquidity, unanticipated events, such as emergencies in addition to, or as an expansion of, the current impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, may require us to expend amounts not currently planned,

• This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q states that, at the conclusion of the vaccination clinics at our SHOP communities, over 96% of residents had received a vaccine;

however, this information includes residents that may have received only one of two required vaccine doses, and further, even though vaccinations have been administered, the senior living industry may not recover to pre-pandemic levels for an extended period of time or at all if market preferences and practices result in older adults utilizing less services of the type offered at our communities,

• Five Star, the manager of our managed senior living communities, has experienced significant operating and financial challenges, resulting from a number of factors, some of which are beyond Five Star's control, and which challenges directly impact our operating results from our managed senior living communities, including, but not limited to:

• The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,

• The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,

• Increases in Five Star's labor costs or in costs Five Star pays for goods and services,

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• Five Star's exposure to litigation and regulatory and government proceedings due to the nature of its business.

• If Five Star's other operations are not profitable or if it does not operate our managed senior living communities successfully, it could become insolvent,

• Although our Board of Trustees and Five Star’s board of directors, including our Independent Trustees and Five Star’s independent directors, have agreed in principal to the terms of the recently announced amendments to our management arrangements with Five Star described herein, definitive documentation for these amendments has not been entered into;

therefore, the timing and terms thereof may be delayed or may change,

• We may be unable to identify new operators for the 108 senior living communities to be transitioned from Five Star to other third party operators that we believe are sufficiently qualified or we may be unable to reach agreement with any such operators on management terms before year end 2021 or at all, and any agreement we may reach with any such operators may not be on the terms we currently expect or desire, and may not be equal to or more favorable to us than the terms of our current management arrangements with Five Star,

• We own a significant number of Five Star common shares and we expect to own these shares for the foreseeable future.

However, we may sell some or all of our Five Star common shares, or our ownership interest in Five Star may otherwise be diluted in the future,

• Beginning in the second quarter of 2020, we reduced our quarterly cash distribution rate on our common shares to $0.01 per share ($0.04 per common share annually) due to the operating challenges and uncertain economic challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Our current cash distribution rate to common shareholders is $0.01 per share per quarter, or $0.04 per share per year, due to the operating challenges and uncertain economic challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our distribution rate may be set and reset from time to time by our Board of Trustees.

Our Board of Trustees will consider many factors when setting or resetting our distribution rate, including our historical and projected net income, Normalized FFO, our then current and expected needs and availability of cash to pay our obligations, distributions which we may be required to pay to maintain our qualification for taxation as a REIT, limitations in the agreements governing our debt and other factors deemed relevant by our Board of Trustees in its discretion.

Our Board of Trustees will consider many factors when setting or resetting our distribution rate, including our historical and projected net income, Normalized FFO, our then current and expected needs and availability of cash to pay our obligations, distributions which we may be required to pay to satisfy our REIT distribution requirements, limitations in the agreements governing our debt and other factors deemed relevant by our Board of Trustees in its discretion.

Further, our projected cash available for distribution may change and may vary from our expectations.

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We may be unable to pay our debt obligations or to maintain our current rate of distributions on our common shares and future distributions may be reduced or eliminated,

• We plan to selectively sell certain properties from time to time to fund future acquisitions, subject to limitations on acquisitions in agreements governing our debt, and to strategically update, rebalance and reposition our investment portfolio, which we refer to as our capital recycling program.

• We may be unable to repay our debt obligations when they become due,

• We intend to conduct our business activities in a manner that will afford us reasonable access to capital for investment and financing activities.

However, we may not succeed in this regard and we may not have reasonable access to capital,

• Subject to limitations on acquisitions in agreements governing our debt, we plan to selectively sell certain properties from time to time to fund future acquisitions, and to strategically update, rebalance and reposition our investment portfolio, which we refer to as our capital recycling program.

In addition, to reduce our leverage, we have sold properties and other assets and have identified additional properties to sell.

We expect that the pace of our future asset sales will slow considerably because of current market conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We cannot be sure we will sell any of these properties or what the terms or timing of any such sales may be.

In addition, in the case of our capital recycling program, we cannot be sure that we will acquire replacement properties that improve the quality of our portfolio or our ability to increase our distributions to shareholders, and, we may sell properties at prices that are less than expected and less than their carrying values and therefore incur losses,

• We expect to selectively close certain of our senior living communities from time to time to reduce future operating losses.

We cannot be sure we will close any of these communities or what the terms or timing of any such closures may be.

In addition, we cannot be sure that we will reduce operating losses or otherwise improve the quality of our portfolio through any such closures,

• Contingencies in our acquisition and sale agreements that we may enter may not be satisfied and any acquisitions and sales pursuant to such agreements and any related management arrangements we may expect to enter may not occur, may be delayed or the terms of such transactions or arrangements may change,

• The essential capital investments we are making at our senior living communities and our plan to invest additional capital into our senior living communities to better position them in their respective markets in order to increase our future returns may not be successful and may not achieve our expected results.

• The capital investments we are making at our senior living communities and our plan to invest additional capital into our senior living communities to better position them in their respective markets in order to increase our future returns may not be successful and may not achieve our expected results.

Our senior living communities may not be competitive, despite these capital investments, or these capital investments may be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic,

• Our redevelopment projects may not be successful and may cost more or take longer to complete than we currently expect.

In addition, we may not realize the returns we expect from these projects and we may incur losses from these projects,

In addition, we may not realize the returns we expect from these projects and we may incur losses from these projects, and any letters of intent we entered and may enter into to lease our redevelopment projects may not materialize,

• We may spend more for capital expenditures than we currently expect,

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• Our ability to grow our business and maintain or increase our distributions to shareholders depends in large part upon our ability to buy properties and arrange for their profitable operation or lease them for rents, less their property operating expenses, that exceed our capital costs.

We may be unable to identify properties that we want to acquire, and are currently subject to limitations from making acquisitions under the agreements governing our debt, and we may fail to reach agreement with the sellers and complete the purchase of any properties we do want to acquire.

In addition, any properties we may acquire may not provide us with rents or revenues less property operating costs that exceed our capital costs or achieve our expected returns.

If our cash flows are reduced and our leverage increases, we may need to sell additional properties,

We are currently generally prohibited from making acquisitions pursuant to our credit agreement during the Amendment Period.

In addition, even after these restrictions expire, we may be unable to identify properties that we want to acquire, and we may fail to reach agreement with the sellers and complete the purchase of any properties we do want to acquire.

In addition, we may not realize the returns we expect on any properties we acquire,

• Rents that we can charge at our properties may decline upon renewals or expirations because of changing market conditions or otherwise,

• We expect to enter into additional management arrangements with Five Star for additional senior living communities that we own or may acquire in the future.

However, we cannot be sure that we will enter into any additional management or other arrangements with Five Star,

• Continued availability of borrowings under our revolving credit facility is subject to our satisfying certain financial covenants and other credit facility conditions that we may be unable to satisfy,

• Actual costs under our revolving credit facility or other floating rate debt will be higher than LIBOR plus a premium because of fees and expenses associated with such debt,

• The maximum borrowing availability under our revolving credit facility and our $200.0 million term loan may be increased to up to $2.4 billion on a combined basis in certain circumstances.

However, increasing the maximum borrowing availability under our revolving credit facility and this term loan is subject to our obtaining additional commitments from lenders, which may not occur,

• We have the option to extend the maturity date of our revolving credit facility upon payment of a fee and meeting other conditions;

• Although we have obtained a waiver from compliance with certain financial covenants under our credit agreement through June 30, 2022, if our operating results and financial condition are further significantly and adversely impacted by current economic conditions or otherwise, we may fail to comply with the terms of the waiver and other requirements under our credit agreement, and we may also fail to satisfy certain financial requirements under the

agreements governing our public debt.

For example, we expect that our ratio of consolidated income available for debt service to debt service could fall below the 1.5x requirement under our credit agreement and our public debt covenants in 2021, and we cannot be certain how long this ratio would remain below 1.5x.

We are currently fully drawn under our revolving credit facility and will be prohibited from incurring additional debt under our revolving credit facility or otherwise as a result of any non-compliance with the requirements of our credit agreement or the agreements governing our public debt, and we could also be required to repay our outstanding debt as a result of such non-compliance.

We may therefore experience future liquidity constraints, as we will be prohibited from incurring additional debt under our credit agreement or otherwise for failure to comply with the requirements of our credit agreement or the agreements governing our public debt, and we will be limited to our cash on hand or be forced to raise additional sources of capital or take other measures to maintain adequate liquidity,

• Actual costs under our revolving credit facility or other floating rate debt will be higher than the stated rates because of fees and expenses associated with such debt,

• We have options to extend the maturity date of our revolving credit facility upon payment of a fee and meeting other conditions;

however, the applicable conditions may not be met,

• The premiums used to determine the interest rate payable on our revolving credit facility and term loan and the facility fee payable on our revolving credit facility are based on our credit ratings.

In March 2020, our issuer credit rating was downgraded as a result of which our revolving credit facility and term loan premiums and facility fee increased,

• We may be unable to repay our debt obligations when they become due,

• We intend to conduct our business activities in a manner that will afford us reasonable access to capital for investment and financing activities.

However, we may not succeed in this regard and we may not have reasonable access to capital,

• For the three months ended September 30, 2020, substantially all of our NOI was generated from properties where a majority of the revenues are derived from our tenants' and residents' private resources.

• The premiums used to determine the interest rate payable on our revolving credit facility and the facility fee payable on our revolving credit facility are based on our credit ratings, which are subject to change,

• For the three months ended March 31, 2021, substantially all of our NOI was generated from properties where a majority of the revenues are derived from our tenants' and residents' private resources.

This may imply that we will maintain or increase the percentage of our NOI generated from private resources at our senior living communities.

However, our residents and patients may become unable to fund our charges with private resources and we may be required or may elect for business reasons to accept or pursue revenues from government sources, which could result in an increased part of our NOI and revenue being generated from government payments and our becoming more dependent on government payments,

• We and Five Star have made a voluntary disclosure to the OIG of certain inadequate documentation Five Star identified related to Medicare billing and other issues at a senior living community Five Star manages for us, and we have accrued a revenue reserve of $4.0 million for Medicare payments we expect to repay and recognized $2.2 million of estimated related penalties, compliance costs and professional fees, net of management fees reimbursable by Five Star, with respect to this matter.

There can be no assurance that the OIG will agree with the amounts of repayments and penalties which we have estimated.

Accordingly, the revenue reserve of $4.0 million and the other related penalties, compliance costs and professional fees, net of management fees reimbursable by Five Star, of $2.2 million may be inadequate to resolve these matters, and any increased amounts may be material,

• Circumstances that adversely affect the ability of seniors or their families to pay for our manager's and other operators' services, such as economic downturns, weak housing market conditions, higher levels of unemployment among our residents' family members, lower levels of consumer confidence, stock market volatility and/or changes in demographics generally could affect the profitability of our senior living communities,

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Also, operating deficiencies or a license revocation at one or more of our senior living communities may have an adverse impact on our ability to obtain licenses for or attract residents to our other communities,

• We believe that our relationships with our related parties, including Five Star, RMR LLC, RMR Inc., ABP Trust and others affiliated with them may benefit us and provide us with competitive advantages in operating and growing our business.

• We believe that our relationships with our related parties, including Five Star and RMR LLC and others affiliated with them may benefit us and provide us with competitive advantages in operating and growing our business.

However, the advantages we believe we may realize from these relationships may not materialize, and

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Currently unexpected results could occur due to many different circumstances, some of which are beyond our control, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, new legislation or regulations affecting our business or the businesses of our tenants or operators, changes in our tenants' or operators' revenues or costs, worsening or lack of improvement of Five Star's financial condition or changes in our other tenants' financial conditions, deficiencies in operations by a tenant or manager of one or more of our senior living communities, changed Medicare or Medicaid rates, acts of terrorism, pandemics, natural disasters or changes in capital markets or the economy generally.

The information contained elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q or in our other filings with the SEC, including under the caption “Risk Factors”, or incorporated herein or therein, identifies other important factors that could cause

differences from our forward-looking statements.

Our other filings with the SEC are available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

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Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-Q

Item 4. Controls and Procedures