Lily Denslow’s article, Ensuring Long-Term Care Access: How Bankruptcy Law Can be Leveraged to Address the Impending Senior-Care Crisis, has been published in the February 2026 edition of the Norton Annual Survey of Bankruptcy Law. Her article explores how the lasting effects of the coronavirus pandemic continue to challenge the financial stability of the long-term care industry. Initially, she sets the scene with a discussion of the challenges facing the long-term care industry even before the Pandemic. Those include staffing costs, rising expenses, and low reimbursement rates from federal health insurance programs. Also, the threat of litigation looms in an environment where the public is focused on the relative few failings in an essential industry that has for more successes. As a result, an industry that will care for 27 million people by 2050 is on the precipice of insolvency. With an aging population and many rural facilities, these concerns hold true for many New Hampshire healthcare facilities.
Further, Lily provides insight into how bankruptcy courts and Congress can help safeguard access to care for future generations as nursing homes navigate financial distress. The Bankruptcy code presents a host of challenges, largely based on its failure to include all stakeholders in a process designed to mainly protect creditors. Lily’s article analyzes several recent court decisions that have adopted “highest and best” principles in the bankruptcy process with an eye toward the interests of the residents and staff. The article also discusses how Congress can provide clarity with new Bankruptcy Code chapters focused on the healthcare industry.
Many long-term care facilities are large employers and provide critical access to long-term care in rural areas. The impact of liquidation can disproportionally affect areas with the least resources and patients that would have to be transferred further away from their families, who are not equipped to provide home care themselves.
With the need for long-term care rising along with costs in the healthcare industry, Lily writes that “we are at a critical moment that could determine the future of America’s long-term care industry.” The full article is available on Westlaw at https://www.westlaw.com/Document/I27a613b7117411f1b606ed85f6fa474a/View/FullText.html?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&VR=3.0&RS=cblt1.0.
Lily joined Rath, Young and Pignatelli after graduating from Emory University School of Law, where she served as Executive Notes and Comments Editor of the Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal. She is part of the firm’s litigation and healthcare practice groups. Learn more about Lily’s practice here.
Founded in 1987 by four attorneys, Rath Young and Pignatelli has grown to 29 attorneys, four government relations professionals, and a professional staff. We practice in a diverse array of areas from Health Care, Business, and Bankruptcy law, to Litigation and Administrative Proceedings, to Energy, Environmental, and Tax law. Our experienced and well-respected attorneys have been recognized by the American College of Trial Lawyers, Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, Martindale Hubbell, the Business and Industry Association, and the New Hampshire Business Review. We are a founding member of the State Capital Law Firm Group, now a global network of 80 Chambers-ranked independent law firms. From our offices in Concord, Nashua, Manchester, Greater Boston, and Montpelier, we are committed to providing the best guidance and legal advice in the courtroom and the boardroom, through the legislative process, and before government agencies.