Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc.

Good morning, and welcome to the Omega Healthcare Investors' fourth quarter 2021 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Michelle Reber. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning. With me today are Omega's CEO, Taylor Pickett, COO, Dan Booth, CFO, Bob Stevenson, and Megan Krull, Senior Vice President of Operations. Comments made during this conference call that are not historical facts may be forward-looking statements, such as statements regarding our financial projections, dividend policy, portfolio restructurings, rent payments, financial condition or prospects of our operators, contemplated acquisitions, dispositions or transitions, and our business and portfolio outlook generally. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties which may cause actual results to differ materially. Please see our press releases and our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, our most recent report on Form 10-K. which identifies specific factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements. During the call today, we will refer to some non-GAAP financial measures such as NAREIT FFO, Adjusted FFO, FAD, and EBITDA. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most comparable measure under generally accepted accounting principles, as well as an explanation of the usefulness of the non-GAAP measures, are available under the financial information section of our website. at www.omegahealthcare.com, and in the case of NAERI FFO and adjusted FFO, in our recently issued press release. In addition, certain operator coverage and financial information that we discuss is based on data provided by our operators that has not been independently verified by Omega. I will now turn the call over to Taylor.

Thanks, Michelle. Good morning, and thank you for joining our fourth quarter 2021 earnings conference call. Today I will discuss our fourth quarter financial results, skilled nursing facility industry trends, and operator liquidity issues. Our fourth quarter adjusted FFO is 77 cents per share, and funds available for distribution are 72 cents per share. We have maintained our quarterly dividend of 67 cents per share. The dividend payout ratio continues to have cushion at 87 percent of adjusted FFO and 93 percent of funds available for distribution. Returning to skilled nursing facility industry trends, the Omicron COVID variant has paused the skilled nursing facility occupancy recovery and created further labor force stress. Omega SNF occupancy has been virtually flat for the three months ended December 31st, and the preliminary January occupancy is slightly down. One interesting item is that in December, 21% of our facilities are at or above pre-COVID occupancy levels. which may indicate that full occupancy recovery is achievable over time. Unfortunately, the already difficult labor shortage grew increasingly worse as staff became infected and were forced to quarantine. These staffing shortages have limited many facilities' ability to admit new residents, which has had the knock-on effect of backing patients up in the hospital systems. Although the impact of Omicron appears to be rapid and transitory, it is impossible to predict how quickly the industry occupancy recovery will regain traction or how rapidly the current labor force pressures will subside. Turning to operator liquidity issues and restructuring, Dan will provide detail regarding specific operator current liquidity and restructuring issues. In general, these efforts include one or more of the following actions. One, rent deferrals. Two, asset sales or transitions to a new operator. And three, in certain cases, rent resets with other amended lease provisions. Examples include elimination of purchase options, future upward potential rent resets, lease extensions or revisions of renewal rights, and collateral enhancements, adjustments, or usage. Historically, in many of our restructurings, one or more of the actions that I have outlined are sufficient to protect the value of our assets and most, if not all, of the long-term cash flow generation from the restructured assets. We continue to remain hopeful that the outcome of our COVID restructurings will yield a similar result. Finally, I again thank our operating partners and, in particular, the frontline caregivers and staff who have cared for the tens of thousands of residents within our facilities. I will now turn the call over to Bob.