Global Medical REIT Inc

Organization

Global Medical REIT Inc. (the “Company,” “us,” “we,” or “our”) is a Maryland corporation and internally managed REIT that owns and acquires healthcare facilities and leases those facilities to physician groups and regional and national healthcare systems. The Company’s common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

We elected to be taxed as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes commencing with our taxable year ended December 31, 2016. We hold our facilities and conduct our operations through a Delaware limited partnership subsidiary, Global Medical REIT L.P. (the “Operating Partnership”). Our wholly owned subsidiary, Global Medical REIT GP LLC, is the sole general partner of our Operating Partnership and, as of December 31, 2023, we owned 92.91% of the outstanding common operating partnership units (“OP Units”) of our Operating Partnership, with an aggregate of 7.09% of the Operating Partnership owned by holders of long-term incentive plan units (“LTIP Units”) and third-party limited partners who contributed properties or services to the Operating Partnership in exchange for OP Units.

Business Overview and Strategy

Our business strategy is to invest in healthcare properties that provide an attractive rate of return relative to our cost of capital and are operated by profitable physician groups, regional or national healthcare systems or combinations thereof. We believe this strategy allows us to attain our goals of providing stockholders with (i) reliable dividends and (ii) stock price appreciation. To implement this strategy, we seek to invest:

Most of our healthcare facilities are leased to single-tenants under triple-net leases. As we continue to grow our portfolio and the competition for single-tenant, triple-net leased properties has intensified, we have added to our portfolio some multi-tenant properties with gross lease or modified gross lease structures.

Corporate Sustainability and Social Responsibility

Our business values integrate environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and strong governance practices throughout our Company.

Our Board of Directors (the “Board”) continues to lead our environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) efforts through a standing ESG committee. The primary purpose of the ESG committee is to assist the Board in fulfilling its responsibilities to provide oversight and support of our commitment to ESG matters by overseeing: (1) our general ESG strategy and policies as set by our management, (2) communications with our employees, investors, and other stakeholders with respect to ESG matters, (3) developments relating to, and improving our understanding of, ESG matters, (4) our compliance with certain ESG-related legal and regulatory requirements, and (5) coordination with our other Board committees on ESG matters of common import.

In June 2023, we released our second Corporate Social Responsibility Report, which detailed our progress and areas of focus in the ESG realm. The contents of our Corporate Social Responsibility Report are not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC.

Our commitment to employee engagement remains a high-priority, as we continue to make accommodations for health, safety, and work-life balance, including at our headquarters which is LEED platinum certified and includes a fitness center, café and rooftop lounge.

Climate Change Risk

We take climate change and the risks associated with climate change seriously, including both physical and transitional risks. We utilize software to help us identify and measure the potential climate risk exposure for our properties. The software analysis summarizes the climate change-related risks, groups them by onset potential and identifies opportunities for risk mitigation. We prioritize energy efficiency and sustainability when evaluating investment opportunities and have begun to monitor our portfolio for climate risk factors. We utilize utility and energy audits that are performed by third-party engineering consultants during the due diligence phase of our acquisitions. The energy consumption data that we collect is used to assess our facilities’ carbon emission levels. Capturing and tracking this information may help inform future mitigation and remediation efforts when possible. To that end, we continue to explore ways to mitigate climate risk, should it be present, in our acquisition strategy, as well as ways to contribute to the reduction of climate impact through proactive asset management that looks for ways to incorporate renewable energy resources and energy utilization reduction.

We stand with our communities, tenants, and stockholders in supporting meaningful solutions that address this global challenge and contribute to the sustainability of our business objectives.

Impact of Increased Interest Rates and Inflation* *

After many years of low inflation, the U.S. inflation rate increased substantially during 2022 and remained elevated during 2023. In response to elevated inflation, the U.S. Federal Reserve (the “Fed”) increased the target range for the Federal Funds Rate from 0.25% – 0.50% in the first quarter of 2022 to 5.25% – 5.50% as of January 2024. Many market participants had anticipated that the high trajectory of interest rates during 2022 and throughout 2023 would lead to an economic recession towards the end of 2023 that would have caused the Fed to begin lowering the Federal Funds Rate. However, certain components of the U.S. economy have outperformed expectations and inflation continues to remain higher than the Fed’s target rate, which has caused the Fed to take a “wait-and-see” approach to monetary policy rather than beginning a process of lowering the Federal Funds Rate. The increase in the Federal Funds Rate, along with other actions taken by the Fed, had a ripple effect on other benchmark interest rates, including one-month term Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”), which is the reference rate for our indebtedness under our Second Amended and Restated Credit Facility (the “Credit Facility”). During 2023, one-month term SOFR increased from 4.36% to 5.36%. Such elevated SOFR results in higher interest costs on our floating rate borrowings, which negatively affects our operating profits and contributes to the delay in our ability to grow our investment portfolio.

Additionally, as most of our leases are triple-net leases, we are somewhat insulated from the effects of inflation on our operating expenses. However, due to the longer-term nature of our leases, we are not able to quickly increase rents to offset fully the effects of increased interest rates and inflation on our interest expense and other costs. Also, we may not be able to renew expiring leases at lease rates that reflect increases in inflation.

Continuing Impact of COVID-19

The COVID-19 epidemic has affected the healthcare industry in many ways. Many stories exist about U.S. healthcare workers, especially nurses, experiencing burnout due to the length and severity of the epidemic, and this has caused many nurses and other medical professionals to switch jobs within the medical profession or quit the profession altogether. This phenomenon has led to material increases in labor costs for healthcare systems, especially hospital systems, as some employers have had to rely on higher cost contract nursing labor to sustain their businesses. This increase in labor costs, among various other factors, contributed to the rapid increase in inflation during 2022, which remained elevated through 2023.

Furthermore, the continued spread of variants and subvariants of COVID-19 in the U.S. has prolonged the COVID-19 epidemic, which could continue to disrupt our operations and the operations of our tenants and third-party service providers.

Our Properties

As of December 31, 2023, we had gross investments of approximately $1.4 billion in real estate properties, consisting of 185 buildings with an aggregate of (i) approximately 4.7 million leasable square feet and (ii) approximately $110.2 million of annualized base rent. The tables below summarize information about our portfolio as of December 31, 2023. Also see “Schedule III – Consolidated Real Estate and Accumulated Depreciation,” for additional information about our properties.

Summary of Investments by Type

The following table contains information about our portfolio by type of property as of December 31, 2023:

Geographic Concentration

The following table contains information regarding the geographic concentration of our portfolio as of December 31, 2023. Adverse economic or other conditions (including significant weather events) in the states that contain a high concentration of our facilities could adversely affect us. See “Risk Factors—We have significant geographic concentration in a small number of states, including Texas, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Illinois. Economic and other conditions that negatively affect those states and our tenants in those states could have a greater effect on our revenues than if our properties were more geographically diverse.”

Significant Tenants

The following tenants each account for at least 5% of our annualized base rent as of December 31, 2023. Adverse changes to any of their financial conditions or our failure to renew our leases with these tenants could adversely affect us. See “Risk Factors—The inability of any of our significant tenants to pay rent to us could have a disproportionate negative affect on our revenues” and*“*Risk Factors—Most of our healthcare facilities are occupied by a single tenant, and we may have difficulty finding suitable replacement tenants in the event of a tenant default or non-renewal of our leases, especially for our healthcare facilities located in smaller markets.”

Lease Expirations

The following table contains information regarding the lease expiration dates of the leases in our portfolio as of December 31, 2023.

Ground Leases

As of December 31, 2023, we had seven buildings located on land that is subject to operating ground leases, representing approximately 3.9% of our total leasable square feet and approximately 4.3% of our December 2023 annualized base rent. The ground leases subject these properties to certain restrictions, including restrictions on our ability to re-let such facilities to tenants not affiliated with the ground lessor, rights of first offer and refusal with respect to sales of the facilities and restrictions that limit the types of medical procedures that may be performed at the facilities.

Healthcare Industry and Healthcare Real Estate Market Opportunity

We believe our primary investment strategy takes advantage of current trends in healthcare and healthcare delivery, including an aging population and the decentralization of healthcare, while also providing flexibility to make opportunistic acquisitions and dispositions.

Aging U.S. Population Driving Increase in Demand for Healthcare Services

The general aging of the population, driven by the baby boomer generation and advances in medical technology and services which increase life expectancy, is a key driver of the growth in healthcare expenditures. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the nation’s 65-and older population has grown rapidly since 2010, driven by Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964. The 65-and-older population grew by over a third during the past decade, and by 3.2% from 2018 to 2019. We believe that demographic trends in the United States, including an aging population, will result in continued growth in the demand for healthcare services utilized by an aging population, which in turn will lead to an increasing need for a greater supply of specialized, well-located healthcare facilities.

Clinical Care Continues to Shift Away from Large, Centralized Facilities

We believe the continued shift in the delivery of healthcare services away from large, centralized facilities to smaller, more specialized facilities will increase the need for smaller, more specialized and efficient hospitals and outpatient facilities that take advantage of these shifting trends. Procedures traditionally performed in large, general hospitals, such as certain types of surgeries, are increasingly moving to more conveniently located, specialized facilities driven by advances in clinical science, shifting consumer preferences, limited or inefficient space in existing hospitals and lower costs in the non-hospital environment.

Opportunistic Acquisitions

Despite the continued shift in the delivery of healthcare services to smaller, more specialized facilities, we believe opportunities exist to acquire larger, acute-care facilities, such as acute-care hospitals and LTACs, with very attractive submarket fundamentals at compelling valuations. Despite the trends away from acute-care facilities, we believe that certain, well-located acute-care hospitals and LTACs will still be critical components of the U.S. healthcare system.

We also opportunistically invest in large health system’s corporate and administrative office buildings. We believe investments in these types of facilities helps us build relationships with large health systems, which could lead to us becoming a preferred landlord for such health systems’ medical facilities.

We also invest in behavioral and mental health facilities that are operated by national or regional operators and are in markets that demonstrate a need for such services.

Although not the primary focus of our investment strategy, we believe allocating a portion of our portfolio to opportunistic acquisitions helps diversify our portfolio and is consistent with our strategy of aligning ourselves with strong operators.

Dispositions

We believe in certain circumstances dispositions help to strengthen our portfolio and provide cash flow and gains from the sales that can be used for re-investment or to reduce indebtedness.

During the year ended December 31, 2023, we completed three dispositions. In August 2023, we sold a medical office building located in North Charleston, South Carolina receiving gross proceeds of $10.1 million, resulting in a gain of $2.3 million. In June 2023, we sold a portfolio of four medical office buildings located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma receiving gross proceeds of $66.0 million, resulting in a gain of $12.8 million. In March 2023, we sold a medical office building located in Jacksonville, Florida receiving gross proceeds of $4.4 million, resulting in a gain of $0.5 million.

Qualification as a REIT

We elected to be taxed as a REIT commencing with our taxable year ended December 31, 2016. Subject to a number of significant exceptions, a corporation that qualifies as a REIT generally is not subject to U.S. federal income tax on income and gains that it distributes to its stockholders, thereby reducing its corporate-level taxes. In order to maintain our qualification as a REIT, a substantial percentage of our assets must be qualifying real estate assets and a substantial percentage of our income must be rental revenue from real property or interest on mortgage loans. We believe that we have been organized and have operated in such a manner as to qualify for taxation as a REIT, and we intend to continue to operate in such a manner. However, we cannot provide assurances that we will continue to operate in a manner to remain qualified as a REIT.

Competition

We compete with many other real estate investors for acquisitions of healthcare properties, including healthcare operators, and real estate investors such as private equity firms and other REITs, some of whom may have greater financial resources and lower costs of capital than we do.

Additionally, our healthcare facilities and tenants often face competition from nearby hospitals, other medical practices, and other healthcare facilities, including urgent care and other primary care facilities, that provide comparable services. If our tenants’ competitors have greater geographic coverage, improved access and convenience to physicians and patients, provide or are perceived to provide higher quality services, recruit physicians to provide competing services at their facilities, expand or improve their services or obtain more favorable managed-care contracts, our tenants may not be able to successfully compete.

Government Programs, Laws and Regulations

Medicare and Medicaid Programs

Sources of revenue for our tenants typically include the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Healthcare providers continue to face increased government pressure to control or reduce healthcare costs and significant reductions in healthcare reimbursement, including reduced reimbursements and changes to payment methodologies under the Affordable Care Act. In some cases, private insurers rely on all or portions of the Medicare payment systems to determine payment rates, which may result in decreased reimbursement from private insurers.

The need to control Medicaid expenditures may be exacerbated by the potential for increased enrollment in Medicaid programs due to unemployment and declines in family incomes. Historically, states have often attempted to reduce Medicaid spending by limiting benefits and tightening Medicaid eligibility requirements.

Efforts by Medicare and Medicaid to reduce reimbursements will likely continue, which could negatively affect our tenant’s revenues and their ability to pay rent to us.

Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act is a comprehensive healthcare reform law that contains various provisions that may directly impact our tenants. The primary goal of the Affordable Care Act is to broaden insurance coverage for the uninsured population by expanding Medicaid coverage, creating health insurance exchanges and mandating that uninsured individuals purchase health insurance. The Affordable Care Act also contains provisions aimed at lowering the cost of healthcare, including lowering increases in Medicare payment rates and promoting alternate reimbursement methods for providers that focus on patient outcomes rather than volume. In addition to expanding coverage and controlling costs, the Affordable Care Act also contains provisions intended to combat healthcare fraud, including Medicare fraud and abuse. On June 28, 2012, the United States Supreme Court partially invalidated the expansion of Medicaid and allowed states not to participate in the expansion without losing their existing Medicaid funding. In addition, on December 22, 2017, President Trump signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or the TCJA. The TCJA eliminated the tax penalty for violating the individual mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act.

Although the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of insurance coverage may benefit our tenants by increasing their number of insured patients, these benefits may be offset by the fact that (i) many of the newly insured under the Affordable Care Act are insured by policies that have high deductibles (and, thus, create higher patient credit risks for our tenants), (ii) some states have not implemented the Medicaid expansion or have implemented Medicaid expansion in such ways that may reduce potential enrollment (such as implementing work requirements), and, (iii) even if states have expanded Medicaid, Medicaid may not be accepted by some of our tenants. For our tenants that do accept Medicaid, they may receive lower reimbursements for Medicaid patients than for patients with Medicare or commercial insurance. Additionally, although the migration from Medicare fee-for-service, or volume-based, payments to an outcome-based reimbursement model may lower overall healthcare costs, these changes could negatively affect our tenants if they are unable to adapt to a more outcome-oriented healthcare delivery model.

The future of the Affordable Care Act is uncertain and any changes to existing laws and regulations, including the Affordable Care Act’s repeal, modification or replacement, could have a long-term financial impact on the delivery of and payment for healthcare. Both our tenants and us may be adversely affected by the law or its repeal, modification or replacement.

Fraud and Abuse Laws

There are various federal and state laws prohibiting fraudulent and abusive business practices by healthcare providers who participate in, receive payments from, or are able to make referrals in connection with, government-sponsored healthcare programs, including the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Our leases with certain tenants may also be subject to these fraud and abuse laws. These laws include, without limitation:

Violations of these laws may result in criminal and/or civil penalties that range from punitive sanctions, damage assessments, penalties, imprisonment, denial of Medicare and Medicaid payments and/or exclusion from the Medicare and Medicaid programs. In addition, the Affordable Care Act clarifies that the submission of claims for items or services generated in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim under the False Claims Act. The federal government has taken the position, and some courts have held, that violations of other laws, such as the Stark Law, can also be a violation of the False Claims Act. Additionally, certain laws, such as the False Claims Act, allow for individuals to bring whistleblower actions on behalf of the government for violations thereof. Imposition of any of these penalties upon one of our tenants could jeopardize that tenant’s ability to operate or to make rent payments to us. Further, we enter into leases and other financial relationships with healthcare delivery systems that are subject to or impacted by these laws. We also have investors who are healthcare providers in our operating partnership. If any of our relationships, including those related to the other investors in our subsidiaries, are found not to comply with these laws, we and our physician investors may be subject to civil and/or criminal penalties.

Other Regulations

The healthcare industry is heavily regulated by U.S. federal, state and local governmental authorities. Our tenants generally will be subject to laws and regulations covering, among other things, licensure, and certification for participation in government programs, billing for services, privacy and security of health information, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which provides for the privacy and security of certain individually identifiable health information, and relationships with physicians and other referral sources. In addition, new laws and regulations, changes in existing laws and regulations or changes in the interpretation of such laws or regulations could negatively affect our financial condition and the financial condition of our tenants. These changes, in some cases, could apply retroactively. The enactment, timing or effect of legislative or regulatory changes cannot be predicted.

Many states regulate the construction of healthcare facilities, the expansion of healthcare facilities, the construction or expansion of certain services, including by way of example specific bed types and medical equipment, as well as certain capital expenditures through certificate of need, or CON, laws. Under such laws, the applicable state regulatory body must determine a need exists for a project before the project can be undertaken. If one of our tenants seeks to undertake a CON-regulated project but is not authorized by the applicable regulatory body to proceed with the project, the tenants would be prevented from operating in its intended manner.

Failure to comply with these laws and regulations could adversely affect us directly and our tenants’ ability to make rent payments to us.

Environmental Regulations

Under various U.S. federal, state and local laws, ordinances and regulations, current and prior owners and tenants of real estate may be jointly and severally liable for the costs of investigating, remediating, and monitoring certain hazardous substances or other regulated materials on or in such healthcare facility. In addition to these costs, the past or present owner or tenant of a healthcare facility from which a release emanates could be liable for any personal injury or property damage that results from such release, including for the unauthorized release of asbestos-containing materials and other hazardous substances into the air, as well as any damages to natural resources or the environment that arise from such releases. These environmental laws often impose such liability without regard to whether the current or prior owner or tenant knew of, or was responsible for, the presence or release of such substances or materials. Moreover, the release of hazardous substances or materials, or the failure to properly remediate such substances or materials, may adversely affect the owner’s or tenant’s ability to lease, sell, develop or rent such healthcare facility or to borrow by using such healthcare facility as collateral.

Certain environmental laws impose compliance obligations on owners and tenants of real property with respect to the management of hazardous substances and other regulated materials. For example, environmental laws govern the management and removal of asbestos-containing materials and lead-based paint. Failure to comply with these laws can result in penalties or other sanctions.

Human Capital Resources

Our success is dependent on the success of our employees. As of December 31, 2023, the Company had 26 employees.

We support diversity, equality, and inclusion in our workforce. As of December 31, 2023, 46% of our workforce were women and 38% of our workforce was ethnically diverse. We believe we offer a competitive pay and benefits package, with nearly all of our employees participating in our equity incentive plans. We also foster the development of our employees’ expertise and skillsets, and encourage our employees to build new skill sets, such as in the ESG space. We have established policies to provide a safe, harassment-free work environment and have fostered a corporate culture based on fair and equal treatment. As a result, we believe our employees are committed to building strong, innovative and long-term relationships with each other and with our tenants. Our employees at our corporate office are permitted to work remotely.

Available Information

We maintain a website atwww.globalmedicalreit.com. The information on our website is not incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and our web address is included as an inactive textual reference only.

We file registration statements, proxy statements, our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports, with the SEC. We make available, free of charge through the Investor Relations portion of the website, annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. Reports of beneficial ownership filed pursuant to Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act are also available on our website. These reports and other information are also available, free of charge, at www.sec.gov.