Nursing home closures are not a new phenomenon. Nursing home owners, executives, and their trade associations, however, treat closures like a new problem that threatens residents. They predict that many more facilities will close if they are not given more money. They also blame workforce shortages for closures. As a new Special Report from the Center for Medicare Advocacy illustrates, some closures have been the result of facilities’ closing due to their exceptionally poor quality and consistently low occupancy rates. Other closures have been the deliberate result of states choosing to “rebalance” their long-term care systems to increase non-institutional, home and community-based alternatives to nursing homes. While closures often raise serious issues for residents who are displaced from their homes, solutions set out by nursing home owners, executives, and trade associations are stale and predictable. A more comprehensive and effective approach to the nursing home industry would stabilize the nursing home workforce, effectively address the poorest quality facilities, and ensure that reimbursement is used for resident care.
- Read the full report: https://medicareadvocacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Special-Report-Nursing-Home-Closures.pdf
July 14, 2022 – T. Edelman