A new report issued by the American Health Care Association highlights significant challenges facing long term care providers, including skyrocketing labor costs and inability to staff at levels necessary to accept new admissions to their centers.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been enormously challenging to all health care providers, but nursing homes continue to be disproportionally impacted by inability to staff their centers.
- During the course of the pandemic, South Dakota nursing homes have lost over 1000 staff members, representing 14% of their staff
- All provider types saw decreases in staff at the beginning of the pandemic, but other provider types have either recovered or made significant progress toward the staff level they had pre-pandemic
- While South Dakota nursing homes and assisted livings continue to struggle to rebound to pre-pandemic staffing levels, South Dakota hospitals now have exceeded the numbers of staff they had pre-pandemic (increased 3.8%) and South Dakota home health agencies have rebounded to their pre-pandemic level
“Nursing homes face unprecedented pressures. On top of years of Medicaid underfunding, they are also experiencing severe staffing shortages and have been on the front lines of the COVID battle for two years,” said Mark B. Deak, Executive Director of the South Dakota Health Care Association. “We are seeing empty beds in nursing homes, not because there isn’t a need for care, but because there aren’t enough staff to accept new admissions.”
The AHCA report also found increased risk of closures for nursing homes, with up to 40% of nursing home residents living in centers deemed to be “at risk” for possible closure. Nine nursing homes have closed in South Dakota since 2016, including the recent closure of the Custer nursing home.
South Dakota’s Medicaid reimbursement rates are significantly below those of all our neighboring states. Nursing centers lose an average of $65 each day for each resident paying through Medicaid. Statewide, costs of unreimbursed care total more than $56 million annually. A significant majority (55%) of the total resident population in nursing homes relies on Medicaid to pay for their care. In addition to the closures, this disparity fuels staffing challenges, including difficulty hiring caregivers and high turnover among nursing center staff.
“Long term care providers continue to be severely impacted by of COVID, resulting in reduced occupancy, extraordinary staffing challenges, and costs related to PPE and testing,” continued Deak. “What is urgently needed is improved Medicaid reimbursement so our aging moms, dads, grandparents, and other loved ones can continue to receive the care they expect and deserve.”
AHCA’s recent report can be found here. Further information on lost jobs in long term care is available here.
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