WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL), representing more than 14,000 nursing homes and other long term care facilities across the country that provide care to approximately five million people each year, today released updated data demonstrating a worsening access to care crisis impacting seniors and individuals with disabilities in need of long term and post-acute care.
The
2024 Access to Care report highlights the intense economic and government pressures providers have faced since the pandemic, resulting in fewer care options and delays in care for our nation’s most vulnerable. Specifically, the report looks at the cumulative effect of continued nationwide labor shortages, record inflation and increasing operational costs, and chronic government underfunding. These recent challenges have severely impacted seniors’ ability to access skilled care as nursing homes are forced to limit admissions, downsize, or close altogether:
- Limiting Admissions:
- Forty-six (46) percent of nursing homes are currently having to limit new admissions.
- Fifty-seven (57) percent of nursing homes have a waiting list for new residents.
- Downsizing:
- Since 2020, there are 62,567 fewer nursing home beds.
- Twenty (20) percent of nursing homes have closed a unit, wing, or floor due to labor shortages.
- Closures:
- Since 2020, at least 774 nursing homes have closed.
- These closures have displaced 28,421 residents.
Across the country, despite a rapidly aging population and increased demand for long term and post-acute care, the annual number of new nursing homes continues to decline. In 2023, only 37 new facilities opened their doors. This is compared to 73 new facilities that opened in 2020; 71 in 2021; and 55 in 2022. So far in 2024, only seven new facilities have opened.
“It’s not hyperbole to say access to care is a national crisis. Nursing homes are closing at a rate much faster than they are opening, and yet with each passing day, our nation grows older. Providers are doing everything they can to protect and expand access to care, but without support from policymakers, access to care remains under threat,” said Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of AHCA/NCAL.
While closures in any community are difficult for residents, staff, and families, the report notes the devastating impact to seniors living in rural communities, where skilled nursing care options are already scarce due to high competition for qualified caregivers. Persistent closures have created a phenomenon of ‘nursing home deserts’ in which there are no skilled nursing care options available for seniors:
- Forty (40) additional counties in the United States became nursing home deserts since February 2020.
- Thirty-four (34, or 85 percent) of these nursing home deserts are in rural communities.
The 2024 Access to Care report also shows there is no single factor that determines whether a nursing home can withstand economic pressures, limited government support, and growing workforce challenges. Since 2020, closures have happened at facilities with 4- and 5-Star Rankings, both at non-profits and proprietary centers, and across urban and rural communities.
Despite providers’ unified and persistent
calls for solutions, the Biden Administration finalized this year an unfunded
staffing mandate for nursing homes. In its
analysis of the final rule, AHCA/NCAL found that nursing homes would need to hire 102,000 additional nurses and nurse aides needed to meet the requirements. However, with a growing nationwide caregiver shortage, the mandate will likely force nursing homes to further reduce their census or close their doors, putting nearly one-quarter of nursing home residents (more than 290,000 individuals) at risk for displacement.
“Our nation’s seniors shouldn’t have to wait for days or weeks in a hospital bed for the skilled nursing care they need, and families shouldn’t have to drive for hours to see their loved ones. We know that there is a way forward from here, and it doesn’t include unrealistic government mandates,” Parkinson continued. “Policymakers must work with stakeholders to implement supportive solutions that uphold, protect, and expand access to care for seniors and individuals with disabilities.”
View the full Access to Care Report
HERE.