Long-Term Care Facilities Face Financial Burden With Added COVID-19 Costs
A new nationwide survey found that officials with two-thirds of the long-term care facilities surveyed say they won’t make it another year because of the increased costs due to COVID-19; local officials say Idaho is seeing the same rise in expenses.
Robert Vande Merwe, executive director of the Idaho Health Care Association, said several Idaho assisted living facilities have closed; others have consolidated into one building.
The national survey, released this week after being conducted by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, found the added costs from the pandemic come from staffing challenges.
Nine out of 10 nursing home officials who responded to the survey said they had to hire additional staff and/or pay staff overtime since the pandemic hit. Fifty-eight percent of the survey’s respondents said additional staff pay and hiring new staff were their top cost incurred due to COVID-19.
Read the full article from Idaho Press.
