More than 400 nursing homes expected to close this year

April 27, 2022

More than 400 nursing homes are projected to close this year, according to a recent report from the American Health Care Association (AHCA) and National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL).

The projection is alarming given the rate of aging Americans and the potential number of residents displaced by closures. Before the pandemic, nursing homes faced numerous challenges, and 1,000 have closed their doors since 2015. 

However, closures have accelerated during the pandemic. By comparison, there were 776 closures in the five years from 2015 to 2019. In 2020 and 2021, there were 327 closures. The 400+ closures projected for 2022 are nearly double the next highest year, when 220 nursing homes closed in 2019.

Unfortunately, most nursing home closures are among smaller organizations with less than 100 beds in urban settings with a mostly Medicaid population, the report noted. In addition, the nursing homes that have closed over the past few years have varied in their quality rankings, with roughly half of those that have closed with four- and five-star ratings from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Read the full story from Health Exec here.