Trends in nursing home closures in nonmetropolitan and metropolitan counties in the United States: 2008-2018
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Rural policy brief
- Author(s):
- Sharma, Hari, author Baten, Redwan Bin Abdul, author Ullrich, Fred, author MacKinney A. Clinton, author Mueller, Keith J., author
- Contributor(s):
- RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis, issuing body. Rural Health Research & Policy Centers, issuing body. Rural Policy Research Institute (U.S.), issuing body.
- Publication:
- Iowa City, IA : Rural Policy Research Institute, February 2021
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Health Facility Closure -- statistics & numerical data Health Facility Closure -- trends Nursing Homes -- statistics & numerical data Rural Population Urban Population United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- This policy brief examines trends in nursing home closures and characteristics of open and closed nursing homes in nonmetropolitan and metropolitan counties. For this analysis, nursing homes are facilities dually certified by Medicare and Medicaid or facilities certified by only Medicaid. We excluded facilities certified only by Medicare since they cater to skilled nursing care and our focus in this study was on long-term care services. We considered a nursing home closed if the provider of services (POS) file from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) indicated that the facility was closed in its entirety or if the facility no longer had Medicaid certification. Documenting nursing home closures is important because it will allow examination of the impact of closures on access and availability of alternative providers of post-acute/long-term care in nonmetropolitan areas. In this project, we document nursing home closures, identify areas without nursing homes, and summarize the characteristics of open and closed nursing homes. Key Findings. (1) Between 2008 and 2018, 472 nursing homes in 400 nonmetropolitan counties and 783 nursing homes in 368 metropolitan counties closed in the U.S. (2) As of 2018, 7.7 percent of the 3,142 counties in the U.S. had no nursing homes (nursing home deserts); 10.1 percent of the 1,976 nonmetropolitan counties and 3.7 percent of the 1,166 metropolitan counties were nursing home deserts. (3) Of the 243 counties with no nursing homes, 44 were newly created nursing home deserts because of nursing home closures between 2008 and 2018; about 91 percent of these new nursing home deserts (n = 40) were in nonmetropolitan counties. (4) On average, closed nursing homes had lower bed size and lower occupancy levels compared with open nursing homes; among the facilities that closed, nursing homes in nonmetropolitan counties had lower average bed size and occupancy levels compared with nursing homes in metropolitan counties.
- Copyright:
- The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (8 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918350986906676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918350986906676