Medicaid funding shortfalls causing Illinois nursing homes to close

Since March 2014, 20 state-licensed skilled-care nursing homes have closed for financial reasons, while many of those continuing to serve the state’s neediest elderly populations face staffing shortages and operating deficits caused by diminishing state government investment.

Nursing home advocates warn that the industry is already in crisis, and a continuance of this trend could mean an unavailability of care for Illinois’ aging population within a decade.

“These facilities are closing, and I can tell you more are going to close,” said Pat Comstock, executive director of the Health Care Council of Illinois, a nursing home advocacy group. “It’s happening because we have a situation in Illinois where they can no longer financially survive.”

The pace of closures has quickened in recent years, with five skilled-care nursing facilities -- those that house the sickest and most vulnerable -- closing from 2014 to 2016, six closing in each of 2017 and 2018, and three already shutting their doors in 2019, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Read more: https://www.sj-r.com/news/20190420/report-medicaid-funding-shortfalls-causing-illinois-nursing-homes-to-close