Nursing home administrators in South Dakota warned lawmakers Jan. 29 that the state's nursing home industry is on the verge of financial collapse, reports the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.
South Dakota nursing homes are battling a $42 million annual shortfall in Medicaid reimbursement funding from the state. The underfunding has caused a wave of nursing homes to close in the state.
"Our long-term care infrastructure is crumbling," Mark Deak, director of the South Dakota Health Care Association, told the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. "With each closing being a crisis, those closings could add up to become a statewide disaster if we don't do something. We say we value our elderly. It really is time to put our resources behind that commitment."
More closures are likely unless South Dakota improves its payment rate under Medicaid, which pays for about 55 percent of the state's 6,500 nursing home residents. At present, South Dakota has the lowest Medicaid reimbursement rate in the nation at $146 per day per person, according to state Rep. Steven McCleerey, D-Sisseton.