Long Term Care Statistics

NURSING HOME OCCUPANCY

LONG TERM CARE COSTS: (1998) "Researchers at the Health Care Financing Administration, which supervises the Medicare program, have identified 44 different types of care a facility could provide. In the absence of standard terminology, it's impossible to know whether one facility's enriched residential care is similar to another's intermediate. Price isn't necessarily related to quality. One firm compared daily rates at 60 facilities in metropolitan centers around the country, trying to compare price with the quality of care. There was no relationship."

Nonetheless, overall costs have been declining :

Occupancy of nursing homes fell nationally one and one-half percent from 1995 levels to 83% in 1996. Hawaii led the nation in declines with 11%, followed by Ohio at 5%, and AR, WY, LA, ME, NV, OR, and IA each with declines of between 3% and 4%.
States with increases in occupancy were DC (7%), AZ (3%), CT and RI (3%), DE (2%). Smaller gains were posted in CO, NJ, NC, UT, WI, and WV.
While the number of nursing-home residents remained virtually constant in 1995 and 1996 at about 1 ½ million, the number of residents who paid privately fell 2.3%, continuing a trend. Medicaid was the primary payer for about 68% of residents. Medicare's number's in nursing homes increased 12% over 1995. (Cowles Research Group).