“Chasing millions in Medicaid dollars, hospitals buy up nursing homes,” by Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News

“Nearly 90 percent of Indiana’s 554 nursing homes have been leased or sold to county hospitals in the past 14 years, state records show, bringing in hundreds of millions in extra federal payments to the state. Even though Indiana’s nursing home population has remained steady at about 39,000 people over the past five years, Medicaid spending for the homes has increased by $900 million, to $2.2 billion in 2016, according to state data. Today, more than two-thirds of Indiana’s Medicaid long-term care dollars go to nursing homes. The U.S. average is 47 percent.”

LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform):

Medicaid is fraught with perverse incentives among which are ways for interest groups and state politicians, not to mention individual consumers, to game the program’s rules to maximize federal funding. Consequently, the long-term care financing market is distorted and does not adequately reflect what consumers prefer, home and community-based care.

Chasing millions in Medicaid dollars, hospitals buy up nursing homes

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