SNF Occupancy Improving — But Stabilization Isn’t Guaranteed

Skilled nursing facilities across the U.S. saw incremental increases in median occupancy through the beginning of May, according to a new update from the professional services firm CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA), with nine states reporting an improvement of more than 5% between January 3 and May 2.

However, it’s too early to tell if this improvement constitutes a stabilization of SNF occupancy following COVID-19-related volume drops, given how different each market can be, CLA director Seth Wilson told Skilled Nursing News.

He stressed that the national median occupancy — which draws from data nursing homes are required to report weekly to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for COVID-19 — is a high-level insight, and one influenced by the number of facilities and beds in a given state.

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Throughout the month of April, national median occupancies for SNFs climbed upwards incrementally, going from 70.7% the week of April 11 to 71.2% by April 25. By May 2, national median SNF occupancy was set at 71.4%.

Source: CLA

Of the nine states that saw median SNF occupancy increase by more than 5%, two of those – West Virginia and New Hampshire – are at 80% or more. West Virginia saw its median occupancy rise 6.6% from January 3, while New Hampshire saw an increase in median SNF occupancy of 6.5%

The other seven states that saw SNF occupancy increases are: Kentucky, which saw median occupancy rise 5.3% from January 3; Nevada, which had a 5.7% increase; California, which had a 5.4% increase; South Dakota, which had a 5.6% increase; Delaware which saw a 6.6% increase; Idaho, which had  a 6.7% increase; and New Mexico, which saw a 6.9% increase.

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Before the pandemic, median occupancy was at 84.7%, CLA said. This number was derived from Medicare cost report data, according to Wilson.

CLA’s earlier occupancy update through the end of February found that median occupancy for SNFs nationally was at 69.7%, with a significant decline in the number of cases among residents.

Wilson stressed that there are many factors to consider when it comes to how these numbers should be used, given how much SNF performance depends on hyper-local trends. But overall, the months of February and March saw a larger increase in national median occupancy, he said.

Though the individual dynamics of the markets are different, even within states, one universal factor stood out to Wilson.

“What was interesting to me here is that if we look at these nine states in particular that increased by more than 5%, I noticed that they are coast to coast,” he told SNN. “You have California, you have New Hampshire, you have Kentucky. They’re not concentrated in any one region.”

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