Total expenditures for nursing care facilities and continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) fell by 7.9% between 2020 and 2021. Going back to 1970, these expenditures had only ever increased each year, according to data released Wednesday.
The decline last year can be attributed in large part to the pullback in federal relief programs related to COVID-19. The federal government’s health expenditures declined 3.5% in 2021 compared to 2020, according to the national health care spending report published Wednesday in the journal Health Affairs. The analysis was prepared by the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Nursing care facility and CCRC expenditures rang in at $181.3 billion last year, compared with $196.9 billion in 2020. Between 2019 and 2020, expenditures in this sector had grown by 13.1%.
In 2020, nursing care facilities and CCRCs received $13.4 billion from the Provider Relief Fund an $6.4 billion in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans; these numbers fell to $6.4 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively, in 2021.
While nursing care facilities and CCRCs received far fewer dollars from these programs in 2021 compared with 2020, expenditures from other payers did increase year-over-year, including:
- Medicaid, 1.4% increase
- Medicare, 1.9% increase
- Other health insurance (such as VA), 5.1% increase
Out-of-pocket spending on nursing care facilities and CCRCs declined 2.5% between 2020 and 2021, while private health insurance expenditures declined 2.2%.
Medicaid was the largest payer for nursing facilities and CCRCs, with total expenditures of $54.3 billion last year.
Expenditures in other health care sectors continued to grow in 2021, albeit at a slower rate than in 2020. Hospital expenditures slowed from 6.2% growth in 2020 to 4.4% in 2021. The growth rate for home health care expenditures dropped from 11.2% in 2020 to 0.2% last year.
Overall, freestanding nursing care facilities and CCRCs accounted for about 4% of total national health expenditures in 2021.
Companies featured in this article:
CMS, Health Affairs, Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
