Countryside Health Care Center, one of the largest nursing homes in Iowa, with a maximum occupancy of 101 residents, announced that it will close within 60 days.
This brings the total number of nursing homes closing in Iowa since June 2022 to 26.
Valley View Community Home in Butler County and Pocahontas Manor in Pocahontas County also announced that they will close imminently, Iowa Capital Dispatch reported.
Countryside Health Care Center is owned by a real estate company based in New York, and during the previous three years, the facility had received $98,405 in fines and penalties related to survey violations and resident complaints, according to the Capital Dispatch.
But closures in Iowa have been widespread, and not necessarily linked to quality of care concerns at troubled facilities.
“The primary culprit has been an extraordinary explosion of wage and other operating costs since 2021 which has created a historic shortfall in Medicaid reimbursement rates of nearly 20%,” Iowa Healthcare Association President and CEO Brent Willett told Skilled Nursing News in February 2023. “Iowa skilled nursing facility providers are today incurring ongoing and devastating financial losses.”
Willett said that for every $1 spent to care for an Iowa Medicaid resident, the system currently reimburses providers only 80 cents. In response to the increasing number of closures, the Iowa Legislature and governor implemented a moratorium on the licensing of new nursing homes.
According to the moratorium law, no applications for new nursing home construction or permanent expansion of bed capacity at existing facilities will be accepted for at least the next 12 months, and possibly up to three years. Exceptions to the moratorium can be made if there is a demonstrated “specialized need” for additional nursing facility beds or if the average occupancy rate in a county’s nursing homes surpasses 85%.
Previously, SNN reported that Texas and Nebraska led the nation for most nursing home closures in 2022, with industry advocates citing inadequate Medicaid rates that have not kept pace with a tough economic and operating environment.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently shared that 135 nursing homes have closed their doors in the past year as the industry grapples with massive staffing shortages and rising operating costs complicated by high inflation and rising fuel prices.
