Nursing Home Closure Due to Lack of Medicaid Funding

In a sad state of affairs South Dakota will see yet another nursing home close. Huron's Violet Tschetter Memorial Home has announced their closure as of May 10. According to the South Dakota Health Care Association (SDHCA) the closure is due to severe underfunding of Medicaid by the state, to the point that operations were no longer sustainable.

Add this to the already shutdowns in Madison, Mobridge, Tripp, Bryant, and Rosholt. That leaves roughly 100 nursing homes in the state still operating. But for how much longer?

The SDHCA states that if additional funding is not secured more closures will almost certainly occur.

Medicaid reimbursement for nursing centers is currently at such a low level that centers lose an average of $58.30 each day for each resident paying through Medicaid. Statewide, costs of unreimbursed care total more than $66 million annually. A significant majority (53%) of the total resident population in nursing centers relies on Medicaid to pay for their care. This disparity fuels staffing challenges, including difficulty hiring caregivers and high turnover among nursing center staff.