Eldercare & the Economics of Aging
The growing pains of an aging population
States look to limit strain on nursing homes
By ALEXANDER SOULE

The good news is that if you have a parent who needs to enter a nursing home in the lower Hudson Valley in the next few years, there should be a bed available.

In 30 years, however, it is you who may be out of luck.

The lower Hudson Valley has a nursing-home population of just under 13,000 residents, according to data from the New York State Office for the Aging. There are 45 nursing homes in Westchester County with a total of 7,260 beds, with those facilities 90 percent occupied.

Another 41 nursing homes have 6,590 beds in Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Ulster counties, with a 93 percent occupancy rate in line with the state average.

The national occupancy rate was 89 percent as of June, according to the American Health Care Association. If grandma lives in South Dakota, however, she is on a long waiting list ­ the state had just six beds open as of June, according to AHCA.

Officials in both New York and Connecticut are studying ways to limit the strain on nursing homes ­ while hopefully improving the lifestyle for seniors ­ by providing incentives for elderly people to receive care in their homes or their children’s.

This past summer, the University of Connecticut’s Center on Aging estimated that state’s nursing home population will swell 43 percent between 2006 and 2030, with only the under-65 residential population expected to decline.

The same study predicts a 28 percent growth rate for all long-term care services, including assisted-living facilities that are not licensed as nursing homes but which provide some basic services.

New U.S. Census Bureau data supports UConn’s projections on nursing-home population. It marked the first time in nearly three decades that the government has examined the social and economic profiles of people living in group quarters such as nursing homes, college dormitories, military barracks and prisons.

While the United States has 5.6 percent fewer nursing facilities today than in 2000, the number of actual beds is down only 1.9 percent, according to statistics compiled by the American Health Care Association.

Nationwide, some 1.8 million people live in nursing homes, or 0.6 percent of the population, virtually identical with the percentage in the lower Hudson Valley. Nearly seven in 10 U.S. nursing-home residents are women.

Among minorities, whereas African Americans occupy nursing homes in similar proportion to the total population, Hispanic and Asian Americans do not. The latter two groups make up nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population, but just 5 percent of the nursing home population.

The median age of nursing home residents is 83 years, and residents had an average annual income of $12,000.

The tri-state area has among the highest nursing-home costs in the nation, according to an October survey sponsored by the MetLife Mature Market Institute, a Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. affiliate in Westport, Conn.

A room at a private nursing facility in Stamford cost $136,000 annually, MetLife found, trailing only the $186,000 statewide average in Alaska. The national average was $78,000 a year.

New York City’s average rate was $128,000, just behind San Francisco. MetLife did not release averages for the lower Hudson Valley region, but Syracuse and Rochester ranked among the dozen highest rates in the nation, as well as the New Jersey cities of Bridgewater and Cherry Hill.

New York has by far the highest percentage of independently owned facilities, with just 14 percent of the state’s 650-plus nursing homes having sister institutions owned by a common corporate parent. As first reported by the New York Times, federal lawmakers are investigating the quality of service of nursing homes owned by private equity firms that obtain homes for their investment portfolios.

 

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