Economic Impact on Nursing Homes Due to Coronavirus

Coronavirus has taken a massive humanitarian and economic toll on nursing homes and also on the senior citizens who use these long-term care facilities. Despite having a stellar overall record of American nursing homes, these LTC facilities were completely taken by surprise due to the rapid spread of the virus. Coronavirus is extremely infectious, and its symptoms usually appear after a few days; therefore, an infected person could very well be spreading the virus to other people without any warning or suspicion.

Nursing homes serve the most vulnerable population, people over 65 years. They lack sufficient supplies and personal protective equipment, such as masks, gloves and hand sanitizers, needed to fight the virus. At a time when even top hospitals are struggling to get the protective equipment for their staff, it is nearly impossible for nursing homes to have sufficient supply of it. Meanwhile, visitors who had zero symptoms kept infecting seniors without anyone noticing in the initial days of coronavirus spread. Additionally, many part-time employees of nursing homes serve two or more different facilities, which could have contributed to spreading the virus at such a rapid pace.

It is estimated that more than 2,000 long term care centers in nearly 38 states have reported cases of coronavirus infection among their senior residents. The LTC industry is looking at a multimillion-dollar loss, which may take many years to recoup without government support.

This comes at a huge economic cost for nursing homes, who suddenly had to take drastic measures for monitoring and controlling infections. They also had to take immediate steps to protect their staff and buy expensive equipment to prevent the spreading of the virus in their facility.  One can anticipate that there will be a reduced inflow of newer residents until this storm settles down. Expenses are going up, and modes of new revenue are going down. At this time, many LTC facilities are using a collection agency for assisted living centers to recover some of their lost revenue. They are trying to recover unpaid medical bills from past residents. 

According to the CDC, about 1.3 million seniors live in about 15,000 nursing homes across the country. Apart from the economic hit, several centers could be facing audits and legal challenges in the near future.

There are several other medical professions which have been impacted dearly, including dentists. The number of patients coming to their facilities has dropped, fearing infection. At this time, most businesses and medical professionals are focusing on their accounts receivable and how to minimize them. Dentists have been assigning unpaid accounts to a dental debt collection agency for years, but now they are paying greater attention since they have more time to evaluate all those auxiliary activities that will improve their cash flow.

Nursing homes and long-term care facilities will eventually come out stronger once this pandemic subsides. They will have better preparedness and better equipment if another pandemic strikes in the future. We believe the coronavirus pandemic will serve as a major event which will enable nursing homes to provide better safety and services like never before.




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