State Shifts Away From Nursing Homes to Assisted-Living Care for Medicaid Beneficiaries

A report from the Oregon Department of Human Services, Oregon State University, and Portland State University suggests the state is making progress in relocating residents who need less intensive long-term medical care into more home-like settings, according to the Register-Guard . Oregon State University's Jeff Luck says the state's over-75 population has increased in the past 18 years, while the number of nursing homes has remained the same and the number of beds and the length of time a person stays in a nursing home have declined. Concurrently, Portland State University's Paula Carder adds that the number of assisted-living, residential care, and memory care homes in Oregon grew from 325 in 2000 to 524 in 2017. In 2013, Oregon started a program to cut the amount of money the state was paying via Medicaid for the care nursing homes provide and to move people who did not need such care into more affordable options. About 72 percent of those who leave a nursing facility move to a community care organization such as an assisted-living, memory care, or adult foster care home or just return home.