Trailing only Texas, Louisiana is home to the nation’s second-highest share of nursing homes with the lowest overall rankings assigned by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
According to a new state-by-state report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 49% of Louisiana’s 280 nursing homes are rated 1 or 2 stars on the 5-star rating guide by CMS. In Texas, 51% of its 1,193 nursing homes are rated with either a 1 or 2 star.
Louisiana is among just 11 states in which at least 40% of its nursing homes are rated 1 or 2 stars. Trailing Louisiana and rounding out the bottom five states are Georgia, Oklahoma and West Virginia (each at 46%). Conversely, the report says, 22 states and the District of Columbia have relatively high ratings—4 or 5 stars—for at least half of their nursing homes.
While there are myriad reasons why some states have higher-rated nursing homes than others—including whether they’re operating for profit or on a nonprofit model—the Kaiser report draws a correlation between the share of low-income seniors in each state and the nursing home ratings.
“In states that have a relatively larger percent of low-income senior living in the state, nursing homes tend to have lower overall ratings,” the report says. “Among the 12 states and District of Columbia where more than 35% of seniors have income below twice the poverty rate (concentrated mostly in the South), 42% of nursing homes have a 1- or 2-star rating.”
The report says for-profit nursing homes, which are more prevalent nationally, tend to have lower ratings than nonprofit nursing homes. In Louisiana, 81% of the nursing homes operate on a for-profit model, while 15% are nonprofit and 5% are government operated.
Nationally, 19% of all nursing homes carry a coveted 5-star rating, while another 23% are rated 4 stars. In Louisiana, just 10% are rated 5 stars—the lowest share of any state—and 21% are rated 4 stars. Twenty percent of Louisiana nursing homes are rated 3 stars, 22% are 2 stars and 27% carry a 1 star rating.
—Steve Sanoski
