In this piece, we will take a look at the 25 best nursing homes in the U.S. For more nursing homes, head on over to 5 Best Nursing Homes in the U.S.
Aging is an inevitable part of human life. We all start young and grow old and each phase of life comes with its benefits and drawbacks. The main dilemma of life is that for those who don’t have massive fortunes to their name, their youth is spent toiling away to earn wealth, and when the time comes to spend it, one is too old to utilize the experience that life provides through living.
In the Western world, there is a greater emphasis on independence than in the Eastern world. This leads to a belief that one has to move away from one’s parents in order to live life fully, particularly in the U.S. On the flip side, countries such as China have higher levels of filial piety, where children are expected to take care of their parents when they grow old. Therefore, nursing homes that provide care and community to the elderly are far more prevalent in Western countries. The best of these have staff trained to meet the specific needs of senior citizens, and they enable people who do not want their parents to live with them or elders who do not have anyone to care for them to avail of these facilities to ensure comfortable living.
However, not all is well in the nursing home industry. According to a report from the National Academies, the manner in which nursing homes are financed and managed is “ineffective.” It outlines that a large portion of this is due to the fact that nursing homes are unable to require suitable talent and face higher levels of employee turnover since they pay less than hospitals. It shares that registered nurses in nursing homes make $10,000 less on average than nurses in acute care hospitals. It also adds that the coronavirus pandemic laid bare the inadequacies in the system, as thousands of people died in nursing homes.
To build more on this, a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation – a nonprofit that conducts research on healthcare in America – shows that the number of deaths in the facilities of both residents and care staff was simply staggering. It shows that as of January 2022, more than 200,000 people had died in long term care facilities in America, which represented more than one fifth of the total coronavirus deaths. The bulk of these deaths took place between May 2020 and June 2021, the peak of the virus, with 14,000 people dying between July 2021 and January 2022.
Taking a broad look at the nursing home industry in America, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that as of 2018, there were 15,600 nursing homes in the U.S. Out of these, 70% were for-profit facilities and all the facilities had 1.7 million beds in total. Nursing homes also served more than twice the amount of people as residential care facilities. They had 85 residents per day on average, higher than the 32 residents per day for residential care and 65 participants in adult daycare centers.
In terms of costs, semi private and private rooms cost $260 and $297 on the median in the U.S. in 2023 according to Senior Living. In annual terms, these amount to $94,900 and $108,405, respectively. If you thought these were high, consider the fact that the costs are expected to grow by $10,000 a month for the semi private rooms by 2030. In annual terms, these are expected to sit at $123,823 and $141,444 for the semi private and private rooms, respectively. State wise, Alaska has the most expensive nursing homes, with median monthly costs sitting at a whopping $31,512 and $36,378 for semi private and private rooms, respectively. The cheapest nursing homes are in Texas, which cost $5,125 and $7,092 on the median for semi private and private rooms. These are quite below the national median, with the semiprivate rooms costing $61,500 in a year – less than half the national median. Finally, Minnesota had the highest compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) for the period between 2015 and 2021 which stood at 10%.
As for the situation in the industry right now, Megan Krull, the Senior Vice President of Operations at Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc. (NYSE:OHI) shared during the firm’s fourth quarter earnings call conference that:
While the announcement this week at the end, the public health emergency effective May 11th of this year, is perhaps not unexpected, it is not particularly ideal given some of the benefits that it provided the long-term care industry, which is still deeply entrenched in post pandemic recovery phase. Specifically, the three-day stay waiver was still tied to the PHE and will now end on May 11th. This waiver huge benefit to the industry during the height of the pandemic as the reimbursement associated with the ability to scale in place helped to offset some of the increased costs connected with managing COVID outbreaks. That said, the other major benefit of the PHE was the continuation of the enhanced 6.2% FMAP add-on.
However, that had already been delinked from the PHE as a result of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, which passed in late 2022. That act provided for a phase-down of the add-on throughout 2023 from 6.2% in the first quarter to 5% in the second quarter, 2.5% in the third quarter and down to 1.5% in the fourth quarter with no add-on provided after 2023. It is too soon to tell what the impact of those reductions will have on the FMAP rate add-ons that certain states like Texas had been providing to skilled nursing providers. In terms of recovery, while occupancy is continuing to slowly rebound, not unexpectedly the recovery has tapered off slightly in these winter months. However, 31% of core facilities have now recovered from an occupancy perspective, up from 29% in the second quarter, while another 24% of core facilities that have not yet fully recovered are at or above 84% occupancy.
With these details in mind, let’s take a look at some of the best nursing homes in America.
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Our Methodology
We used rankings from U.S. News and Newsweek to pick the best nursing homes in the U.S. The facilities that offer long term care, short term rehabilitation, Medicare, and Medicaid coverage at the same time were first selected out of U.S. News’ 15,177 homes. Then, these were cross referenced with Newsweek’s coverage of 450 facilities to see which were present there to reach a consensus opinion. This enabled us to narrow down to 33 facilities, out of which the top 25 are listed below.
Best Nursing Homes in the U.S.
25. Victoria Care Center
Victoria Care Center is a nursing home in Ventura, California. It has close to two hundred beds and is a corporate, for-profit facility.
24. The Wartburg Home
The Wartburg Home is a nursing home in Mount Vernon, New York. It is one of the oldest facilities in the U.S., since it was set up in 1866.
23. Catholic Health Services – St. John’s Nursing Center
Catholic Health Services – St. John’s Nursing Center has close to two hundred beds and is based in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida.
22. Valley View Retirement Community
Valley View Retirement Community is a nursing home in Belleville, Pennsylvania. It provides both independent and assisted living facilities.
21. Compass Health – Mission View Health Center
Compass Health – Mission View Health Center operates 162 beds and is located in San Luis Obispo, California. It does not provide continuing care and is a for-profit organization.
20. Pleasantview Care Center
Pleasantview Care Center is located in Parma, Ohio. It has 162 beds and is a for-profit and corporate institution.
19. Ingham County Medical Care Facility
Ingham County Medical Care Facility is one of the larger nursing homes on our list with 236 beds. It is not a continuing care facility.
18. Good Shepherd Community
Good Shepherd Community is an assisted living and independent living facility that is located in Little Rock, Arkansas.
17. Marquis Shasta
Marquis Shasta is located in Redding, California. It has 180 beds and does not offer continuing care or Alzheimer’s Care.
16. Country Manor Health
Country Manor Health is a nonprofit but corporate facility based in Sartell, Minnesota. It offers Alzheimer’s care but not continuing care.
15. Lutheran Home Wauwatosa
Lutheran Home Wauwatosa, as the name suggests, is located in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. It has 187 beds.
14. Lutheran Convalescent Home – Webster Groves
Lutheran Convalescent Home – Webster Groves is a church-owned nonprofit nursing home. It is government by a family and resident council.
13. Masonic Village at Elizabethtown
Masonic Village at Elizabethtown is one of the largest facilities on the list, with 453 beds. It does provide continuing care and has a nonprofit and corporate ownership.
12. Solaris Healthcare – Bayonet Point
Solaris Healthcare – Bayonet Point is a nursing home located in Hudson, Florida. It is a nonprofit and a non corporate entity.
11. NYC Health + Hospitals – Sea View Skilled Nursing Facility
Sea View Skilled Nursing Facility is a division of NYC Health. It is a long term care and rehabilitation facility.
10. Minnesota Masonic Home Care Center – Bloomington
Minnesota Masonic Home Care Center is located in Bloomington, Minnesota. It has more than two hundred beds and is a nonprofit corporate entity.
9. Messiah Lifeways at Messiah Village
Messiah Lifeways at Messiah Village is located in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. It is a nonprofit, church run organization.
8. Lorien Health Systems – Columbia
Lorien Health Systems is located in Columbia, Maryland. It provides short and long term care.
7. Brandon Oaks
Brandon Oaks is located in Roanoke, Virginia. It offers continuing care but is a small facility with 62 beds.
6. CentraCare – St. Cloud St. Benedict’s Community
CentraCare – St. Cloud St. Benedict’s Community is located in Saint Cloud Minnesota. It is a nonprofit and corporate institution.
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Disclosure: None. 25 Best Nursing Homes in the U.S. is originally published on Insider Monkey.