Nursing home costs increase by largest amount in more than 25 years

The price of nursing homes and adult day services jumped dramatically last month, new data shows.  

Recently released data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the price of nursing homes and adult day services shot up by 2.4 percent in July compared to the previous month, the largest single-month increase since 1997.  

But the spike could be just an outlier and not signal a trend.  

“We will need to wait and see if this was a one-time aberration or part of a longer-term trend,” Beth Mace, an economist and senior adviser at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care, told Yahoo Finance.  

“Keep in mind that the unusually large July increase followed three months of declines in April, May, and June. It’s certainly something to watch, but not to be alarmed by at this time,” she told the outlet.  

Caring for older Americans either in adult day care, nursing homes or assisted living facilities has become more expensive over the years.

The cost of nursing home care alone increased by an average of 2.4 percent every year between 2012 and 2019, according to the health research group Altarum Institute.  

Nursing home and assisted living facility costs are rising in part due to increasing demand and personnel costs.  

About 800,000 people live in an assisted living facility in the U.S., according to the American Health Care Association.  

Nursing facilities provided care to almost 1.2 million people across 15,076 different Medicare and Medicaid-certified facilities last year, according to data from KFF. 

But many of these facilities suffer from chronic staffing issues.  

In fact, one industry survey conducted in December found that 8 out of every 10 nursing homes in the country experienced a staffing shortage and 9 out of 10 struggled to retain new employees.

Thousands of nursing homes fail to adhere to federal staffing guidelines, a USA Today Investigation reported.  

— Updated Aug. 17 at 2:56 p.m.