Long-term care facilities face tough situation on multiple fronts

Marra said she believes the move played a role in her mother’s health deteriorating. Holtz died on April 3 at Alpha Senior Concepts in Howard with her family at her side. She had stopped eating, stopped drinking, and she wasn’t responsive when I got there. “She had lost like 15 (to) 20 pounds in the 10 days that I was gone. Two weeks later, I came home, and I didn’t even hardly recognize her,” Marra said. Within a week at her new facility, Marra said her mother had gotten weak and had stopped walking. She moved out of Emerald Bay in mid-March. Holtz’s family scrambled to look for another facility that would accept her. In fact, nearly two dozen nursing homes have closed across the state since 2020, and 42 closed between 2016 and April 2021, according to LeadingAge Wisconsin, a senior living advocacy group. Between fall 2022 and April 2023, there were at least 50 Medicaid-related evictions in Wisconsin, according to The Washington Post. Marra isn’t the only Wisconsinite who’s had to move a loved one from a long-term care facility in recent years.

The family members were just really appalled by this.” “It was in the middle of winter, Mom was in hospice and she’s 91 years old with dementia - and they’re evicting her,” Marra said. It’s a huge issue that we’ve got to address, not just in our county (or) our state.”Īt the time, the situation felt “unreal,” Marra said. “We can’t keep passing on the economic crazy to our folks that are in their 80s and 90s,” said Katherine Tegen, CEO of BAKA Enterprises, Emerald Bay’s parent company. They said continuing to care for Medicaid recipients would raise costs for private-pay residents. In a February press conference, Emerald Bay officials said they tried to negotiate for better reimbursement to no avail. It’s led to an increase in the number of nursing home complaints received by the state, and in extreme cases has meant families like Marra’s have had to find new accommodations for aging parents.Īfter paying out-of-pocket for her first two years at Emerald Bay, Marra’s mother, Shirley Holtz, had been on Medicaid for about three years when Marra received the eviction notice.

That’s when Emerald Bay Retirement Community & Memory Care in Brown County’s Village of Hobart sent notices to residents telling them that the facility would no longer accept Medicaid funding due to insufficient reimbursement, rising labor costs and inflation.Īcross Wisconsin, senior care facilities are facing challenges with staffing and budgeting. In late January, Ann Marra learned that her 91-year-old mother was being evicted from her assisted living home.

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