More than one third of the nation’s nursing homes don’t make the grade.
A recent analysis found that 36 percent of all nursing homes certified by Medicare or Medicaid get one to two stars on a five-star government rating system. Conversely, 45 percent of nursing homes got one to two stars, with the rest getting three stars.
The analysis from Kaiser Family Foundation discovered that in 11 states at least 40 percent of nursing homes have one or two stars. Those states include Texas, Louisiana, New York and North Carolina.
For-profit nursing homes, which are more prevalent than nonprofits, got fewer lower-star ratings than nonprofits, according to the analysis released Thursday from Kaiser Family Foundation.
Kaiser also discovered that states with the highest proportion of low-income seniors tend to have lower-rated nursing homes.
The stars are doled out based on scores from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid’s Nursing Home Compare website, which relies on health inspection results, staffing ratings and other quality measures.
