Factors Associated With Assisted Living Facility Closure
- PMID: 34314487
- DOI: 10.1093/geront/gnab105
Factors Associated With Assisted Living Facility Closure
Abstract
Background and objectives: Assisted living facilities (ALFs) have experienced rapid growth in the past few decades. The expansion in the number of ALFs may cause markets to become oversaturated, and a greater risk of unprofitable ALFs to close. However, no studies have investigated ALF closure. This study adapted a model developed for the nursing home market for the ALF market to examine the organizational, internal, and external factors associated with closure.
Research design and methods: Data on 1,939 ALFs operating in 2013 from Florida were used to estimate a logistic regression to examine the organizational, internal, and external factors that were associated with closure between 2013 and 2015.
Results: During the 2-year study period, 141 ALFs (7.3%) closed. Significant factors associated with increased odds of closure included fewer beds, not accepting Medicaid, and more deficiencies. Two factors (market concentration and population density) were marginally significant.
Discussion and implications: The results of this study confirm the usefulness of a model that includes organizational, internal, and external factors to predict ALF closure. These outcomes highlight the concerns that closure can affect access to community-based long-term care, especially for rural older adults, and indicate an expansion of Medicaid acceptance in ALFs could be protective against closure.
Keywords: Assisted living; Economics; Long-term care; Quality.
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
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