WEDNESDAY, Jan. 21, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Between 2019 and 2024, there was a decline in skilled nursing facility (SNF) capacity, with a decrease in the number of beds and operating capacity, according to a study published online Jan. 12 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Brian E. McGarry, P.T., Ph.D., from the University of Rochester in New York, and colleagues describe changes in SNF capacity after 2020 in a cross-sectional study using data from the 2018 to 2024 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Payroll-Based Journal on patient censuses in U.S. SNFs.
The researchers found that the number of licensed SNF beds declined by 2.5 percent between 2019 and 2024 among U.S. SNFs, while during the same period, there was a 5.0 percent decline in operating capacity. Considerable geographic variation was seen, with one in four counties experiencing operating capacity declines of 15.1 percent or more; rural counties had the largest declines. Counties with more frequent reports of SNF staffing shortages had larger SNF capacity declines, with a 1-percentage point decline in county SNF capacity linked to a 0.20-percentage point increase in frequency of reported shortages. Greater increases in mean length of stay, percentage of stays lasting 28 or more days, and median distance traveled to admitting SNFs were seen in hospitals that experienced larger declines in nearby SNF capacity.
"We need to invest more in nursing homes and staff. It's hard to do that when the primary payer for nursing home services -- Medicaid -- is having its budget slashed," McGarry said in a statement.