PA Long-Term Care Statistics

Fast Facts

Pennsylvania’s Aging Population

  • Pennsylvania has almost 2 million citizens age 65 and older.1
  • Pennsylvania ranks fourth in the U.S. by percentage of the population age 65 and older (behind Florida, West Virginia and Maine), and 1 in 5 Pennsylvanians are 60 or older.2 Pennsylvania also ranks fourth in the U.S. by number and percent of population age 85 and older, those who are the most intensive users of nursing home care.3
  • By 2020, Pennsylvania’s 60 and older population is expected to be 25% of the total population --- more than 3 million people.4 By 2020, the number of people age 85 or older is expected to grow to more than 360,000 residents.5

Long-term care statistics

  • Nearly 70 percent of those turning 65 this year eventually will require long-term care in their lifetimes.6

Pennsylvania’s Nursing Homes

  • Pennsylvania has approximately 710 nursing homes with nearly 89,000 beds.7
  • Nursing homes, on average, are more than 91% occupied (over 81,000 residents).8
  • Nationally, the median annual cost for a private room in a nursing home is $81,031. The median annual cost for a private room in a Pennsylvania nursing home is $99,280. In the greater Philadelphia region, the cost is higher, at $120,633 annually.9
  • In Pennsylvania, the typical nursing home resident is more likely to be female, over the age of 85, widowed and have some form of dementia, although the number of post-acute hospital short stay patients requiring intensive medical rehabilitation services is increasing.10

Pennsylvania’s Personal Care and Assisted Living Homes

  • Pennsylvania has over 1,200 licensed personal care homes serving approximately 47,000 residents. “Assisted Living” homes and personal care homes were one and the same in Pennsylvania prior to 2011.11
  • In January 2011 the Pennsylvania Office of Long Term Living began to license Assisted Living Residences (ALR). As of December 2012 there are only 22 licensed ALRs spanning 12 counties.12 They differ from personal care homes in several ways.
  • The median cost of a personal care or assisted living home in Pennsylvania is $3,251 a month for a one-bedroom unit, reflecting an average annual cost of $39,015. This is slightly lower than the national cost of $39,600. 13

Medicare and Medicaid

  • Medicaid is a joint state and federal program that pays for 65 percent of resident days of care in Pennsylvania’s nursing homes. Medicare, a federal program, pays for 13 percent of care.14
  • The Medicaid program is designed to help people with low income and virtually no assets pay for health care. Nineteen percent of nursing home residents were eligible for Medicaid benefits before entering a nursing home. Another 19 percent will exhaust their personal assets and become eligible for Medicaid during their first year in the nursing home and 4 percent more will become eligible after the first year.15
  • Medicaid pays approximately $8.50 per hour for care and services in nursing homes.16 According to a 2012 report by ELJAY, LLC for the American Health Care Association, the cost to nursing homes to care for Medicaid patients exceeds thier actual Medicaid reimbursement by $26.26 per day--a 36 percent increase from the previous year's shortfall. That means that the State now underfunds nursing home care by an average of $9,500 per Medicaid resident per year.17

Impact of Long Term Care in PA

  • Long term care facilities (including nursing homes, personal care homes, assisted living residences and other residential care facilities) have approximately 193,000 employees in PA and support a total of nearly 283,000 total jobs.18 They generate $11.8 billion in economic activity in the Commonwealth and support or induce another $11.7 billion in other sectors of the economy.18
  • The figures for nursing homes alone are substantial--83,000 employees in PA with a total of 130,000 jobs support both directly and indirectly; direct expenditures of $5.2 billion generate a total economic impact on the Commonwealth of nearly $11.8 billion. 19
  • For every $1 spent on nursing homes in Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth realizes $2.28 in economic impact.19

End Notes

  1. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2010
  2. U.S. Census Bureau, Demographic Profiles: Census 2010
  3. U.S. Census Bureau, Demographic Profiles: Census 2010
  4. U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division, Interim State Population Projections, 2005
  5. Legislative Budget and Finance Committee April 2005 “Long-Term Care for the Elderly in Pennsylvania”
  6. 2006 Congressional Quarterly Report
  7. PA Department of Health website, Nursing Care Facility Locator Page, Dec. 20, 2012
  8. PA Department of Health 2011 Long Term Care Questionnaire
  9. Genworth Financial 2012 Cost of Care Survey
  10. PA Department of Health 2005-2011 Long-Term Care Questionnaire
  11. PA Department of Public Welfare Nov. 30, 2012 Personal Care Homes Monthly Statistical Report
  12. PA Department of Aging website, Directory of Assisted Living Residences by County, December, 2012
  13. Genworth Financial 2012 Cost of Care Survey
  14. PA Department of Health 2011 Long-Term Care Questionnaire
  15. Waidman, T. and K. Liu. "Asset Transfer and Nursing Home Use: Empirical Evidence and Policy Significance," Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, April 2006. http://www.kff.org/medicaid/upload/7487.pdf
  16. Average daily Medicaid rate (weighted by Medicaid days) from July 2011 proposed rate files divided by 24 hours
  17. ELJAY, LLC for American Health Care Association, December 2011 “A Report on Shortfalls in Medicaid Funding for Nursing Home Care”
  18. American Health Care Association, January 2011 economic impact analysis using IMPLAN model and 2009 data
  19. Economic analysis conducted by Avalere Health for The Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care using 2009 BLS data, published in The Alliance's Care Context, February 2011