Elder care advocates have been sounding the alarm over possible nursing home closures because of Oklahoma’s budget crisis, and now it’s starting to happen.
Ada-based BK Strategies has closed Wynnewood Care Center. CEO Bart Reed said Oklahoma’s Medicaid reimbursement rate has dwindled over the past decade as the state turned to cuts to deal with budget shortfalls.
"We've provided a good service for the town and were hoping that we could keep it afloat, but the state doesn't seem to be interested in giving us a stable funding source," Reed said.
At 53 percent of the federal Medicare rate, Oklahoma's Medicaid reimbursement rate is now one of the lowest in the U.S. and as much as $20 a day behind neighboring states.
"Twenty dollars a patient a day goes a long way to providing good-quality care, and with the cuts, in the small towns, we just can't provide the care that we really believe that the patients deserve," Reed said.
There are few — if any — Medicare or private-pay patients in rural areas to offset Medicaid losses. As many as three in four nursing home residents rely on Medicaid, and that proportion is even higher in rural Oklahoma. Reed said that’s an untenable situation.
"The little towns will dry up, and the people will have to drive to Oklahoma City or Tulsa in order to see their family," Reed said.
The 25 residents and Wynnewood Care Center were relocated to other facilities. The roughly three dozen employees were found jobs at other company facilities if they wanted them.
