On a recent episode of CommonWealth Beacon’s Codcast, Adam Scott, president and CEO of Hebrew SeniorLife, discussed the mounting pressures facing the state’s long-term care sector, including workforce shortages, rising demand, and financial challenges. Scott noted that Hebrew SeniorLife has lost about 100 employees over the past year, including 35 Haitian workers in a single day following changes to federal immigration policy.

Scott also warned that potential reductions in federal Medicaid funding could further strain long-term care providers, which rely heavily on MassHealth reimbursement. He said the combination of rising labor and benefit costs and flat reimbursement rates is creating an unsustainable situation for many organizations.

The discussion highlighted broader challenges for the commonwealth, which has lost 34 skilled nursing facilities and 3,500 nursing beds since 2020 even as the population ages. Scott noted the more than a thousand patients awaiting discharge in hospitals, in part, because of limited skilled nursing capacity. Scott emphasized the need for long-term solutions to workforce and financing pressures.