RIGHT SPEAK: Massachusetts: Because of Low Medicaid Reimbursements, Nursing Homes are Dropping like Flies

First, it was Kindred Nursing and Rehabilitation-Goddard in Stoughton. Then Glenwood Center in Lowell, Holyoke Geriatric and Convalescent Center, and Falmouth Center on Cape Cod.

In the last five months, each of these four nursing homes has gone out of business, unable to make ends meet with the money they get from Medicaid because reimbursement rates have not increased in nearly a decade, according to the Massachusetts Senior Care Association, the industry trade group. Scores more are on the edge of shutting down.

The recent closures, which required hundreds of elderly residents to be relocated, are the latest wave in a decades-long squeeze that has closed more than 50 nursing homes in Massachusetts in the past 10 years.

Nursing home operators say that reimbursements from Medicaid, on which many of their residents depend, are not keeping up with rising costs. But their calls for an increase are countered by some state officials who say there is no need to boost the payments — because fewer people are using nursing homes these days. Instead, the elderly are turning to other caregiving arrangements.

The standoff has become, in part, a battle of numbers.

Nationally, the cost of care exceeded Medicaid reimbursements by nearly $8 billion, according to a recent study by the American Health Care Association, a Washington nonprofit that represents nursing homes and other providers. In Massachusetts, that translates to a funding shortfall of roughly $350 million, or about $37 per patient per day.