The folks that were dying were way down the list—they were not costing near as much (on a monthly basis) as those retiring now.
The REAL savings is going to come for Medicaid budgets. Imagine how many of the NY nursing home folks were state-pays. At $6,500 a month (minimum negotiated medicaid amount in MA is about that) for 6,900 seniors means the state is saving about $44 million a MONTH. Or Half a BILLION a year ($538 MM).
And to add to the post I just made, the death rates for nursing home patients was MUCh higher than anywhere else.
These were old seniors who would have probably passed some time in the next 12-18 months; but I have to believe that the Medicaid savings for those months are going to be a mini-windfall for Cuomo come budget time.
This is in addition to ALL of the other medicaid spending that was saved because routine medical visits were not made during the shut downs. Things like podiatrists and other “elective” visits were put off—saving them tons of money.
AND Covid treatment was mostly picked up by the Feds.
It will be interesting to see how that plays out.