There has been a ban on expanding the number of nursing home beds in South Dakota since the late 1980s. That was added as a way to control Medicaid costs. Instead, beds are reallocated statewide according to need.
Tom Martinec, Director of Health Systems and Regulation for the state Department of Health, updated legislators on their current operations……
Martenic says they have been moving beds in the past few years…..
Martenic says in their latest round, there were one hundred ninety one beds made available…..
The Good Samaritan Center in Tripp announced last week it will close in March, which will add about forty beds to the availability list.
