If your home care agency is in Florida, you already feel the impact of our rapidly aging population. Florida already has the highest share of seniors in the nation – roughly one in five residents is 65 or older – and it’s climbing fast.
In fact, by 2030, seniors will make up nearly a third of Floridians, up from 20% today.
– Florida’s Nursing Homes Urgently Need More Nurses. Here’s How to Make That Happen.
– Dwyer Workforce Development: Job Training in Senior Care
One recent analysis predicts Florida’s 65+ population will surge by about 39% by 2030.
– 2025 Nursing Home Demand Statistics: The “Silver Tsunami”
In short, the “silver tsunami” isn’t coming — it’s here, and it’s driving an unprecedented demand for elder care of all kinds. Home care services in Florida will remain vital, but nursing homes in Florida and skilled facilities will play a critical role in meeting the needs of Florida’s boom in aging citizens.
In Florida right now, there are about 84,000 licensed skilled nursing beds, and they’re not sitting empty – occupancy is roughly 85%. To put that in context, the median cost for a private room in a nursing center is around $100,000 per year (and about $89,300 for a semi-private room).
Funding for that care is surprisingly stable: Medicaid Florida picks up roughly 60% of all long-term care spending in Florida, covering over half of nursing home residents.
Even better, Florida’s legislature just approved an 8% boost in Medicaid nursing home rates for 2024–25 – about $247.8 million more in reimbursement.
– Breaking Down the Florida Medicaid Rate Increase
In practical terms, that means existing and new nursing home owners have fresh funding to invest in staffing, caregiver training, and facility upgrades.
For a savvy agency owner, that’s a sign of confidence: high occupancy and improved reimbursements make this the most opportune time in years to enter the skilled nursing market.
As a home care agency owner, you already know these families and their needs inside and out. Imagine keeping a client in your own network whenever they need more support.
If someone in your care experiences a serious health event or needs post-surgical rehab, you could seamlessly move them into your own nursing home instead of losing them to an outside facility. That continuity builds massive trust: clients and families feel cared for at every stage, and your agency keeps both the referral and the revenue.
Running a larger operation may sound overwhelming, but today’s technology makes it much easier. CareSmartz360 brings your entire operation under one digital roof.
Its intelligent scheduling, for example, can juggle home visits and facility shifts without double-booking a single caregiver. Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) tools automatically log every in-home care Florida visit for compliance – no more manual paperwork or missed entries – freeing your staff to spend more time with clients.
Further, built-in AI-powered caregiver retention features, including home care staff engagement surveys and automated reminders, help you keep your best people on staff.
In short, the right software works like a digital assistant: it handles the logistics so you can focus on quality and growth. As such, expanding into a nursing home feels much more manageable.
The facts show Florida’s seniors will need a mix of in-home care and facility care, and the math adds up. Home care in Florida remains important, but Florida currently has only 16 home health aides per 1,000 seniors – dead last in the nation (the U.S. average is 62). That kind of staffing crunch makes it hard to meet demand purely in the home.
By contrast, Florida nursing home care employs a range of licensed staff (CNAs, LPNs, RNs) and can tap into training programs, which helps mitigate that shortage.
For your agency, owning a nursing home is a way to diversify revenue and risk: when home visits slow (say during a rainy season or staffing gap), skilled care beds provide a stable income stream. More importantly, it lets you serve clients more fully. You’re already the trusted partner for families – with a nursing home, you become the go-to provider for every level of long-term care.
With careful planning and the right tools (integrated scheduling, EVV, and staffing software), a home care agency can build a future-ready, full-spectrum service. For home care owners who care deeply about clients and want to grow strategically, owning a nursing home in Florida is a move worth exploring. It could be the very decision that solidifies your agency’s success – and offers even better care for Florida’s seniors – in the years ahead.
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