Baton Rouge, Louisiana — A push to loosen Louisiana’s long-running moratorium on new nursing home beds has stalled in the state legislature, leaving hospital administrators and nursing home operators trading conflicting accounts of whether the state’s senior population actually has enough places to go.
Rep. Stephanie Berault, a Republican from Slidell, had introduced legislation that would have replaced the blanket moratorium with a parish-by-parish formula — letting local need, not a decades-old statewide restriction, determine where new beds could be added. She pulled that bill after running into a problem she couldn’t resolve: the people she represents don’t agree on what’s happening.
“There is still disagreement about need,” Berault said. Hospital leaders in her district told her patients were lingering in hospital rooms — sometimes in emergency rooms — because they couldn’t be moved to a nursing facility. Nursing home operators told her something different: they had open beds.
It’s a contradiction that points to something more complicated than a simple bed shortage. Berault believes some facilities may be turning away certain patients due to payer mix concerns. Others may lack the specialized capacity to handle particular cases, even when their beds technically show as available.
Rather than push her bill forward, Berault secured an amendment to legislation by Rep. Dustin Miller, a Democrat from Opelousas, that extends the moratorium four more years while requiring additional study. The Health and Welfare Committee passed Miller’s bill 11-0.
Home Care vs. Institutional Beds
Miller, who wants the moratorium to stay, argues that Louisiana has made real progress in reducing wait times for home-based care — and that adding nursing home capacity now would work against that progress.
“When I was first elected 10 years ago, there was a big movement nationwide not to institutionalize people,” Miller told reporters. He said the state has cut wait lists long enough that seniors now have a genuine choice between home care and facility care. “We don’t want a million nursing home beds and none are needed.”
Sen. Gerald Boudreaux echoed that caution, noting that launching a new nursing home runs about $25 million. He said regulators need to see occupancy and sustainability data before handing out new licenses.
That tension between home-based care and institutional capacity isn’t unique to Louisiana. Nationally, researchers have found that better access to home care programs can directly reduce nursing home admissions — a dynamic explored in recent analysis of federal programs aimed at keeping older adults out of nursing homes altogether.
Critics Say the Moratorium Is the Problem
Not everyone is content to wait for another study. Groups like Americans for Prosperity and the Pelican Institute argued against extending the moratorium, saying it artificially restricts supply in a state where the senior population is growing. Laurie Adams of the Pelican Institute told the committee that the policy “restricts supply, prevents new providers, blocks addition of new beds even where demand is growing” — and substitutes government control for market competition.
Adams argued the moratorium creates scarcity and reduces choice without improving quality.
Rep. Berault proposed an amendment to exempt St. Tammany Parish — an area that has seen rapid population growth but hasn’t been able to add nursing home capacity to match. That amendment was rejected, as was a proposal to shorten the extension from four years to three.
For now, Louisiana’s moratorium stays put. Whether the state’s hospitals, patients, and nursing home operators can reach a consensus before it expires is another question entirely.
