Senior Care Claims Have Doubled — Here’s What Nursing Home Operators Must Do Now!
The cost of risk in senior care is rising — fast. According to Liberty Mutual’s 2025 Senior Care Claims Study, the average indemnity payment has more than doubled in the last decade, driven by aggressive legal strategies, chronic understaffing, and gaps in safety protocols. Findings include:
- 📈 Average claim cost skyrocketed to $226K in 2024 — more than 2X the cost from 10 years ago.
- ⚖️ Over 40% of closed claims involve wrongful death allegations.
- 🚨 Fall-related injuries make up 45%+ of all claims.
- 💸 Pressure ulcers, elopements, and abuse are less frequent but far more financially severe.
Diligent risk management processes and programs are important to protecting your reputation, patient referrals and of course, your profitability. Launch a corporate-wide review of your risk management strategies today.
The Rise of the Risk Manager
Not having an active risk management strategy is like playing roulette-you may be fine, then again you may be devastated with just one claim. When your team is ready, here are some risk management next steps:
1) Expand your conversations with your insurance companies and brokers. They do not want to see claims, either. You are aligned in the risk reduction mission. Only partner with insurance teams that provide robust risk management support. If you’re in a captive model, read more below.
2) Hire risk management leadership or a consultant to drive this strategy on a disciplined, daily basis.
3) Review your staff training and education programs to include risk management strategies such as falls prevention and documentation. Risks happen, many times documentation does not happen.
4) Add or expand your risk management software. SNF Metrics’ Risk Suite is a cloud-based workspace to easily capture all risks, communicate, document, and trend your risk plan. Risk Suite includes a risk tracking application, rapid response tools, legal claims management and even worker’s compensation, along with a full suite of live risk management analytics.
Need help on how to get started? We’re here to help.
To help SNFs manage and mitigate this growing risk, we’re launching a new series breaking down each threat area and how SNF Metrics can help you stay ahead.
Explore the series:
- Legal System Abuse: What Every Operator Needs to Know
- Falls in Senior Care: The Leading (and Most Preventable) Cause of Claims
- State-by-State Breakdown: Where Risks — and Lawsuits — Are Highest
- Pressure Ulcers: High-Cost Mistakes from Poor Documentation
- The Power of Documentation: Your First Line of Defense
- Wrongful Death Allegations: The Risk of Doing Nothing
- Abuse & Elopement: How Safety Gaps Lead to Million-Dollar Claims
We’ll cover each of these topics in detail in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned — or get ahead by scheduling a walkthrough of our Risk Management Dashboards now.
