Facing labor shortages and cost hikes, many long-term care facilities are shuttering

Rising costs and labor shortages have caused hundreds of long-term care facilities to close while forcing others to turn away patients.

In the sun-baked 66 miles between Tucson and Nogales at the Arizona-Mexico border, there's only one place that's able to provide the intensive, hands-on care so many patients need after they leave the hospital: Santa Rita Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

But since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, providing that kind of care has been an uphill battle, Amy Malkin, the facility's operations chief, told ABC News. Since March 2020, Santa Rita has faced a staffing exodus as scores of employees have gotten sick, burned out, or left to care for their kids or other family members.

Now, as inflation has put the squeeze on staffers' commuting costs, that exodus has only intensified, Malkin told ABC News.

To fill the vacancies, the facility has had to rely on staffing agencies that charge several times more per worker than what they'd been previously paying -- all while insurers' reimbursement rates have remained all but fixed.