Senior Care Has Accounted For Nearly A Quarter Of Health Care Bankruptcies Since 2019

Eighty-one: That is the number of senior care Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases between 2019 and 2025. All told, those cases made up about 24% of all health care bankruptcies since then.

That’s according to a new report from health care advisory firm Gibbins Advisors. The report, released in collaboration with the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC), found that there were relatively few senior care bankruptcy filings in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic was just getting underway and government relief dollars flowed into their coffers. But between 2021 and 2025, senior housing and care operators filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on average between 10 and 15 per year.

For comparison, the senior living industry’s bankruptcy activity in the last seven years resembles that of the pharmaceutical industry, for which Gibbins Advisors reported a very similar share of 23.6% of all health care bankruptcies in that time.

In 2025, the senior care sector recorded 12 bankruptcy filings, representing an increase from 2024’s 10 filings but “broadly consistent with the average observed over the prior four-year period,” the report’s authors wrote.

That said, “apart from an unusual spike in the number of cases in Q1 2025, the senior care sector has seen three or fewer bankruptcy filings per quarter over the past two years, showing a relatively steady flow of filings,” they added.

In its latest report, researchers with Gibbins Advisors for the first time broke the senior care category out into three subcategories: CCRCs, traditional senior living and skilled nursing. A little less than a third of all health care bankruptcies between 2019 and 2025 (38%) related to senior living operators, with most of those cases occurring mainly between 2021 and 2023, according to the report. CCRCs made up just over 32% of senior care Ch. 11 bankruptcies, and skilled nursing made up just over 30% of senior care Ch. 11 bankruptcies in that time frame.

The vast majority of senior care Ch. 11 bankruptcy filings (98%) in the past seven years have stemmed from companies with less than $500 million in liabilities. Only two Ch. 11 bankruptcies between 2019 to 2025 had liabilities in higher than $500 million, according to the report.

Most senior living bankruptcies (90%) carried liabilities in the range of $10 million to $50 million, while more than half (60%) of CCRC Ch. 11 bankruptcies had liabilities between $100 million and $500 million.

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