Selling a skilled nursing facility in Illinois

Illinois at a glance

Illinois has 666 Medicare- and Medicaid-certified skilled nursing facilities with 84,975 certified beds, and on average 74.0% of those beds are occupied, below the national average of 80.3%.

Source: CMS Provider Information file, August 2026. The full Illinois picture, rates and every building are on SNFRadar, the market record we built and publish free.

What a buyer reads first in Illinois

The numbers a buyer pulls before the first call, for the typical Illinois building against the nation. Your own building's are on its SNFRadar page.

Sources: CMS Provider Information file, August 2026 (occupancy, staffing, turnover, star ratings: averages across certified buildings); Medicare cost reports (full-year filings), as SNFRadar compares them (medians, the same figures each building's SNFRadar page is compared against).

What moves value in Illinois

Occupancy. 74.0% of Illinois's certified beds are occupied, below the national 80.3%. With empty beds common, buyers pay for a building that fills its own and discount one that cannot say why it does not.

Payer mix and the Medicaid rate. Medicaid pays for 70% of resident days in the median Illinois building, more than the national 66%. That makes the state's Medicaid rate method the biggest single input to most buildings' value, and the first thing a buyer models. Illinois's Medicaid rate files are on SNFRadar.

Revenue and margin. Net patient revenue runs $317 per patient day in the median Illinois filing, below the national $373, and the median net margin is 0.8% against 3.6%. With thin margins common, buyers price on what they can fix, so a seller who can show where the costs sit gets paid for it.

Staffing. Illinois's buildings average 3.45 nurse staffing hours per resident per day, fewer than the national 3.86, and nurse turnover runs 44.5% a year, close to the national 45.8%. Agency use is the line buyers check next.

Inspection record. 31% of Illinois buildings are rated four or five stars by Medicare and 53% one or two, against 40% and 41% nationally. With low ratings common here, a clean inspection record stands out, and buyers pay for it.

Size and ownership type. The average Illinois building has 128 certified beds, against 107 nationally. 81% are for-profit, 16% non-profit and 3% government, and 72% are part of a chain.

Where the beds are

Illinois's largest counties by certified beds. Each opens that county's buildings on SNFRadar.

How a sale works

1. A first call. What you want from the sale, and when. No listing, no blast.
2. A value from the record. Your building's own numbers and the trades around it. How valuation works
3. Vetted buyers under confidentiality, bidding against each other, not against you.
4. Letter of intent, then the purchase agreement and the operations transfer agreement. The full process
5. Change of ownership. Illinois's licensure filings plus Medicare and Medicaid, timed so billing does not stop. CHOW and Medicaid

Our recent closings

All five closings, with the press coverage they drew.

Questions owners ask