Eighteen nursing facilities have closed across South Dakota in less than 10 years. With the announced closure of Corsica’s Good Samaritan Society, many are wondering what’s to come for long term care in South Dakota.
Corsica is Sioux Falls Democratic Representative Erik Muckey’s hometown. His grandmother spent the final years of her life in the soon-to-be-shuttered facility. He said you can’t discount the value of a local nursing facility in small communities.
"Normally, I wouldn’t call it life-or-death, but in many ways it can be," Muckey said. "Particularly when, from a personal experience, it may not have been the deciding factor but it was part of the reason for my grandmother, we were fortunate to have her in a memory care unit in her community and still have some benefit of not only the caregiving side of it and having your connection to family and friends, but also being in the community you effectively were raised in.”
The closure of the Corsica Good Samaritan Society means the nearest long-term care facility for residents is in Wagner, over a half hour down the road.
That facility is another Good Samaritan Society, which is a subsidiary of Sanford Health.
In a statement Good Samaritan VP of operations Katie Davis writes “In Corsica, we are facing workforce shortages that are expected to intensify in the coming years. As a result, we have made the difficult decision to close Good Samaritan Society – Corsica on November 30, 2025.” The full statement can be found below.
However, Muckey isn’t convinced by that reasoning. He said he believes there is demand for a facility in Corsica and the workforce to keep it functional.
“This is a decision that has interesting context, and potentially anti-competitive actions that are frankly driving this decision to close the facility," Muckey said "To do this really, from my end, is a slap in the face.”
What Muckey views as anti-competitive action is a non-compete clause for the building once the home closes.
That means any future buyer of the facility can’t reopen as a new care home, making it nearly impossible for Corsica to open another long-term-care facility without an entirely new facility.
“I want to be fair in my assessment that I don’t have every bit of information about what agreements Sanford and Good Sam have placed in the community," Muckey said. "The information I have available to me tells me that they have placed pretty significant barriers for the facility to be purchased, let alone to staff the facility. I don’t think that’s fair to the community, and frankly I don’t have a lot of patience for any entity to tell a rural community they can or can’t have access to something.”
That helped motivate Muckey’s alliance with New Holland Republican Rep. Marty Overweg.
“This is a classic case of our zip codes don’t matter," Muckey said. "Neighbors helping neighbors.”
Overweg’s said the situation in isn’t a typical rural closure.
“No, no. This is Sanford," Overweg said. "This is Sanford wanting to play by their own rules.”
The pair say they want to tackle anti-competitive business practices in the industry during the upcoming legislative session.
Both offer one concession – it’s challenging to stay solvent in the long-term care industry in rural settings. However, Overweg said that’s not the whole picture with Sanford.
“(Sanford) wants to be classified as a non-profit, but as soon as they run into where they can’t make a profit – they run and hide," Overweg said. "Then, when they leave a community like Corsica alone, they’re going to be without a facility, they’ll only sell that building with a non-compete (clause), which I think is totally wrong.”
Overweg said that’s not the rules to the game.
“I think if they want to operate under a nonprofit, there’s some things they’re going to have to abide by," Overweg said. "They can’t have both rules going their way.”
While maintaining his support of business interests, end-of-life care, Overweg says, isn’t something that can be turned into a pure profit game.
“It’s where you’ve lived, where you raised your family, where you went to church, where your friends are," Overweg said. "This stuff is important for the elderly, when they’re spending the last few years of their life. We need to be very respectful of end-of-life.”
Both Overweg and Muckey say they believe there is appetite in the legislative body to make certain reforms to the long-term care business model in South Dakota.