cost of assisted living

[Anonymous]

Non-profits in the area - what are they?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Non-profits in the area - what are they?

http://www.assistedlivingfacilities.net/non-profit-assisted-living-facilities.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks for the book reference. I also have understood that for public aid to kick in you have to make yourself destitute, essentially. (I don't disagree w/ that.)

In terms of hiring someone to come into the home, does anyone have a recommendation of an agency that helps supply such things? In his current town in the midwest, where we're also looking into options, a nurse is $42/hour. In the same ballpark here?

Medicare will pay the first 100 days in a nursing home. After that, he will have to pay out of pocket, until there is basically nothing left. He can then apply for Medicaid. My mother just went through this in Illinois. Medicaid is now paying for most of her care, but the state is taking most of her social security payments, so she only receives $30/mo from SS. If your father has any resources he'd like to protect, use caution before transferring monies and property. Medicaid agencies will look for red flags and most have stipulations about moving funds in advance of applying. I would suggest seeing a local attorney in addition to gathering online resources from the state agencies. I haven't read the book the PP mentioned, but it sounds useful and like something I need to read.

Let this be a warning to all of us. Plan now...a hefty retirement and/or long term care insurance.

[Anonymous]

"Medicare will pay the first 100 days in a nursing home. After that, he will have to pay out of pocket, until there is basically nothing left. He can then apply for Medicaid."

This applies ONLY to nursing homes and not assisted living. Also, you can't use the 100 days unless you first have a three day qualifying hospital stay. And, in order to get Medicaid to pay for nursing home care, you have to have a qualifying medical condition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks for the book reference. I also have understood that for public aid to kick in you have to make yourself destitute, essentially. (I don't disagree w/ that.)

In terms of hiring someone to come into the home, does anyone have a recommendation of an agency that helps supply such things? In his current town in the midwest, where we're also looking into options, a nurse is $42/hour. In the same ballpark here?

Medicare will pay the first 100 days in a nursing home. After that, he will have to pay out of pocket, until there is basically nothing left. He can then apply for Medicaid. My mother just went through this in Illinois. Medicaid is now paying for most of her care, but the state is taking most of her social security payments, so she only receives $30/mo from SS. If your father has any resources he'd like to protect, use caution before transferring monies and property. Medicaid agencies will look for red flags and most have stipulations about moving funds in advance of applying. I would suggest seeing a local attorney in addition to gathering online resources from the state agencies. I haven't read the book the PP mentioned, but it sounds useful and like something I need to read.

Let this be a warning to all of us. Plan now...a hefty retirement and/or long term care insurance.

PP here. I failed to mention, before Medicare/Medicaid will cover nursing home care, there has to medical need. My mother was admitted into the nursing home for short term medical care, after being discharged from the hospital. Unfortunately, she hasn't recovered, and it has turned into a long term situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Medicare will pay the first 100 days in a nursing home. After that, he will have to pay out of pocket, until there is basically nothing left. He can then apply for Medicaid."

This applies ONLY to nursing homes and not assisted living. Also, you can't use the 100 days unless you first have a three day qualifying hospital stay. And, in order to get Medicaid to pay for nursing home care, you have to have a qualifying medical condition.

Yes, I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let this be a warning to all of us. Plan now...a hefty retirement and/or long term care insurance.

This is great advice if you are making enough to do this or haven't been laid-off.

[Anonymous]

Would his first preference be to stay in his own home at this point or would he rather move in with family? Does he have family and friends in the area where he lives now? That would be a factor in whether it makes sense for him to stay in his own home. If he wants to remain in his own home and he is relatively healthy and the main issue is blindness, you might want to look into how many hours a week you would need a home health aide (sounds like you don't need a nurse, aides are much less expensive) for him to stay there. Most home health agencies provide services that include assistance with bathing, supervising taking meds, household cleaning, and driving clients to appointments. As previously mentioned, meals on wheels may also be helpful. There are professional elder care case managers who help families make decisions like you're facing. Their hourly fee is high, but it might be worth it for a few hours with someone who is really knowledgeable about this very complicated area.

[Anonymous]

I haven't read through all of the posts, but I was speaking with a friend about a similar issue (her father needed more help than she could give, but in home nursing wasn't an option). On a recommendation from another friend, I sent her to this link -

http://www.dhmh.state.md.us/ohcq/

She said it was very very useful as far as what to expect, general costs, accredited contacts, etc.

hope it helps you too.

[Anonymous]

Iona Senior Services in Tenleytown can help you research and select senior care. I used to volunteer with them and think they are a great organization.

http://www.iona.org/

[Anonymous]

My father has dementia and his memory care room is $200 per day, none of it covered by Medicare. The close-in Sunrises will cost between 8 and 10k a month. Independent/assisted living may be less, and even less if he will share a room.

[Anonymous]

Your county should have a directory on senior services that will list all the options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let this be a warning to all of us. Plan now...a hefty retirement and/or long term care insurance.

This is great advice if you are making enough to do this or haven't been laid-off.

This is a very interesting thread and it is something I think about almost daily. My DH's parents are deceased and my own parents live in Europe and they are covered over there, but I worry about myself. I do have a LTC insurance policy, but we are not wealthy people and if it weren't for my LTC policy, I definitely would not have the kind of funds that are needed to cover this kind of care. I'm 100% sure that many other Americans are in the same boat. Most people that I talk to do not have enough retirement funds, let alone LTC policies. They are trying to make it to the end of each month and they worry about hanging on to the jobs that they have got. What are people like this going to do? This is really reality for most Americans. I know that lots of people on DCUM are very well off, but this is not how most Americans around the country live. What is going to happen to all of those people once they get old? Are we going to have masses of elderly living in the streets? Who is going to take care of all of those people?

I hope every day that I will stay healthy to take care of myself as long as I can. I would never want to be a burden to my children. If I was told that I was in the early stages of dementia, I think I would just give myself the bullet.

[Anonymous]

You know, people seem so confident about LTC insurance but I am married to someone who runs nursing homes and assisted livings and I am always hearing that LTC policies only pay what Medicare does. So I'd read my policy carefully before I'd relax and feel confident. We don't even have LTC insurance even though it's available for a reasonable cost because we'll both be Medicare eligible.

[Anonymous]

This thread is really freaking me out. Neither of my parents are elderly yet (both in their sixties), but neither has much money, and I can pretty much guarantee they don't have anything saved for assisted living/nursing home care. My husband and I make a moderate salary, but there is little left over each month - we definitely don't have enough saved to pay for either of them to be in any kind of facility.

So what to people do???? Basically, if you're poor, you can go into a medicare based facility? Are all of those awful?

This is so depressing to think about.