Nursing Home Cost

The Nursing home cost will depend somewhat on where you live and the location of the nursing home

One of the reasons that people contemplate putting elderly relatives in nursing homes is because home health care is too expensive. However, nursing home care can be fairly expensive too – as much as $93,000 or more per year in some parts of the United States.

So how do people meet the nursing home cost? Typically it’s paid in one of the following four ways:

• personal resources
• long term care insurance
• Medicare / Medicaid
• or a combination. 

Personal Finance

Many times people start with their personal resources to pay for long term care. This may mean having family members help pay for care, the loved one using his or her savings, taking out the cash value on a life insurance policy, selling assets (including the home), or doing something like a reverse mortgage on the home. 

Long Term Care Insurance

If you and your loved one are shopping around for long term care insurance, your best bet is to compare a wide-range of policies. Some provide very minimal coverage, some only provide coverage for specific types of care, while others are more broad in the types of facilities and other expenses they’ll cover. Some policies may have limitations in place for those with pre-existing conditions, so be sure you understand what is and is not covered.

Military personnel, federal employees, retires and their spouses may be eligible for discount rates on long term care insurance. For more information, go to www.opm.gov/insure/ltc on the web.

For more information about long term care insurance, write to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, 2301 McGee Street, Suite 800, Kansas City, MO 64108-2662. You can get a copy of a Shopper’s Guide to Long Term Care Insurance from them.

Even with long term care insurance you may still be required to pay for some of your care yourself, so be sure to factor this in when you begin choosing nursing homes. 

Medicare

This is a federal health insurance program administered by the  Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for people over the age of 65 and for certain disabled individuals under 65 and must have had a qualifying hospital stay of at least three days prior to entering the nursing home. The nursing home must be Medicare certified.  If these conditions are met, residents may be covered for just under three weeks. If the resident continues to qualify, some costs may be covered from day 21 to 100. Coverage ends after 100 days. It is not a long-term care program. Medicare benefit covers nursing home care for those individuals who are recovering from serious illness or injury, but only for a limited time.

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