Those of you whose LO is in a facility,please tell me the cost.I am interested in how cost varies in different parts of the country.What do I have to look forward to?
I am paying $4,398.00 per month plus meds which are running about $700+ per month at this time. I had (emphasize had) some money but, it is going fast. Will probably talk to an elder care atty next week about some help.
I have been in meetings with our elder care attorney and the cost here in our area can run about 10K a month. I have also heard 9K and the additional costs are added with dispensing meds, help with hygine etc... I am trying to find a way to secure my assets, short of divorce, since he is nearly 20 years senior to me in the face of all of this. His goal is that I not end up penniless...and that is where this damn disease leaves many of us.
We are in the Seattle area. My husband is now in his fourth placement (long story). The first two places were memory care units in assisted living facilities. The first one was $6,000/month; the second started at about $6,500/month and had gone up to about $7,100 during the 7 months he was there. The next one was an adult family home (max of 6 residents) that started at $5,500 and was rising rapidly in 3 months. He is now in the best run adult family home I have seen...approx $7,400/month. Each of these places has had a non-refundable fee of some sort ("move-in fee" "damage fee" they each called it something different). Be careful to pay close attention to wording in contracts! The first place sent him to geriatric psych for behavior issues, wouldn't take him back, and I still had to pay for 5 days care after his things were moved out! The next place couldn't shower him for most of the 7 months he was there...I came and gave him a shower every 2-3 days. When they started calling me to come and change him (it was 45 minutes from home) I decided having him there was making no sense. (these first two places were part of national chains, by the way)
I turned to a placement agency to help me find the right fit. Didn't give place #2 30 days notice, so they billed me for the 21 days...they had only had 9 days notice. The placement agency (free to clients, but paid by the facility) only took me to one place with assurance it was a terrific place ...except the state was there on a complaint within ten days of his moving in! Things were so bad in two months I gave 30 day notice, but his doctor wanted him moved sooner as he suspected his meds were being sold on the black market and he needed them. This time I had to pay for two weeks after he had moved.
He is finally in a good place that actually does what they say they will! The cost is the same for every resident, there are not constant increases and additional fees.
Nursing home costs in our area are $9,000 and up from what I understand. But my husband does not need skilled nursing care. His biggest issue is how strong he is, even in stage 7, and he can be scary! I think finding the right place for someone 64 may be a little harder than someone older, although nearly everyone where he now is has been somewhere else first! Many of these places do not really train their aides to de-escalate common dementia behaviors, are under-staffed, etc.
Marge, thanks for clueing me in on the pitfalls of care facilities. Never thought of the drug problem.Ican see how peoples money goes so quickly,I do worry about having enough for good care for my husband.
Marge--you have hit on an important point. Placement is more challening, I think, for younger patients. My husband is in Stage 6 at 65 and is very strong physically. The physical strength has already come into play during problems at daycare--one program wanted to me drug him excessively (my response was to switch adult day centers) and would certainly be a factor if he had to be placed. Fortunately, he is calmer now that he is further into the disease, hopefully it will continue. Sorry you had so many bad experiences.
My husband's 99 year old aunt is in the skilled health care center (nursing home) of a local retirement community here in the western corner of South Carolina (a college town). Her bill runs about $5100 a month. She didn't have to buy into the community, though she picked it because it did offer continuing care. I think there are big differences in different parts of the country.
She hates being there because she hates not taking care of herself (and having all her things around) and because they don't separate those with dementia from those without, but she is doing much better now that she is not trying to do too much and injuring herself. She pays another $120 a week for someone to take her out twice a week to do things and that helper does her laundry for her. Local volunteers make a big difference to the experience, for example one comes regularly and plays recorded music for a group that enjoy music. The annoying thing is that when they built the assisted living and nursing home sections of the facility, they didn't put in proper wheelchair accessible bathrooms.
whatever you do beware of Brookdale Senior Living,wife is now in an alh an the cost is $2500 per month,meds extra,also beauty shop extra other than that its reasonanble,however they offer nothing to stimulate the residents,no games,they turn the TV on in the morning an I guess thats their idea of stimulation,the rest of the day the residents are more or less on their own,since my wife is a retired school teacher there are days that she thinks all the residents are her class so that keeps her busy but other than that,their more or less on their own,but its cheap an I know she's safe,I guess at this stage ya just pick your poison
This is so depressing....I am in the midst of elder care attorney work to try to save our assets so I won't be broke at the end of this mess and hearing the costs and attempts at pure robbery by some of these institutions that are below par is just sickening. And the thought of having an agency in home is not thrilling either..have been there with my parents and the theft of all manner of things from meds to furs and household items was terrible.
While I know it isn't pleasant or easy, those who have the funds to private pay for a facility, count your blessings. For the rest of us, we can only do what we can do. We are just over the limit for any VA assistance, over the medicaid limit - so I would have to spend down - which would leave me very little to live on - afterwards. No, I know we didn't plan very well early on - but that's behind us now and we just have to keep going on. By the time DH is ready for a facility or home help - I don't have the foggiest what I'll do. I do know there won't be anything left for after. It's depressing, but I just keep putting one foot in front of the other. As Starling, I think, said, it is what it is.
Vickie, I am just where you are...haven't a clue what is next..too much for VA and medicaid, but would be totally broke after if I spent down(not that there is much left to do that!)..As with all of this, it sucks!
In northwest Montana I was paying $4,695/mnth for my DW's ALZ NH care. I toured all 5 facilities in our area and this one was about in the middle cost wise. It has only 12 rooms and 2 of them have 2 beds. Those went for $4,395/mnth per occupant. It was a fantastic facility that treated the residents like they were their own parents. They have a podiatrist come in monthly to cut the resident's toe nails. I had to sign a waiver declining that because it wasn't included in the tuition so I couldn't afford the extra cost. I just kept doing it myself.
I should add that all the facilities my husband has been in were private pay only, no medicaid. Prior to discovering my husband had long term insurance as a work benefit, we had been to an elder law attorney, and quite honestly, I could never have survived if it had been necessary to qualify for Medicaid in our state. I have mostly been a stay at home mom, then caregiver for 8 years for my mother. I have only worked minimally through the years and my social security is under $200/month. I was told his "income stream" would have gone with him. While I would have been allowed to keep our home and a car, the attorney said we did not have enough assets to create an income stream for me that would allow me to stay in our home, even though it has been paid off for years. It was all very scary and depressing news!
As it turns out, my husband has fantastic insurance, but I still pay some out of pocket, as the costs are so high. The current place is $237/day + cost of incontinence supplies and, of course, meds. But, this place is one of 6 homes owned and run by a geriatric-psychiatric nurse practioner.On her staff she also has a full-time nurse, 2 activity people, office manager, and 2 well-trained staff from 7:00am until 11:00pm in each home. At night, there is one awake staff, unless there are more than 2 residents that are up at night and then the house is staffed with 2 care-givers. A doctor comes every two weeks to check on the residents and is available for emergencies. In other words, what I now am getting for this outrageous sum of money is so far above the other places he was in that it is unbelievable!
Some private pay places around here will accept medicaid if you have private paid for at least two years first.But that would add up to an incredible amount of money; certainly more than what we had.
This is one area where it pays to be lower income. I will not call us poor because we were not. Charlie's nursing home costs about $7000.00 a month, private pay, but he qualifies for Medicaid. The nursing home takes most of his social security check (I keep $127.00 of it and his $75.00 a month pension from GE). I still work full time and keep all of my income ( which is not much). The nursing home provides everything but clothes and hair cuts. We own our home free and clear and they can't touch it. All I need is food, utilities and my car. All in all, things could be worse.
We're in west central NJ. The cost of a dementia unit an ALF in our area runs between $6,000-$7,500/mo depending on the amentities of the place + meds and any additional service. I've been advised that skilled nursing facilities (NH) run about $10,000 /mo. We have a live in aide which costs $6,000/mo right now. DH was placed in an ALF for a short period of time (he escaped) and they called me every night to come over to give him his meds because he refused to take them. When placing him, I spoke with the director and she assured me that the staff was well trained in handling dementia patients. After I complained that I was being called every night she advised that the dementia unit staff was receiving extra instruction on handling more functional dementia clients. Be careful in your choice - they all want your money. It will be a long time before DH qualifies for medicaid due to our dilligent retireent planning which means I will have nothing left for me. There is truly something wrong with the system.
Assisted Living facilities run 6K to 7k in our area but there are lots of extras that you have to be careful of and pay for. Nursing Homes/Full Care facilityes run 11-13K. I am paying $422.50 a day for my husband. This inludes everything except haircuts, prescriptions and clothes. I also pay the co-pay for any doctor visits. The staff is wonderful. There is a recreation director that works to engage all of the residents. They also often have programs going on that the residents can attend (music, animal visits, prayer services, etc.). While my husband can no longer choose to participate in much, they do get him outside every other day. His tan is doing very well so I know that they are getting him out there. He loves being rolled around in the chair outside so he can see things.
We are not at that stage, but when and if we get there I am considering moving to Mexico for that phase. You can get great care for less than $2000.00 per month outside of the Guadalajura area there are nursing homes that cater to the Americans. I could rent a great apartment for $750.00 and live near by.
Lynn's nursing home is 280 a day plus meds. Everything except haircuts is included. They offer activities every day. People come in to sing, play the piano, things of that nature. They have Sunday services for all walks of faith…etc etc … If I had placed him sooner, he could have been more involved in the "community" there. It really is a wonderful place!
I am in the same boat as some of you, but for different reasons. I am the reason all of our savings are gone. I got sick in 99. Lynn cashed in everything we owned, including all but one small burial life insurance, and we had to take a mortgage out on our home, to pay for my medical expenses. He took me to specialist after specialist. I did have insurance from where I worked, but it was an HMO and did not cover many of the costs. It was crazy the amount we had to pay, even with "aide". So now Lynn does qualify for Medicaid and I am very grateful for it!
moorsb, I hear ya! I know a lot of people who have gone to Mexico for medical help and I also have a friend that is from New Zealand and she lived here and got married here but ended up moving back to New Zealand because she has a heart problem and it is cheaper there to get medical care. She said that they treat the elderly really good in the medical field. Financially and otherwise.
A friend stopped by yesterday and she told me that her mother was in this nursing home in so. Calif. and they keep increasing the price and it was now $11,000 per month.....yes eleven thousand a month. She said the place was oK but nothing fancy and not some place she would want to be but her father had placed her mother and the mother likes it so she doesn't want to move her.
That is flat out obscene! It is like the NHs now are making play on the situation we and others with other diseases are facing..maybe the congress ought to look into this type of gouging..To pay that much for a shared room ( most likely) and care that sometimes is less than ideal, this is robbery. 11 Gs a month..something is wrong.
I learned recently that Medicaid, at least in Illinois, pays nursing homes much less than they charge private pay customers. They end up charging high prices in part to make up for the difference between what Medicaid pays and what their expenses are.
I thank everyone for cluing me in on NH costs. I do believe paying residents are covering cost of medicaid residents. But I can't complain, both my mother and MIL had to go on medicaid and I was thankful for it.Was a long time ago when it was $110. a day.There seems to be a saturation of NH here in Lanc. and Berks Co. PA., maybe there will be a price war. Ha-ha.