Elderlawanswers.com reports that the median cost of a private nursing home room in the United States has increased to $97,455.00 a year, up 5.5% from 2016, according to Genworth 2017 cost of care survey, which can be found at www.genworth.com/aboutus/industry-expertise/cost/of-care.html which the insurer conducts annually. Genworth reports that the median cost of a semi-private room in a nursing home is $85,775.00, up 4.44% from 2016. The rising prices is much larger than the 1.24% and 2.27% gains, respectively in 2016.
The price rise was slightly less for assisted living facilities, when the median rate rose 3.36% to $3,750.00 a month. The national median rate for the services of a home health aid was $22.00 an hour, up from $20.00 in 2016, and the cost of adult daycare, which provides support services in a protective setting during part of the day, rose from $68.00 to $70.00 a day.
In Tennessee, per the Genworth survey, the 2017 median cost for a semi-private room is $73,318.00 with the median cost for private room is $79,205.00.
The 2017, median cost for an assisted living facility in Tennessee, according to Genworth, is $43,140.00, with homemaker services $42,557.00, an adult day healthcare $16,900.00. Each of these numbers show a 5 year annual growth of 2 to 3%.
The Tennessee numbers for “rest of the state”, all of those areas outside the metropolitan areas and their suburbs, reflect that the semi-private room rate median is $72,270.00 with a private room median at $77,928.00.
The survey reflects that roughly 70% of people over age 65 will need long term care at some point in their lives.
While home care is still more affordable than nursing home care, both have increased in costs consistently over the last several years, due to the increase in labor costs, shortage of care givers, increases in minimum wages in some states, and new health insurance and overtime requirements on the part of some providers.
While most consumers assume the government will pay for long term care, the fact is that Medicaid, the largest payer of long term care costs, has very strict income and functionality requirements. Medicare will pay for a limited nursing home care following a three day hospital stay, but only if the patient has been formally admitted to a Medicare-certified nursing facility as an inpatient and not for observation, as is increasingly the case. Medicare also does not pay for home care, if skilled nursing is not needed.
Other methods to pay for long term care are limited to long term care insurance and self pay.
If you or a family member see long term care needs on your horizon, give us a call. We have been able to assist our clients with options for self pay and family asset preservation.
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Paul B. Plant, Esq., Harwell & Plant
225 Mahr Ave., Lawrenceburg, TN, 38464
harwellplant@harwellplant.com | 931-762-7528
Open: Monday – Thursday 9AM – 5PM | Friday 9AM – 3PM
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