Rising Cost of Nursing Homes

This year, Genworth Financial released their 9^th annual Cost of Care Survey. The results serve as a perfect microscope to examine the cost of care state by state, and to understand emerging trends in the cost of care. One of the most striking figures is the cost of a nursing home and their expected increase in price.

In the study, the facilities are broken down into three categories: assisted living facility, nursing home(semi-private room) and nursing home (private room). For this article, we are just focusing on nursing home stays in a semi-private room. Nationwide, the average nursing home costs $200 a day. This figure has increased 3.63% in 2011, and over the next five years it is expected to grow 4.5%.

 Across the United States, it looks like this trend stays true for each state, with some regions being more expensive than others:

•  The North East has some of the most expensive care. In Massachusetts a nursing home stay costs $322 a day, and $117,530 a year. 
•  The cost of care in the West Coast is cheaper than the North East, but is still above the national average. In California a nursing home stay costs $224 a day, and $81,760 a year. 
• Nursing homes in the South are slightly above the national average. 
• In Florida, a nursing home stay costs $215 a day, and $78,475 a year
• The Midwest also is slightly below the national average, with a nursing home in Indiana costing $187 a day, and $68,255 a year.
• The most expensive nursing homes can be found in Alaska, with a nursing home costing $273,750 a year.
• The cheapest nursing homes can be found in Texas with nursing homes costing $47,450 a year.

What does this mean for caregivers? Already, more and more family members are fulfilling the role of caregiver due to the cost of healthcare. With the costs of facility focused care expected to increase at an average of $15,300 a year, more and more family members will become caregivers because facility based care is just too unaffordable.

You can compare costs in your state and others at Genworth’s website, here

Is Elder Abuse Really That Prevalent?

Type "elder abuse" into a Google search and you will probably be surprised about how much comes up on the issue.  Just now I did it and some of the headlines under the News section include: "Bill Requires Bank Tellers to Report Elder Abuse," "Abuse of Elderly Growing in East Tennessee," "Taking Advantage of the Elderly is a Reality," and "Education, Awareness Keys to Fighting Elder Abuse."  This is a big problem, but for some reason it receives little attention.  Why?  What does this say about our culture?  While answering these questions is important, equally important is figuring out how to solve the problem.  The last headline gives some pretty sound advice: start with education and awareness.  Once you are aware of the warning signs (see one of the previous posts on elder abuse for examples), make an effort to engage with some of the elders in your community.  Show them that they are valuable in our society.  Some of the best advice I'm ever received has come from people over 75.  If I'm going through a problem, chances are I can find an elder who has been through something similar - twice or three times.  So make an effort.  Maybe you'll end up making some great friends.