Long-term care services include personal care services like bathing, doing household chores, and other activities, to help you stay independent in your community. Long-term care also includes community services, such as meals, adult day care, and transportation services. Residential facilities, such as assisted living facilities and nursing homes, also provide long-term care services along with housing.

Depending on how much you need, these types of services can be expensive. Medicare and other health insurance do not include most long-term care services, so planning for how you might pay for long-term care becomes important. If you have fairly low income and savings, you may qualify for Medicaid, the federal public program that pays for most long-term care services. Other federal public programs, such as the Older Americans Act, and state-funded programs, pay for long-term care services, but, like Medicaid, these programs cover services for people with high levels of disability and low income and savings.

With 70 percent of us needing long-term care services at some point during our lives after turning age 65, and the limited coverage of public programs, there is a good chance you will have to pay for some or all of the services out of your personal income and savings. Even if you only need a little assistance at home with personal care, paying for long-term care out of your personal income and savings can be difficult. For example, you would pay more than $19,000 on average for a home health aide to assist three times a week, in 2010.

The cost of long-term care depends on the type and amount of care you need, the provider you use, and where you live. Here are a few examples:

• Home health and home care services, provided in two-to-four-hour blocks of time referred to as “visits,” are generally more expensive in the evening, on weekends, and on holidays.
• The costs of services in some community programs, such as adult day service programs, are provided at a per-day rate, but vary based on the program’s costs and activities.
• Many facility-based programs charge extra for services provided beyond the basic room, food and housekeeping charges, although some may have “all inclusive” fees.

The average costs for long-term care in the United States (in 2010) are:

• $205 per day or $6,235 per month for a semi-private room in a nursing home
• $229 per day or $6,965 per month for a private room in a nursing home
• $3,293 per month for care in an assisted living facility (for a one-bedroom unit)
• $21 per hour for a home health aide
• $19 per hour for homemaker services
• $67 per day for services in an adult day health care center

Source:  http://www.longtermcare.gov

Contact Pure Home Care Services at (586) 293-2457 today!  If you live in Macomb or the surrounding area, we can help you care for your loved ones.