assisted living Archives - Long Term Care Insurance Expert | Honey Leveen

Are Assisted Living Facilities Keeping Up With Needs?

March 26, 2019 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Assisted living facilities and their residents don’t tire of blaming each other for sub-standard care.

An article in the New York Times reported the tragic and avoidable death of a 90-year-old resident, suffering from dementia. A resident of Brookdale Charleston Senior Living, she wandered outside — and not for the first time.

Nobody noticed her absence for seven hours. She was found in the pond behind the facility, dead from puncture marks to her ear, temple, jaw and cheeks. Her pacemaker was discovered inside one of the alligators that lived in the pond.

The assisted living facility has already settled the family’s claim for wrongful death and is now facing an additional suit for emotional distress.

Sharing the Blame

I believe that the residents, their families and the facilities can share in the blame.

Undertrained Staff

Assisted living is not federally regulated. Nursing homes are. State enforcement and sanctions are often lax and not very stringent.

Many experts agree that much of the problem stems from inadequate staffing which I’ve blogged about in the past. Adequate funding will easily resolve these shortcomings. An simple recommendation, but more difficult to implement.

Assisted living started as a service for people who were more independent. Residents who need help with activities of daily living (ADLs). Some residents were experiencing early cognitive challenges. Just a generation later, assisted living often accepts people with far greater needs. Needs they may not be prepared to fully accommodate. I often see this, and it disturbs me.

The Facility’s Profit Motive

Many assisted living facilities are for-profit entities, earning handsome returns to their investors. I have some friends who manage the marketing at some of these organizations. They often tell me that they are pressured by management to fill as many apartments as they can.

Facilities cannot offer this needed care at an affordable price point that fills apartments and attain financial returns that please their investors. As the saying goes, “No one can serve two masters.”

The Resident’s Budget

The residents (or their families) pay for assisted living out of their own pockets, unlike nursing homes. Medicare or Medicaid do not contribute. They have a high appeal, as they emphasize independent living instead of intensive medical care.

Many residents are unable to afford the higher cost of fully trained and properly staffed facilities, so they let their budget determine the quality of care they receive.

People want to deny the almost certain fact that they might ever need long term care (LTC). When they inevitably do need LTC, it is common for them and their family to downplay the true extent of their needs.

So they choose the posh, upscale environment so many assisted living facilities have, instead of one that may be better-equipped to actually care for the resident.

What happens when the residents and their family realize that they’re not getting the care they need? They might experience the tragic consequences like the resident in the NYT article. They might move to another facility more appropriate for their escalating needs.

Decide to Plan

When planning for your future needs, wouldn’t it be nice to make your decisions based on quality of life and not settle for a sub-standard solution just because of your financial limitations?

Choose quality! Click here to receive your free, no-obligation quote for your own Long Term Care insurance policy.

Long Term Care: Living with Grace and Dignity

June 12, 2017 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Melinda was my long-time graphic designer and webmistress. I knew her for almost 20 years. She was also a very good friend.

She wants me to share her story. Her testimonial is already on my site.

I sold Melinda her long term care insurance policy when she was 60, a little more than two years ago.

The following year, she was diagnosed with cancer. Up until then, she’d always had great health.

Jim and I visited her in early December 2016 and she was in considerable pain. She was very weak and fatigued, and unable to manage her affairs without assistance. Melinda said that she feared falling while dressing and bathing. She also confided that she hadn’t saved much money over the years and was left to care for herself during this most difficult time of her life.

Melinda Didn’t Know She Could Afford the Care She Needed

I explained to her that needing chronic (not temporary) standby or hands-on assistance with bathing and dressing would cause her long term care insurance policy to pay. She’d be entitled to collect about $3200/month if she’d acknowledge her need for help. Melinda was ready to start the process.

Only because she owned long term care insurance, Melinda was able to move to a high-quality assisted living facility, where she spent the rest of her life. The assisted living facility was in a ranch house in a sub-division, modified for people needing care. Not all assisted living facilities are large communities. And many of these facilities keep patients through the end of life, as this one did.

I visited Melinda at her assisted living facility about a month before her death. While spending the day with her, I was impressed by the caring, peaceful, nurturing atmosphere. The ratio of caregivers to residents was about 1:3 – higher than you’d find in a larger, more commercialized facility.

Melinda often commented on how pleased she was with the facility and her care. Her bedroom had a large picture window. Through it, we enjoyed the sunset together and watched the shadows dance across the wall. We had a beautiful visit together. Then we said goodbye to each other. Caregivers were attentive to her. It was a very dignified place. She was truly cared for.

Long Term Care Insurance Bought Melinda Peace

Melinda was able to spend the end of her life in this residential environment, tying up loose ends, making amends, enjoying visits with friends, all with grace and dignity.

Without her long term care insurance, the outcome for Melinda would have been entirely different and not nearly as good. She would have had to stay in a friend’s home, trying to “tough out” her situation. She would not have admitted her true needs, for fear of imposing on her hosts. Without the benefit of a trained medical staff, she would have been a frequent visitor to the emergency room, accelerating her decline, her morale and her overall quality of life. She would have felt unsafe and fearful.

Instead, Melinda got beautiful sunsets, gentle conversations with friends and a team of trained caregivers.

Melinda’s long term care insurance carrier, MedAmerica, could not have been more helpful and willing to pay her claims. Without her long term care insurance, I believe Melinda would have passed away much sooner, and with far less dignity, grace and peace.

Hybrid LTC Policies

January 25, 2016 by Honey Leave a Comment

My love affair with Forbes contributor Wade Pfau continues. He’s written another clear, concise, accessible article on a complicated subject: explaining the newer, asset-based (also known as “hybrid”) long-term care (LTC) products.

In this piece, Mr. Pfau also explains the differences and the pros and cons between traditional long-term care insurance (LTCi) and the newer, asset based (hybrid) life/LTC plans. This part of the article gets a wee bit more technical, but it is clearly written.

Since I have a life insurance background, I understand asset-based (hybrid) LTC plans well and I like them.

Which choice is better? The jury’s out. Each approach has advantages and disadvantages.

The Big Picture is: take the risk of needing LTC seriously. It is real.

What’s the best insurance policy? Trick question. It’s the one that’s in force when you need it!

One thing is clear: to make the wisest decision you can, and to be very satisfied with it, you’ll need the assistance of an experienced, ethical, qualified professional…like myself!

The Continuum of Care

January 20, 2016 by Honey Leave a Comment

Forbes has recently done some outstanding, insightful reporting on long-term care (LTC). I am very grateful for this. It’s a welcome and deserved change from typical error-riddled LTC coverage.

Their contributor Wade Pfau, a professor at The American College and principal at McLean Asset Management, really “gets” LTC. More importantly, he has a writing style that makes complicated concepts clear and simply understood by readers.

In is January 7, 2016 column he lists and describes the LTC continuum. I don’t remember ever having seen it laid out so clearly and accurately.

He explains why Medicare only pays for short duration skilled needs under certain conditions. He explains the difference between skilled and custodial care. It’s custodial care that is bankrupting so many Americans financially, emotionally, and health-wise.

He lists excellent questions to ask of facilities.

I am very grateful for Mr. Pfau’s columns. They do the public a true service.

Long-Term Care Insurance Can Be Costly but Effective

December 26, 2015 by Honey 1 Comment

Why doesn’t this New York Times article report on what its title promises it will, which is the effectiveness of long-term care insurance (LTCi)?

While being factually correct, this article puts the wrong “spin” on things.

It starts by giving the wrong title. LTCi is not necessarily costly. What can easily be far more costly is needing long-term care for anything but a short length of time and not owning LTCi.

The article “hooks” readers in the first paragraph by describing how LTCi preserves wealth. From there, this article gives readers excuses to avoid responsible LTC planning.

The truth is, the most important reason to own LTCi is not to preserve wealth. It is to preserve family integrity by reducing family resentment, stress and discord. The fact that LTCi also preserves wealth, and does it so well, is “icing on the cake.”

Families and governments are in budgetary crisis due to skyrocketing LTC costs.

Reporters and editors need to get the above perspectives corrected. Reporting needs to be done – now – on the hundreds of thousands of families collecting from LTCi and the radical qualitative difference that LTCi creates in their lives.

Here are some examples of the harmful “spin” I’m talking about:

The article hints that Ms. Cheng’s father is collecting enormous amounts from his LTCi policy, but it is not explicit about this. Why not? Why isn’t any space devoted to describing the extraordinary, qualitative difference LTCi has made not only for Ms. Cheng, but for her father?

Does Ms. Cheng own LTCi herself? Her advice about needing correct professional assistance with choosing LTCi, having a holistic outlook about the role of LTCi in estate planning, and asking children for input and help is sage. The reporter (Mr. Wasik) should have asked her to comment about her own LTCi (if she doesn’t own LTCi, I just don’t understand why not, based on her personal experience and how wise she seems to be).

Instead, Mr. Wasik sidetracks readers with some “red herrings.”

There’s an irrelevant sentence describing how Keith Singer recommends clients with more than $500,000 should own LTCi. (I doubt he has any clients with less than a $500,000 net worth; most financial planners don’t.) This sentence is harmful to readers, giving lower net-worth people one more excuse to dissuade themselves from doing responsible LTC planning. Such people are far more prone to catastrophe resulting from unplanned LTC needs. Here’s a story about a solid middle class couple with a $100,000 net worth that was devastated by unplanned LTC costs. This couple probably could have purchased very reasonable LTCi while they were insurable.

This sentence does not report on the effectiveness of LTCi (as the title purports) and is again potentially harmful to readers : “After a 90-day “elimination” period (often partly covered by Medicare for people whose need for extra care is hastened by a stroke or other medical emergency), the policy covers all assisted living, community and home care.” This perspective is incorrect, and further goads the American public to avoid responsible LTC planning by hinting that Medicare might assist with LTC costs. Medicare-paid LTC is not only paltry and inadequate; most people are not entitled to it.

Shame on Mr. Wasik and the NYT editors, whom I otherwise hold in high esteem. For the sake of the American public, reporting needs to be done now on the extraordinary, qualitative, transformative difference LTCi has and will make for hundreds of thousands of us.

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