nursing home care Archives - Long Term Care Insurance Expert | Honey Leveen

Keep Your Long Term Care Insurance After You Move to a CCRC

August 6, 2019 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

As a resident at Shell Point Retirement Community (SPRC), I have had a number of interesting, eye-opening conversations with my neighbors. Many of them believe that living in a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) is an opportunity to safely let go of their long term care insurance (LTCi). I do not recommend this!

Before you make this potentially dangerous decision for yourself or your parents, please read through these 3 experiences. Hopefully, they will serve as a cautionary tale and help you from repeating their mistakes.

1. Living in a CCRC Doesn’t Always Include Payment for Home Care

Sally’s mother lived in SPRC for 26 years. Although she needed care, her mother did not own long term care insurance (LTCi), since she believed the CCRC would cover the costs of her needs. Over the years, Sally’s mother was unwilling to accept the fact that her health was deteriorating and that she needed additional care. Ideally, she would have moved to the on-site assisted living facility or elected for home care.

The majority of CCRC’s pay for assisted living or nursing home care, but they don’t pay for home care.

As you’ll hear in Sally’s video testimony below, her mother was unwilling to pay for home care, preferring to preserve her estate for the benefit of her children. Her situation got so dangerous that Sally had to enlist intervention by a professional to “force” her mother into better care. Sally realizes now that the entire situation could have been avoided if her mother had been covered by a LTCi policy.

2. Nursing Care Paid Out-of-Pocket

When Hugh and his wife moved here to SPRC, they assumed that they no longer needed their LTCi since the CCRC would pay for their assisted living and nursing care. So they stopped paying their monthly LTCi premiums and let their policies lapse.

In her last months, Hugh’s wife became extremely disabled, needing care above and beyond what the assisted living facility could legally provide. Hugh was advised to move his wife to the on-site nursing home so she could receive the care she needed. While the assisted living center provides a cheery, home-like atmosphere, the nursing home is more sterile and institutional. Hugh just couldn’t bear moving his wife into the nursing home.

By remaining in assisted living, Hugh had to pay for round-the-clock caregivers out of his own pocket. As he shared his story with me, I told him about my work. He recognized how much he regretted giving up their long term care insurance. He knows that if they’d kept their policies active, the cost needed for his wife’s additional care would have been covered.

3. The Unexpected Need for an Off-site Facility

Nancy’s husband was stricken with Lewy Body Dementia. If this sounds familiar, this is the same illness that actor Robin Williams suffered from. This form of dementia can damage thinking and alertness. Symptoms can include physical stiffness, hallucinations and even violence.

As a result of his condition, Nancy’s husband became physically violent and needed more care than SPRC could safely provide. Despite their best efforts, SPRC was unable to keep him onsite. Nancy was forced to find an off-site facility that could properly care for her husband. Those unexpected costs (paid without the benefit of LTCi coverage) nearly demolished her savings.

Learning from Experience

You don’t have to have these experiences in order to learn the same lessons. Moving to a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) does not mean it’s time to end your long term care insurance policy. In fact, this may be the time you most want that peace of mind.

Click here to receive a free, no-obligation quote for your own LTCi policy.

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.

TX Nursing Home Employees Quitting to Work at McDonald’s

April 12, 2016 by Honey Leave a Comment

According to reporters at Lubbock’s KLBK13, in a story titled, Nurses Quit Texas Nursing Homes to Work at McDonald’s, we face a dire shortage of nursing home beds by the end of this decade.

Nursing home employees, particularly certified nurse assistants, who are “front line” caregivers, get the worst pay, typically about $8/hour.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s is hiring, and they pay significantly more. Furthermore, their employees don’t have to mess with bed pans or risk injuries from transferring patients.

The story says TX nursing homes lose approximately $300 million per year. 85 percent of TX nursing home residents depend on Medicaid or Medicare. Each Medicaid patient is underfunded by 14 percent.

This dovetails with information I just received from Seven Acres, the Jewish nursing home here in Houston. Their April 2016 newsletter says, “Over 80% of our residents are so ill and indigent that they qualify for the state Medicaid program, which underfunds Seven Acres by $33,000 a year for each Medicaid resident. This translates into a $8 million annual loss for the Home. It is only through the generous support of our friends and community partners that we are able to offset the significant cost of care that Medicaid does not cover.”

Long-term care insurance (LTCi) ownership greatly increases the odds people will not receive care in a nursing home. Even the very best nursing homes – like Seven Acres – struggle with staffing shortages.

I’ve already sent Seven Acres my annual contribution.

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