Bucks Blog: Long-Term Care Costs Rising

The cost of long-term care in nursing homes and assisted-living sites is increasing at a dramatic pace compared with the cost of in-home care, an annual industry survey finds.

The 10th annual “cost of care” report from Genworth Financial, a seller of long-term care policies and other insurance and financial products, collected information from 15,000 long-term care providers nationally in January and February. The cost of nursing home care has increased more than 4 percent a year over the last decade to a median annual cost of $83,950 from $65,200  annually, the company  found.

Over the same period, the costs for homemaker services and home health aides have remained almost flat, the report found, part because of competition among agencies and the availability of unskilled labor.

The report includes an online map showing the cost of various services by state, and a summary of the median costs for the various types of care.

Nationally, the median hourly cost of home health aide services is $19 an hour, and $18 for homemaker services. Homemaker costs have risen about 1.4 percent since 2012, and less than 1 percent annually over the last five years.

Home health aide services have risen 2.3 percent since 2012, and 1 percent annually over the last five years.

Roughly 70 percent of Genworth’s first-time long-term-care claimants choose in-home care, where costs have remained more manageable, the company said.

The cost to receive care in an assisted-living site is rising much more quickly. The median annual cost is now $41,400, an increase of 4.6 percent over last year and a 4.3 percent annual increase over the past five years.

The comparable cost for a private nursing home room rose 3.6 percent from last year, to $83,950, or 4.5 percent annually over the past five years.

Are you currently paying for home health care, or residential long-term care? How are you covering the costs?

Article source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/long-term-care-costs-rising/?partner=rss&emc=rss