Costs Of Nursing Facilities
How much do nursing facilities cost?
There is a wide range of pricing and it depends on a variety of factors. Geography is probably one of the biggest ones. But, in general, a nursing home might be as low as probably $3,000 a month, and as high as probably $6,000 to $7,000 a month. It's variable from one state to the next. Depending on what the payer source is. But for private pay, I say an average nursing home is probably $5,000 a month. Something like that. And that's not for private room. That would generally be a room with either two or three residents in it.
What are the living arrangements in a nursing facility?
In a nursing facility, most of the rooms are either two-bed or three-bed rooms. There are nursing homes that have all private rooms, and those are usually the minority. Most facilities do have a limited number of private rooms. Or, you always have the option, if you've got the resources, to just say "I'll just pay for both of the beds in the room, but there'll only be one human in there" and you might be able to get a little bit of a discount over just doubling the cost of care.
Are there any monthly fees in addition to rent at nursing facilities?
If you're in a nursing facility, you pay a basic monthly room and board fee. There may be some additional charges and it just depends. For example, your medications typically wouldn't be covered under the room and board fee. If you have Medicaid, then they're going to basically pick up the tab for everything. But if you're paying out of the pocket for the nursing facility, then you'll have to pay separately for your medications. If you have or if you need oxygen, then you're going to have to pay separately for that. Different facilities have different policies as far as what exactly they charge on top of it. Some facilities will charge you for a box of Kleenex, or, the throw away gloves that they use to clean you up .Other facilities just lump that into your monthly fee. So, that's certainly worth checking into when you're thinking of moving in to a place.
How much does Medicare pay for a nursing facility?
Well Medicare will cover one hundred percent of your first twenty days in a skilled nursing facility, assuming you have had your qualifying stay at a hospital. After those first twenty days, they'll pay eighty percent of the next eighty days. So you get a hundred days basically, and on the hundred and first day you're out of luck, it's coming out of your pocket or, some people have supplemental insurance or long-term care insurance or Medicaid that will step in at that point. As far as how much they pay, dollar-wise, it's variable and the per dime amount of what the facility gets on a daily basis for the care of a given patient will depend on how their MDS looks. In other words, just how much care do they need, are they medically complex, how much rehab are they getting and so on, and it can be upwards of five hundred dollars a day in cases of complex patients that have high rehab needs.
How much does Medicaid pay for a nursing facility?
Medicaid will cover long term custodial care and skilled nursing facilities. Medicaid basically pay the full amount whatever it is. Although in some cases a patient has to pay a share of costs on a monthly basis. As far as what the actual dollar amount is, its variable and it depends on policies between different states and within specific facilities it depends on what their case mix is like. In other words out of all the Medicaid patients that they have, how sick are they and how much care do they need? Around here, most of the buildings, it's in the range of about a hundred and forty dollars a day. But there are certainly areas where it is considerably higher than that and there are areas where it's lower than that.