Hearne Healthcare Center

• Medicare provides some coverage for nursing facilities, but you will still be left with out-of-pocket expenses. Medicare covers 100 days at a skilled nursing facility per benefit period. In some cases, Medicare can also cover 35 hours per week of home health services.
• Medicaid assistance levels differ between states. Veterans and their spouses may also be eligible for extended assistance benefits – veterans themselves may qualify for as much as $1,794 per month in assistance for nursing home costs.
• Many people choose to pay their nursing home fees with long-term care insurance. Long-term care insurance is designed to cover nursing homes, assisted living, and other ongoing healthcare needs. Some types of life insurance also provide a way to access your death benefit to pay for long-term medical coverage as needed.

Moving a patient to a new nursing home can be difficult, particularly if you are using Medicaid to pay for your care. If you are staying in the same state, you will just need to make sure that the new nursing home has Medicaid beds available. However, if you are moving to a different state, you will need to apply for Medicaid separately in that state. Every state has different Medicaid rules, so this process can take some time.

The terms “assisted living” and “nursing home” have different definitions, even though they are sometimes used interchangeably. An assisted living facility helps residents with their daily tasks, such as preparing meals, taking medications, and cleaning their spaces, but it does not provide ongoing medical care. The staff at an assisted living facility can take residents to their doctor’s appointments and provide help with common wellness issues, but they are not physicians and cannot provide the same level of care as a nursing home.

Nursing homes provide medical care around the clock, as well as help with everything from eating to bathing to dressing, depending on the patient’s needs. Nursing home patients are supervised by licensed physicians. Many patients move from assisted living to a nursing home after an injury or if a chronic condition gets too difficult to manage without daily care.

There are many factors that determine the cost of a nursing home, such as location and specific services. The average yearly cost for a semi-private room in a nursing home is $89,297, while a private room is $100,375. The costs for assisted living and retirement communities tend to be much more affordable as they do not provide extensive medical services. The average cost of an assisted living facility is $43,200 per year.

Nursing home expenses can be drastically different depending on what state you are in. Learn more information about the average costs for a month in a private room in a nursing home in each state.