What Does Long-Term Care Actually Cost?

Hartford Medicaid attorneys provide help to seniors and their families in making sure that long term care costs do not cause financial hardship or make it impossible for a person to leave a legacy. Nursing home care is very expensive, and many people are not covered by any type of insurance for the care that they need. As a result, a life savings can be quickly spent trying to pay for the costs of care… unless advanced plans are made to ensure that there is a source of payments when a senior must go into a nursing home. 

To understand how high the stakes are and why it is so important to get nursing home care, consider these facts on the costs of long-term care in the state of Connecticut. Once you see how unaffordable it really is to get care, contact Hartford Medicaid attorneys as soon as possible to begin making your plans to protect your wealth and get costs covered.

What Does Long-Term Care Actually Cost Seniors?

According to an April 2016 report from The Connecticut Partnership for Long-Term Care in the state of Connecticut, the average daily rate for skilled or intermediate care in a nursing home is $407 daily and the average annual rate for this kind of nursing home care care is $148,700. This number reflects a 1.8 percent increase in average costs since the prior year. It is likely costs have increased further from 2016 to 2017, which means seniors could expect to pay a bit more if they need skilled or intermediate care.

These costs are based on weighted daily averages of nursing homes with patients living in semi-private rooms. For a senior who wants a private room instead of a space that is partially shared with others, costs are even higher.

For seniors who wan to try to stay in their homes but who need care, prices are also fairly high. The average cost of each skilled nursing visit is $139 in Connecticut, while the average cost for a home health aide is $28 per hour. Physical and speech therapy are each $146 on average, and occupational therapy costs slightly more at $144.

Obviously, many of these costs are not affordable to seniors who may have limited retirement savings and small Social Security payments that cannot cover thousands a month in care expenditures. This is why it is so important for anyone who is getting older to understand how Medicaid works and to ensure they can qualify for Medicaid when care becomes necessary.

How Can Hartford Medicaid Attorneys Help Get Costs Covered?

Medicaid will pay for routine custodial care in a nursing home, which is the kind of basic care and assistance with daily activities that many people need as they get older or as they become disabled. Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and private insurance carriers typically won’t provide this kind of coverage. Medicare and other private insurance policies only pay for skilled medical services provided for a limited time duration in a nursing home, like a patient going to a care facility and getting his surgical bandages changed for a week or so after surgery.

Although Medicaid pays, however, it is supposed to pay only for people with limited incomes and few resources. This means you may have too many assets to get benefits and would have to spend them down or impoverish yourself to get covered.

There are ways to protect your assets, however. You should work with Hartford Medicaid attorneys to find out about the legal tools that you can use to keep you wealth safe and still get Medicaid access. It helps if you do this long before Medicaid is needed for a pressing financial emergency, as Medicaid will look back five years from the time of your application to determine if you transferred or sold assets for under their market value. If you did– and transferring of assets is typically part of Medicaid planning – you’ll experience a temporary period of disqualification from benefits during which time you may have to pay out of pocket for care.

Getting Help from Hartford Medicaid Attorneys

Hartford Medicaid attorneys at Nirenstein, Horowitz & Associates can provide invaluable assistance with making a plan to protect assets, get Medicaid to pay for your nursing home bills, and ensure you are able to use you wealth to leave a legacy.

To find out more about the ways in which our legal team can help you with making advanced plans for nursing home care and making sure Medicaid will cover it, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at 860-548-1000 or contact us online to talk with an experienced attorney about how we can help with your personal situation. Call now to find out more about Medicaid, asset protection and other issues that matter to you.