“Long-term care rates up 1 to 10 percent: survey,” by Kathleen Steele Gaivin, McKnights Senior Living “Year-over-year rate increases in long-term care ranged from 1% to 10% across setting types, according to the results of Genworth’s Cost of Care Survey 2023, published Tuesday. …The average national rate for a private nursing home room inched up 4.9% to $116,800 a year, which equates to $9,733 per month or $320 per day, in 2023. The rate for a semi-private room rose 4.4% to $104,025 annually, which equals $8,669 per month or $285 per day. The average hourly rate for home health aide services
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“Proposal would add Kentucky to mix of states trying to address long-term care financing,” by Kimberly Bonvissuto, McKnights Senior Living “Senior living provider groups are applauding Kentucky’s proactive approach to helping its residents pay for future long-term care needs with a proposal to form a task force to explore a statewide insurance program. … The task force would be charged with establishing a joint public-private system to make long-term care accessible. Any long-term care insurance program that was part of the system would require mandatory participation but offer an opt-out provision. … Fourteen states — Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois,
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“Genworth Releases Cost of Care Survey Results for 2023: Twenty Years of Tracking Long-Term Care Costs,” Genworth “The cost of long-term care services increased across all provider types and increased more substantially for certain settings, according to Genworth’s Cost of Care Survey 2023. The most substantial cost increases occurred in home health aide and homemaker services costs. Inflation and the shortage of skilled care workers are the core drivers of increases in the costs of care services.”   LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: Congratulation to Genworth for 20 years of being the go-to source
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“Study proving longevity benefits of senior living is something for operators to ‘jump up and down’ about,” by Kimberly Bonvissuto, McKnights Senior Living “Older adults who live in senior living communities live longer, receive more healthcare services and benefit from greater rehabilitative and preventive care within the first two years of moving into a community compared with their peers living in the greater community, according to new research from NORC at the University of Chicago. … The report looked at outcomes in continuing care retirement communities, independent living, assisted living and memory care communities related to six measures of longevity:
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“‘Real Heartache’: Medicaid Redetermination Post-PHE Causing Nursing Homes Serious Cash Flow Problems, Anxiety,” by Amy Stulick, Skilled Nursing News “Flaws with the Medicaid redetermination process are leading to an increasing number of existing nursing home residents being found ineligible for Medicaid coverage — creating headaches for nursing homes. This view is held by officials at several state health care associations, who spoke to Skilled Nursing News.” LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: During the pandemic, federal policy kept everyone, including LTC recipients, on Medicaid whether they were eligible or not. Now as eligibility criteria are
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“Workforce improvement No. 1 target in final OIG report on nursing home pandemic effects,” by Josh Henreckson, McKnights LTC News “Steep challenges faced by nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic continue to hinder their ability to provide quality care and adequate staffing, according to new report findings from the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General released Thursday. … The contents of the report will not surprise long-term care providers, who have broadly struggled with a shrinking workforce and rising costs across the country. … Still, Jopp remained cautiously optimistic that a combination of additional oversight and adequate incentives
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“Fact Check: Will making WA Cares optional force seniors into poverty?,” by Elizabeth Hovde, Washington Policy Center “If voters approve an initiative allowing participation in the state’s WA Cares program to be optional, would it ‘continue to force’ seniors to spend themselves into poverty? The short and not-simple answer is: No. … It is not a secret that people use Medicaid to pay for LTC needs, allowing them to keep their savings and investments for heirs and use taxpayer financing for long-term care. Stephen Moses, president of the Center for Long-Term Care Reform, writes in a recent article that Americans spent $530 billion
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“Spending on nursing home, home healthcare growing fast,” by Kathleen Steele Gaivin, McKnights Senior Living “Nursing home care and home healthcare were two of the fastest-growing categories of healthcare spending in 2023, according to Altarum’s monthly Health Sector Economic Indicators brief, released Tuesday. Initial data show that national health spending overall grew by 6.2% for the year, whereas the gross domestic product grew by 6.3%. Personal healthcare spending grew by 7.7%. … Spending on home healthcare increased 10.7% in 2023, and spending on nursing home care increased by 9.8%, according to the report.” LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for
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“New Eligibility Rules Are a Financial Salve for Nearly 2 Million on Medi-Cal,” by Bernard J. Wolfson, KFF Health News “Until Jan. 1, 3 million Medi-Cal beneficiaries, mainly those who are aged, blind, disabled, in long-term care, or in the federal Supplemental Security Income program, faced limits on the value of financial accounts and personal property they could hold to qualify for coverage. Now, nearly 2 million of them will no longer face these restrictions, putting them on par with the roughly 12 million other Medi-Cal beneficiaries who don’t have asset limits. Until Jan. 1, 3 million Medi-Cal beneficiaries, mainly those who
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“Medicare home care eligibility standards unfairly burden family caregivers, think tank argues,” by Adam Healy, McKnights Home Care “Researchers called on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to act now to integrate more kinds of home care benefits for Medicare beneficiaries to help patients and their caregivers grappling with strict eligibility criteria and inadequate support systems. … Medicare’s criteria for a beneficiary to be eligible for home care is too high, they argued, and unpaid family caregivers bear the greatest responsibilities caring for those that do not make the cut. Oftentimes these caregivers are forced to ‘spend down’ to
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