“State is gathering stories about long-term care,” by Elizabeth Hovde, Washington Policy Center “Again, raising awareness is fine. Trying to create an affinity for a state program by painting people’s past hardships as something WA Cares could have alleviated is another. That is what the state has been doing for more than a year now, failing to recognize that many other ways to save for or invest in possible long-term-care needs exist, that many people have more than they’ll need for long-term care someday and that not everyone will qualify for the inadequate $36,500 lifetime benefit for state-approved needs and caregivers. Personal stories used in the
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“Why the New Old Age Could Be Different,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “Company staffers heard about efforts to fight dementia and frailty last week in San Diego, at the latest annual ILTCI Conference. Teams from organization’s like Assured Allies, The Helper Bees and WellSaid.ai briefed attendees on the latest analytical strategies, classes and coaching programs. … Insurers are hoping new drugs and intervention programs will help them manage the wave of care claims that will roll in after 2031, just as they used wars against tuberculosis and cigarettes to reduce life and health claims.”   LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President,
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“It’s Late, You’re Tired, and All You See Are No Vacancy Signs,” by Romeo Raabe, ThinkAdvisor “Medicaid pays for nursing home care for the indigent. Most nursing home homes cannot break even on what Medicaid pays for a bed. Beds that lose money may go away.”   LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: Read this article! It’s one of the clearest explanations I’ve seen of how Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security combine to cripple the long-term care marketplace.   Subscribe to GoldenCare News  
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“Private equity sets sights on home care, hospice, new report finds,” by Adam Healy, McKnights Home Care “The home care segment increasingly has become an attractive target for private equity buyers, particularly personal care and hospice, according to the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit financial watchdog organization. … Personal care is a likely target of upcoming PE activity, according to the report. The field is less regulated than medical practices, and generally has lower operational costs due to being dominated by private pay rather than insurance payers. And as the population of older adults in the United States grows,
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“Older adults’ net worth surges following pandemic,” by Kathleen Steele Gaivin, McKnights Senior Living “Home and stock prices have increased substantially since the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a $91,000 median increase in net worth between 2019 and 2022 for households headed by someone aged 65 or more years. That’s according to Bloomberg, which cited research from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis that used data from the Fed’s Survey of Consumer Finances.”   LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: Trillions of dollars are lying fallow in the U.S. economy that could go to fund better access to higher quality
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“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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