The ongoing trend for rising costs in long-term care is for steadily rising prices, although care in the home has risen less dramatically than other types of services in recent years.
According to a 2012 Cost of Care Survey by Genworth Financial, the cost to receive care in the home remained unchanged from 2011 to 2012 as other costs increased.
“Overwhelmingly, Americans prefer to receive long term care in the home and the relatively muted increase in home care costs over the past few years can be viewed as a positive for consumers,” Steve Zabel, senior vice president of long term care at Genworth, said in a statement. “Consumer demand for home care services has led to a proliferation of home care services providers and more choice for consumers. This competition has kept home care costs relatively stable, especially when compared to the cost of care in a nursing home or assisted living facility.”
Nationally, the median hourly cost for homemaker services and home health aide services is $18 and $19, respectively. While these costs remain flat from the previous year, costs for homemaker services have risen just 1.2 percent annually over the past five years, while home health aide services have risen 1.1 percent a year over the same period of time.
By comparison, the median annual cost for care in an assisted living facility is $39,600 nationally. This represents an increase of 1.2 percent since 2011 and a 5.7 percent annual increase over the past five years. The comparable cost for a private nursing home room rose 4.2 percent from 2011 to 2012 to $81,030, or 4.3 percent annualized over the past five years.
Consumers have more long term care options today than ever before as seen by the increasing number of home care agencies.
According to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare, there were approximately 9,200 Medicare-certified home care agencies in the U.S. at the start of 2008. Today, there are slightly more than 11,000, representing an increase of 20 percent.
Conversely, during this same period of time, the number of Medicare-certified nursing homes has increased less than one-half of 1.0 percent from just over 15,000 to 15,100. The number of nursing homes is increasing at a slower rate and is no longer the only option.
While consumers’ options have increased dramatically, creating a tangible plan for long term care is a step many overlook.
According to Genworth claims data, the youngest claimant ever was 27 years old. Although that is not the norm, it underscores the necessity for a care planning roadmap.
“Understanding long term care costs in your local market and how these costs tend to change over time is vital to developing a plan to cover expected future costs,” Zabel said. “Genworth’s Cost of Care Survey is the most comprehensive of its kind and provides invaluable information on long term care costs that enable family members to conduct informed discussions with loved ones about future long term needs and preferences in order to be more informed consumers of long term care services.”
A map offering data on costs within each indivdual state is available online.
