The last 3 years rent has gone up about 5%; now they are charging a "daily rate" and the total is MUCH more. I've called & written letters, researched and visited other facilities. What it ends up with is that I really believe that moving her from the place she is (??) familiar with (although she always thinks she just moved in) will upset her so much it may lead to a fatal condition. Paying the rate increase means she won't have money left for her favorite thing -- gifts for her sisters, kids grand & great grands. I don't want to threaten but what else is there?
The other option is moving her, but she sounds fragile. You are really the only one who can decide what is best. It's always hard - these decisions.
Take care,
Carol
And what is their plans for the future. Do they anticipate the rate to increase even more for 2012, 13. etc? There may be something afoot that is totally different.
My mom's IL went from a great deal of $1,600 mo to $ 2,600 mo in about 4 yrs.
There was a real cut back in driving services like 1 day a week shopping/activity from 2 and no more you can stay @ the mall and meet friends who bring you back later everybody had to go & come back together. The drive you to the doctor visits for free were changed to 3 days a week and 10 days in advance scheduling from whenever just call. My mom liked the place (well as much as she is ever going to like something), food was great and it seemed to fit her needs when she moved in
My mom was in IL in a tiered facility - from IL,AL, NH. It is not a CCRC. However it is a part of a larger group that has two other tiered facility - these 3 are old in that they have been around since the 1960's. As such all the IL's are kinda large, hers was 750 sq ft, some of them are 1,000 sq ft and all have balconies or private patio's. The parent company has expanded into doing CCRC with a minimum buy-in of 100K. That is their focus now and they are taking the empty IL and renovating them to create a buy-in apt. My point is they may be increasing the rate to shake off those that don't have the private pay resources as there are other plans for the space.
As far as her giving gifts to family. Please be careful with this. If you get to the point that she needs to go on Medicaid (and unless she is truly wealthy, if they live long enough they will run out of $$) all those funds given to family can be considered gifting in the 5 yr look back and you could face a penalty period in having her Medicaid application approved. This will mean that you will be responsible to private pay the facility for whatever the penalty amount is. Each state is different in how they figure out the % on this.
The Medicaid application actually get's scrutinzed and they can have access to all bank accounts for 5 years. You don't know when it happens. You sign off on that ability for them to do that when you do the application.
With my mom’s application we had a glitch with $ 1400 ck for to Jim Smith written in 2006. It actually was for auto repair but the check was to Jim Smith instead of Jim Smith Auto Repair. TxHHS asked was this gifting. Found the receipt and faxed it along with a copy of the guy's business card. When I was looking for this, I found there was only like 10 checks that she wrote in 06 that had a comma in them.All of those were for a company, like Visa or Richards's Electical. It was only 1 that wasn't, the one to Jim Smith. They probably have a program that filters's all this and presto! that check comes up. My point is you may face a penalty for any $$ she gives away if she goes on Medicaid.
Don't forget to get it in writing and ask them to commit to at least 12 months!!
Good luck!!
For long term care, if she has been covering all her own expenses, and has money banked to pay for her assisted living then that has to be used before state assistance kicks in, once it kicks in funds will be limited regardless of where she is living. At home care will cost to have health aids 24/7. Try not to blame the facility for their increases as long as the economy gets worse they have no choice, to add to the problem, most of the care givers are underpaid, and not making near enough to live on. To know that your parents are being care for in the way they should be, I dont think there is a price too high, with my dad I have said I will quit working to take care of him and mom if it comes to that.
There should be an assisted living facility search site on or linked from your state's health care quality office. Of course they require the same scrutiny as far as care, culture, and cost. We've found that many assisted living facilities are willing to increase the level of care and negotiate prices because the market is so competitive. While they are also allowed to raise their fees annually, because they start lower, the pricing may not hurt as much. And some do take vouchers from the state or Veterans Affairs.