Paying for Home Care
Starlight Caregivers provides personal and companionship care, not medical care. Private health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid do not help cover the cost of non-medical home care. Long-term care insurance may cover some costs.
A doctor may prescribe that a nurse or other health practitioner provide support in the home, but that is usually a very short visit to complete a specific medical purpose and is covered by insurance. Anything else is considered non-medical or support with the activities of daily living (ADLs).
Most of our clients pay for non-medical care using savings or long-term care insurance (the plan must have a rider for non-medical personal care). Other options may include:
- Social Security income
- Pensions
- VA Aid and Attendance benefits. Whether or not you or your family member qualifies for the A&A program, the VA allows households to deduct the annual cost of paying for in-home care when calculating their regular pension benefit.
- Real estate conversions like reverse mortgages, home equity lines of credit, Unison HomeOwner Agreements (formerly called REX agreements), and EquityKey agreements
- Life insurance policies. These policies may be surrendered for their cash value or converted to cash by using a viatical settlement.
For your convenience, we accept payment by check, bank transfer, and credit cards.
Not surprisingly, people want to age at home in a safe and familiar environment, and home care is also the lowest cost when compared to alternatives. To understand how long-term care costs are trending over time, consider this 2021 data from Genworth Financial, a national insurance company that issues annual reports on the cost of care. Genworth’s 2021 annual survey reported that the cost of care services increased over 2020 as follows:
- Assisted living facility rates increased by 4.65% to an annual national median cost of $54,000 per year.
- The cost of a home health aide, which includes “hands-on” personal assistance with activities such as bathing, dressing, and eating, increased 12.5% to an annual median cost of $61,776.
- Homemaker services, which include assistance with “hands-off” tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and running errands, increased 10.64% to an annual median cost of $59,488.
- The national annual median cost of a semi-private room in a skilled nursing facility rose to $94,900, an increase of 1.96%, while the cost of a private room in a nursing home increased 2.41% to $108,405.
Genworth also reported that for the previous five years, the average annual increase for these services was in the 2% to 6% range.