Avoiding Long Term Care Facilities During the Virus Crisis

During the Coronavirus crisis in our country there have been countless stories in the news about infections running rampant in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Our seniors are in the cross hairs of the virus as it works its way through these facilities, not just making the residents ill, but also the nurses and other staff members. As this happens, the family members of the residents are not able to visit their loved ones. It's a terribly tragic situation all around.

Is there a way to avoid this scenario? Not always, as some residents may need to be in a facility for various reasons. Their families may not live in the area, or they may have no family at all. Of course, nearly every person who lives in a facility would rather live in their own home, or with their adult children. For some, the adult children are working and unable to take care of their parents (or grandparents) and it can be cost prohibitive.

Home health care can be very expensive. Using the example of my father, the price of his home health care was nearly double that of a facility. The reason is simple, in that a small staff can keep an eye on dozens of people at once, whereas he had one caregiver staying with him. And home healthcare workers generally cook and do some "light housekeeping".

As I mentioned several weeks ago, my father was dipping into his home equity line to pay for his caregivers, which were in excess of $70,000 a year. He obviously didn't have that kind of money but was determined not to go to a nursing facility. When he passed away he was indebted to the tune of over $100,000.

I can only imagine how horrible it must feel to know that a loved one is in a facility during these times. But if you could keep your mother, father or grandparent at home with a caregiver, would you do it? What if you could find a way to afford it? What if the shoe were on the other foot and your family was having to decide what to do as you became chronically ill or mentally incapacitated?

Luckily, we now have something called Short Term Home Health Care (STHHC) policies that can alleviate the cost issues related to home care. Typically they cover the insured for 365 days for in-home care only. And the 365 days don't have to be consecutive, as some people receive care 3 or 4 days of the week.

It may not be the fully encompassing solution to keeping a loved one from a facility, but STHHC can save a family tens of thousands of dollars while preventing your older family members from getting sick and stuck in a nursing home or assisted living facility, which can be fatal during this pandemic.

And while a large majority of people who show an interest in the program are Medicare aged, we are also seeing interest from their adult children who have seen the costs associated with being ill or cognitively impaired.

To see a short video of how STHHC works, click here. This plan isn't available in all states, so let us know where you live and we'll check. In the meantime, stay healthy and check out our website below.


Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, as well as a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient.