Knowing Your Costs For Long Term Care, with Lynn Creasy
Lynn Creasy from Foundation House at Northgate talks about knowing your costs when paying for long-term care and understanding what your budget can cover. Many people don’t know what their budget is and what they’re paying for currently before moving into a community.
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*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.
The following is a podcast from a qualified senior care provider part on the answers for elders radio show. And welcome to everyone. Back to answers for elders radio and I am here with our Wonderful Lynn creasy from foundation house. Welcome back Lynn. Thank you. I am so and soothing. I am so glad you’re here because we have a lot to talk about. This month we’re discovering how to pay for a late, you know, long term care, which is amazing. It’s all these financial options out there. There’s a lot in that bucket. There’s so much in that bucket. And of course, how many people think I can afford to go to senior living? It’s too much money. And yet there’s all kinds of resources to help people. So you’re kind of here to help people understand. You know, what does that mean and you know where those resources available. And so we’re going to talk a little bit about understanding what your budget can cover. I basically is that? Is that a good analogy? Yeah, that’s a good, good place to start. A lot of I mean a lot of people come in and they don’t have they don’t know what their budget is. I think part of it is is really knowing what your budget is and what you’re paying currently and to see if something fits moving into a community. Right. Another thing to consider is a lot of communities my piece mail items and you might look at having an all inclusive price which includes rent through, you know, transportation options also, you know, housekeeping, things like cable utilities, water, all of those things might be included in an all inclusive option. HMM. So, you know, look at how you’re living now and then see if it transfers nicely to a community. Right. And you know, it’s a really good question because I remember way back when when I toured communities for my mom. H every company’s kind of different, aren’t they? That how they how they charge for assisted living or how they charge for, you know, extra services things like that. So those are some really important questions to ask, isn’t it? Yes, that is that is very important to know, because everybody charges differently and you really need something a community that is transparent in what those charges are. So make sure you look really carefully at their marketing package right and ask questions. Right. And now foundation house does what’s called an all inclusive is that correct? Yes, and tell me about that. Yes, so from an all inclusive price, we we include obviously the living space, all the utilities, cable, housekeeping, restaurants style dining. We offer breakfast and dinner and then transportation options, as well as emergency and staffing services for seven in security, which one is really important. MMM. And that’s a lot. That’s a lot that you get. So people think about, well, it’s going to cost me so much money, but they’re not realizing how much they’re actually getting. Correct. That profs. there’s a lot of amenities that that come into that. Well, in not admentions that there’s you know that they’re when you say security, there’s also medical staff their own site at all times, so something happens, there’s someone there, which is correct. Yes, and actually we are particular community is independent living as well as assisted and even though those are completely separate, you are correct in knowing that if even an independent person has difficulty, HMM, they may have access to that assisted side because there’s someone there. Sure. or Ye are maybe even temporary and maybe they had surgery and they need some additional type of assistance, and you guys can provide that correct especially from a if you’re an independent resident and let’s say you go in for knee surgery or hip surgery and you need maybe three months, I’ve assisted living to help you get dressed and shower and that kind of thing. You don’t need to leave your home. You can actually just be on assistance for that short amount of time by month, and then you can go back to your independent living. Interesting, I just so that’s perfect and obviously giving somebody that kind of flexibility. Now, how does that affect the cost involving so? Would they paid then for the inclusive cost, then for additional assistants? How would that work? That is a good question. So we we offer the package for independent living and that is an inclusive fee. Right, not to reiterate what I just write talked about, but from an assisted living standpoint, we actually work and we create a customized plan for assisted litter fit. That is one fee and that would be in addition to your regular community okay, so the monthly so I’m just going to throw some figures out. Yes, for our so let’s just say my rent for independent living is thirty five hundred a month. Good, good range. Yeah, yeah, roughly, okay, and I’m getting two meals a day, I’m getting all my utilities paid for my cable, my TV, all of that good stuff. Right. So let’s say, for example, I need two hours of additional hall help per week. Is that something like that? Does it? I mean, how does it break down? Typically, it depends on the community. All right. So I think you know, every community does work differently. Typically, if you’re on assisted living, because the state has very strict rules that we abide by, sure for survey from a twohour time period, we wouldn’t, as an assisted living community, be able to help you for the two hours. But if you’re an independent resident, that would prefer that. You of course can bring in home care and some people connect with their hospital as part keyt, you know t. So you do have that option. It wanted. So that’s really good. So we are talking again to Lynn creasy and Lynn is the marketing director for Foundation House at northgate. Tell us a little bit about your community. W Hey, thank you. We are kind of a gem of a standalone community, and you are we have we are run as a not for profit, originally started by a group of retired educators, HMM, and we’ve been around for twenty two years and we very much enjoy our back up. As far we have a hundred four apartments. So we’re medium sized community, which is, I I really a really nice size. Yeah, and you do in the Nice thing about being an independent living and assisted living certainly is the community and really activities that go on every day and it’s having the ability to you guys have so much wonderful proximity to northgate and restaurants and, you know, on and off the freeway for family caregivers or family members to get to see your residents. We’re right by the New Light Rail going in and yeah, it’s so awesome. That’s awesome. So, so certainly it’s it’s premo location, for sure. For sure. Yeah, yeah, so getting back to the financial piece, LND. Obviously, you know, we’ve talked a lot about you know, what is it cover? But let’s talk about now options. Obviously, typical scenario would be mom or DAD’s sell the house right and they might have very common, you know, three hundred, four, hundredzero dollars available to finance their assisted living or our retirement living. But there’s other options once those financials start to dwindle. But there also is a policy, but it’s long term care as well. They can help offset that. Can you share a little bit about those options. Yeah, and and every community again is different and some offer Medica, medicare funding, medicaid funding. We are a private pay community, but a lot of our residents do utilize several different options and one of them is long term care insurance, which often will care, will cover home care, assisted living, home modifications, even care coordination with case managers. Another piece is we have some veterans that live with us and they have accessibility to funding for being a veteran, right aid called aiden attendance benefits. Yes, yes, good, you might yeah, and then also, of course, soc security and any extra mm funds. So there are different options and it’s really good to explore all of those before you move in. And I will make a quick side note here that we do offer some subsidies for our residents when they are in a crunch and they’re running low on money. Sure, because we’re not for profit, we can subsidize that and that’s important to and you know every like like. One of the things when that, I think, so great from your community, is every senior’s financial situation is different and I know that it’s really important as son and communities are different. Sometimes communities will require a buy and fee, right, right, and those are hard, you know, if for a lot of seniors, if you just sold a house and all of a sudden you have to hand somebody hundred and some thousand dollars to even get into the property. Yeah, but you know, I do know that it there’s a lot of options out there in your community. Really you have a much wider reach and ability to serve more seniors because, Number One, your nonprofit and number two, you guys have just really a wonderful you know, a kid in mid range where seniors can be there. Now you also help people basically figure out how to afford senior living. You have like a little worksheet, don’t you? Yeah, we offer a worksheet and be happy to send anyone if you just give me a quick email. It’s called the cost of living comparison and it basically goes through all of the different things that you’re paying for in your home or Condo, wherever you’re living, whether right, food, laundry, you know, Utilities, etc. And and break that down, because a lot of the things that are offered as a community are included in that, and so you wouldn’t be paying out those fees. It would write, and that’s something I think that’s really important, because we think of thirty five hundred dollars is a lot of money, but when you start looking at I get honest. Do you pay on groceries in your month? How much do you buy? You know, in you know what are your Tulities, utilities costs? What does this cost? And it starts to add up significantly. So that’s a big deal. Yeah, it’s a really good way to kind of look at those comparisons and if anyone wants to get a hold of that, you can just email me at Info, iinfo At Foundation House N G, which is for Northcapecom Foundation House MNGCOM. And just we have about fifteen seconds left, so lynn, if you want to give us your website address, that would be awesome to okay, well, that’s easy because it’s basically foundation, Foundation House N GCOM is our website and our phone number is two US six, three, six, one, two, seven, five eight. Thank you so much for having thank you. We’re glad your hair. Answers for elders radio show with Susan Newman. Hopes you found this podcast useful in your journey of navigating senior care. Check out more podcast like this to help you find qualified senior care experts and areas of financial, legal, health and wellness and living options. Learn about our radio show, receive our monthly newsletter, receive promotional discounts and meet our experts by clicking on the banner to join the Senior Advocate Network at answers for elders, radiocom. Now there is one place to find the answers for elders.
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Originally published July 14, 2019