June 10, 2025 • 44 mins
Listen in as host Steve Kuker, President of Senior Care Consulting, reviews “what to determine BEFORE beginning your search for a senior care community”. Spoiler alert: don’t take the ole shotgun approach, you’re wasting your valuable time, and this contributes to the average of 50-100 hours spent on searching for a senior care community. Pro tip: Senior Care Consulting clients only spend 4 hours in the search and selection process! Then, Steve shares the average monthly costs at each level of care. #SeniorCare #SeniorCareLive #SeniorCareConsulting #SeniorLiving #KansasCitySeniorCare #SeniorCarePlacement #SeniorCareAdvisor #Franchise #SeniorCareFranchise (800) 331-6445
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Are you caring for an aging loved one? Are you
a senior searching for answers? Welcome to Senior Care Live,
a program dedicated to you, providing information, education, and resources
for seniors and their caregivers. And now America's Senior Care Consultant,
Steve Keecker.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, and welcome to Senior Care Live. I'm Steve Keeker,
You're Senior Care Consultant, and I really appreciate you tuning
in today. And I'm we might call this the fire
hose Show because I've got a whole bunch of information
that I'm going to share with you today, So let's
jump right into that. And I want to and I
(00:45):
haven't talked about this for a little while, but there
are so many people throughout our entire country who have
made the decision that they're going to need a senior
care community, either for themselves or or a loved one.
And they may need it right away, they may need
it down the road, maybe by the end of the year,
maybe next year. Okay, but the decisions have been made.
(01:09):
So now what So what you must determine before ever
beginning your search, if you listen to this and pay
attention and then implement what I'm about to share with you.
This will save you dozens and dozens and dozens and
maybe dozens of hours of time. The average family spends
(01:32):
between fifty and one hundred hours if they're trying to
do their homework. They don't have to just grab something
in an emergency, but they're trying to get it right.
They're doing their homework, they're visiting all these places, asking
all the questions, they're online checking out all the stuff.
Fifty to one hundred hours that's been shared with me
over and over and over again over these past, you know,
(01:54):
over twenty years. Okay, so I'm pretty confident that that
is the the normal average. Okay, of course, senior care
consulting clients, they're done in four hours. Boom, they're done.
We save a ridiculous amount of time. But if you
want to do this on your own, this will save
you dozens of hours of time. And the biggest mistake
I see people make is it's the old shotgut approach. Well,
(02:18):
I'm gonna go check out this place over here, and
then maybe someone in the family. Hey, as I drive
to work, there's this place that it was just built.
It looks really nice. I'll just go check that one out.
I'm gonna spend some time with them, and well, I
heard about this place, I'll go check that one out.
And they're just they're going to places that don't fit,
that don't fit their criteria, and they're just literally wasting
their time, literally a waste of time. You feel good
(02:42):
because you're busy and you're doing stuff, but you are
wasting your time. So let's get organized. Let's have instead
of the shotgun approach, let's have the rifle approach. Okay,
so you know, bullseye and we're gonna do this very
very focused, all right, So what to determine before ever
(03:04):
beginning your search for a senior care community. The first
thing you must know or determine is what level of
care do you need? Well, Steve, what do you talk?
What do you mean? What are you talking about? What's
the level of care? I know that that's why we're
doing this. So I equate the level of care to
(03:30):
the licensure of the place. I relate it directly to
the licensure. So each place providing hands on care has
to operate and conform to the requirements of the licensure
that they have been granted by the state where they reside,
(03:51):
where they provide the care. Okay, so long term care
also known as a nurse home. That's that highest level
of care. That's the medical model. That is a level
of care. Long term care. That's the level and again
that's the medical model. It's the highest level of care.
(04:13):
A lot of people still refer to that as a
nursing home, skilled nursing, the health center. There are, you know,
all sorts of ways to describe that. I just call
it long term care because that's what it is. That's
exactly what it is. Okay, maybe you need the level
of care that would be the assisted living level of care.
(04:34):
So the assisted living level of care operates per its licensure.
And if the assisted living level, if you've listened to
this program for any length of time at all, you
would know that that is the level of care. And
it's very popular. Lots and lots of people go to
the assisted living level of care and receive great care.
(04:58):
So that's the level of ca that will help you
with your activities of daily living real it's not a
medical model. It's really more of a social model where
they can help you minimally or fully with your bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting.
They can provide incontinent support if that would be necessary.
They manage your medications. There's a full slate of activities
(05:19):
for meaningful social engagement. They make all of your meal, snacks,
and hydration. At that point, doctors make house calls. There's
transportation to get out of the building to see your
own doctor that you've seen for the last forty years,
thirty years, twenty years, or maybe a specialist. There's a
lot to like about the assisted living level of care,
(05:40):
but that is a level of care. So I have
long term care, which does all of that, plus medical care,
diabetic management with insulin injection, wound care, catheter care, urinary
catheter care, tube feeding, two person transfer, heavy heavy physical care,
plus all these medical care areas ost to meet care,
(06:03):
those sort of things. Okay, so you have long term
care assisted living. What about residential care? Now not all
states have this, but most do. I generally refer to that,
I'd say generally as assisted living light, So their licensure
would require that the residents living there, generally speaking, are
(06:25):
a little higher functioning, a little less staffing. They do
a little bit less for you, but there's still some
care in management and oversight. Now, what about the home plus.
Now this is something pretty unique to the state of Kansas.
So for example, Missouri would just refer to this as
assisted living, but in Kansas they have created a level
of care called home Plus. So it's basically speaking, it's
(06:49):
the assisted living level of care, but it's provided in
a house, literally in a house, so that home like setting.
They've got that down. Okay, So it's in a house.
Typically you're going to see four to six residents up
to maybe about twelve residents. So usually the staffing ratios
are really great at the home plus level. Typically one
(07:12):
to four is pretty common. For higher functioning home plus
residents or house maybe one to five or six, but
one to four is pretty common. That's a very good
staffing ratio. And then you may have an intermediate care facility,
which is essentially long term care without the Medicare certification. Okay,
(07:33):
So if all of that has your head spinning already,
this is why Senior care Consulting exists. We are not
intimidated by this. We speak this, this is what we do,
and we walk our clients through all of this. We
have a proprietary six page geriatric care assessment and that
(07:57):
helps us work together with you to determine the proper
level of care. And that's the first thing that you
must determine before ever thinking about beginning your search. And
back to that shotgun approach. All kinds of people with
very good intentions, and they're very busy and they feel
good about it because they're working on this. Okay, Well,
(08:18):
I'm going to go look at that place and I hey,
there's a new place on my way to work. And
so and so at church said that, you know, this
is a good place, and they're checking all these places out.
Maybe all these places are the assisted living level of
care when what you actually need is long term care.
You've just wasted all of your time, Okay, and that's
really really easy to do. I'm not scolding you, okay
or anything like that. I'm just trying to make my
(08:40):
point that you really need to determine several things here
before beginning your search so your search is more focused
and less kind of scattered, so you don't waste time again,
saving dozens and dozens and dozens of hours of time.
All right, Number two, what type of care? What type
of care do you require? Well, what do you mean, Steve,
(09:04):
the level of care, I mean, that's all we need, right, Nope,
it's not that easy. So maybe you need just general
I call it general care. Just every day get old
fashioned general care that is offered at the particular level
of care that you require. What about memory care, Well, Steve,
(09:24):
isn't that at a place? Nope, it's not. That's a
type of care. So memory care is a special type
of care for a resident with cognitive impairment period. That's it,
and that can be offered at the long term care
level of care, at the assisted living level of care,
at the residential care level of care, at the home
plus level of care, and the intermediate care facility level
(09:46):
of care. That just blew a whole bunch of people's
minds right there. Well I thought it was a place.
No it's not. It's a type of care that can
be offered at a whole bunch of different levels of care.
What about skilled nursing and rehab, Well, yeah, Steve, we're
going to need that skilled nursing and rehab paid for
by Medicare. Well, if that is the case, then that
(10:07):
is only offered at the long term care level of care.
You cannot get that in the assisted living level of care.
And then you have other types of care mental health care,
hospice care, respite care. So it gets pretty complicated, folks.
So what to determine before beginning your search level of
(10:27):
care and the type of care. And I'm going to
have more because it gets even more complex than that.
But let's not forget about the Senior Care Live question
of the week. Memory care is a level of care?
Is that statement true or false? What do you think?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. For more information, visit seniorcare live dot com.
We'll have more with Steve coming up next. A recent
Internet search for nursing homes in Kansas City provided thirty
(11:06):
two million results. It's daunting to think that there are
over three hundred and fifty senior care communities to choose
from in the Kansas City metro and on average you'll
spend fifty to one hundred hours trying to find a
place for your loved one. If this sounds overwhelming, that's
because it is. I invite you to reach out to
Senior Care Consulting. We've been serving family since two thousand
(11:28):
and two with our premium service. We do most of
the work for you.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You'll spend just a.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Few hours of your time finding the best place available,
and you can trust us to be objective because we
don't receive reimbursement from any provider. We work for you.
To learn more, call Senior Care Consulting at nine three
nine four five twenty eight hundred nine nine four five
twenty eight hundred, a placement service with integrity at Seniorcare
(11:57):
Consulting dot com.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live on the
Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For more information, go to seniorcare
Live dot com. Now back to our Senior Care Live
Question of the week. We'll see if you're paying attention.
Memory care is a level of care? Is that statement
true or false? And the answer is false. The answer
(12:35):
is false. Memory care is not a level of care.
And so many people believe that memory care is a
level of care. We would just go over there to
that memory care place. Well, no, what do you mean
in the memory care place? Was it long term care
or was it assisted living? I don't know, it's that
(12:55):
memory care place. It doesn't work like that. So again,
memory care is a special type of care. For a
resident with cognitive impairment. So if that person needs help
(13:16):
with their bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, medication distribution, some of
those sort of things, then they would be properly placed
or qualified at the assisted living level of care where
that assisted living provider provides general care and memory care,
(13:42):
so memory care. To get a quick ticket to memory care,
I think the primary reason to get you in there
or that would qualify you to be transferred there or
maybe move in on day one in memory care is
that you are what the industry calls an elopement risk
(14:06):
or a flight risk. So maybe you're not trying to
cause any troubles, but you're looking around. You're like, you
know what, this place is pretty nice, but it's not
where I live. I'm going home. And then you're out.
You're trying the door, you're out of there because you're
(14:26):
going to walk home that this is not my home.
It's a nice place. People are really nice, my neighbors
are friendly, but it's not where I live, right and
God bless these people. They have dementia, they have Alzheimer's,
you know, one of the one of the other forms
of dementia, et cetera. And they're confused and they don't understand,
and it's not where they they it's not their house,
(14:48):
it's not where they live. I think the second most
common issue that would get you a quick ticket to
memory care is over stimulation. So someone with dementia just
can't process all the noise. Maybe there's just there's too
much noise, there's too much stuff going on, there are
(15:09):
too many people around, there's just too much stuff. And
then you can just see them just started to wind
up and wind up tighter and tighter, and pretty soon, boom,
they're going to blow and they're going to start yelling
at people. And because they just get they can't process
this stuff, and they become belligerent, may be assertive, they
may even become combative. Okay, So they need a smaller
(15:34):
quiet space, less noise, less lights, fewer people, shorter halways
all and a coded a coat on the door. Okay,
you can leave the area. You just need to be
accompanied for your own safety and security. Okay. I think
those are those are the two main reasons. There are
(15:55):
some other reasons that you may need to be in there.
Your behavior could just be disruptive. You're walking in and
out of everyone's room. You're walking into someone else's room.
You're going in and you're laying down in their bed,
and it's very upsetting to that person. Hey, why Hey,
get them out of here, right. So that's another issue
that would get you a quick ticket to memory care
(16:16):
because they kind of expect that in the memory care area. Okay.
So memory care is a type of care that you
could find at that long term care slash nursing home
level where you have you need a lot heavier care,
you have some medical needs. It could be found in
the other primary area that you could receive memory care
would be at that assisted living level of care where
(16:39):
you need help with your bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, incontinent support,
medication distribution, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, and there's some
others as well. That would be the two main ones. Okay.
Then the skilled nursing and rehab we talked about that,
mental health care, hospice care, respite care. All of those
are the types of care. So you have carefully determined
(17:02):
what level of care you need and what type of
care you need. Now here's the uh, the eight hundred
pound elephant in the room. So to speak, how are
you going to pay for all this stuff? Oh? Boy,
it's expensive. Pretty soon, I'm going to get into that
some average monthly costs. And if you're driving, you might
(17:23):
want to pull over to the side of the road
when I talk about that, I don't want to cause
you to veer off the road. You're like, what, so,
it is very expensive. But if you hear the term
private pay, that means you use it. You're writ in
a check. I mean you're you're using your own resources
to pay for your care. You know, what about medicare?
(17:44):
What does it pay for? What about Medicaid? What is Medicaid?
What does it pay for? How do you qualify for that? Okay?
What about long term care insurance? Does that factor into this?
And I would say absolutely yes. I believe that the
national statistic about five to six percent of people needing
care actually have long term care insurance policies. So if
(18:07):
you have one, hang on to it. Hang on to
it because when that thing kicks in, it's worth its
weight in gold, and it is protecting your assets because
it's offsetting that cost. It's paying for the majority of
the cost, maybe all of the cost. Okay, then what
about the vaaid and attendance benefit do you qualify for that?
How much will you receive? And then how much will
(18:30):
that help your financial outlook here when paying for the
high cost of senior care. And then you have location,
like in real estate, location, location, location, and it is important.
We all want the convenience of this place being close
to us. But I think the better question is how
(18:50):
far are you willing to travel to get the best
care for your loved one. That's a question I ask
every single one of my clients with senior care consulting. Well, Steve,
I don't want to drive too far out, but you know,
maybe thirty minutes or so from you know, from where
we live or where mom lives or dad lives, Okay,
(19:11):
whatever that point is, maybe in Johnson County or Jackson County,
or north of the river, or Steve, anywhere on the
Missouri side or the Kansas site. And this conversation could
be had all around the country. Obviously, how far out
can we look and are you willing to drive to
(19:32):
find the best care for your loved one? So location
parameters very important. And then last but definitely not least,
any personal preferences and needs. So this would be something
very specific to you or your loved one. So I've
had several clients say, Steve, mother has played the piano
for several decades and it's just it's part of her
(19:55):
DNA at this point, and it would be fantastic if
they had a keano where she would be welcome to play.
And I'm a musician, so I understand that. I don't
think that's a would be nice to have. I think
that's a gotta have, okay, And so we need to
find a place that that's important to that particular person.
Maybe not to everyone, but that particular person. Another one
(20:18):
of my clients said, never serve my mother any foul
anything with the beak on it, forget it. No turkey
at Thanksgiving, no grilled chicken sandwiches, et cetera. So what
to determine before beginning your search. You need to know
the level of care, the type of care, payment methods, location,
personal preferences and needs. And coming up next, I will
(20:39):
review all of the levels of care, what they provide
and their average monthly cost.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. Have a question. This is Seniorcare Live dot com.
Stick around. We'll have more with Steve coming up next.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Hello, this is Steve Keeker, president of Senior Care Consulting.
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(21:46):
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Care Consulting. Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live
(22:11):
on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For podcasts to the program,
go to seniorcare live dot com or wherever you get
your podcasts. All right, so we're talking today about what
to determine beforeever beginning your search. Need to know the
(22:31):
level of care required. And here's what we do at
senior care consulting. We don't just look at today. I
am a meticulous planner and I look ahead. I look
way ahead, and I anticipate needs, and I anticipate other
levels of care and other things like that that may
(22:53):
be required or will be required down the road. So
look at today, but also a plan for the future
when you're doing all this, so you need to know
the level of care, the type of care, the payment methods,
how are we going to pay for this. It's all
very expensive, as I will share here in a little bit,
location parameters, and any personal preferences and needs. All right,
(23:19):
once you have that down, now you can have a
very targeted and focused search. So let me review the
different levels of care and then get into the average
monthly costs. So the first stop, if you will, in
this progression of senior care communities would be referred to
(23:43):
as independent living. Okay, there's no care provided at independent living,
but this is really more of a lifestyle change. So
let's say you're living in your house and you're using
about twenty percent of your house because all the family's
gone and moved out and the house is becoming home
(24:03):
ownership is becoming burdensome, and you don't want to worry
about hot water heaters anymore and leaves in the gutter
and cracks in the foundation and mowing the lawn and
scooping the snow and all the stuff and the rooflicking,
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. You're done with that
and you want a lifestyle change. You want to downsize,
(24:26):
shed yourself of that home ownership responsibility, and then move
into an independent living community so you're on your own,
but you're definitely not alone. You have a very nice apartment.
You have a fully equipped kitchen, so you can cook
anything any time you want. It's your plate. You can
(24:48):
do what you want to do. But they do offer
a meal, at least one kind of the main meal
per day. Typically, sometimes they'll offer a couple of meals
per day. Sometimes I even see all three, but they
always offer the main meal and maybe another one, okay.
And they also offer transportation so you don't have to
(25:11):
worry about going out in the rain or the crummy weather.
They offer transportation maybe once a week to run to
the grocery store, maybe another place to run to another
general storage, just to get stuff. There are socialization opportunities there,
but again, you are fully independent. You can come and
go as you'd like anytime you want. But but you
(25:35):
have some of these some of these other other benefits
and amenities at independent living. Okay, the next step in
this continuum, if you will, and it's a pretty wide lane,
it's the assisted living level of care. You notice I
(25:55):
said level of care. There is care provided at the
assisted living level of care according to the licensure that
they must operate from and meet all the requirements in
your particular state. Again, it's a social model. They help
with the activities of daily living. They can help you
(26:16):
minimally or fully your bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting. And you
may not need help with all of those things. You know,
you can pick and choose. You don't have to have
help with everything. If you don't need help using the toilet,
then of course they're not going to help you. But
if you need help with any or all of those things,
minimally or fully, that's what they're there to help you with.
(26:37):
And they can do all of that. They can help
out to there's a limit here to a point with
your incontinence care and support and management if that would
be necessary. They distribute your medications. They'll order it, manage it,
make sure you get them on time. That's huge. They
(26:58):
make all of your meals at this point, so you'll
have a small kitchenette where you can reheat stuff, but
you're not doing any cooking anymore. They're taking care of
all that for you. They'll provide all the snacks and
hydration for you throughout the day. There's a full slate
of activities for meaningful social engagement and quality of life.
(27:20):
There's transportation to get out of the building to go
see your doctor, go see a specialist. Doctors also make
house calls. This is pretty important, I think, so you
don't have to use the Usually there's always one, maybe
a couple of doctors physicians that would come into the building.
(27:41):
They're making a house call. So we think, oh, that's
so old fashioned, no one does that. Well, yeah they do.
If you live in an assistant living community, a doctor
will come to your apartment and make a house call.
You don't you don't even have you don't have to
go outside, you don't have to get in your car.
You don't have to drive anywhere. They come to you.
And I think it's huge. Okay, so you have a
(28:04):
lot of support at that assisted living level of care.
That's that wide. Now graphically, if we're on television and
I give this presentation all the time, I do tons
of presentations for different employers and civic groups and churches,
et cetera. But in the assisted living level of care,
(28:25):
there's a lot of leeway. You can choose to provide
very little care. And in its marketing, oh, we have
a vibrant, independent community and we're on the we're on
the go all the time, and all of healthy lifestyles
and we're walking clubs and all this stuff, and they
can choose to provide a little bit of care. Some
(28:48):
of them are clear over to the other side, leaning
towards long term care, providing a tremendous amount of care
in an effort to keep you out of a nursing home,
out of long term care. Oh and by the way,
everything in between. So I think that is the second
most difficult level of care to go out and try
(29:10):
to tackle on your own, because you could go to
six different places here, six different stories about what they
do and what they offer, and they could all be true.
That one's really tough because there's a pretty wide range
of what they can do and what they can offer.
That's the assisted living level of care. And then you
(29:30):
move over graphically, I've got them kind of in a
progression here. Then you move over to long term care
again also known to many people as a nursing home.
That's the medical model, and they can and they do,
provide everything that assisted living provides, plus full medical care.
(29:53):
And that could be a two percon transfer and God
bless them, maybe they're so weak that their bed bound.
They can provide all the care that you would need,
including showering on a flat gurney type of a situation.
Whatever's required, they can take care of you. They can
provide wound care, which would require LPNs and RNs for management.
(30:16):
They can provide catheter care. They can provide pain management injections,
diabetic management with insulin injections. They can provide tube feeding.
It just goes on and on and on. So they
can help out with all of those things. So those
are the big three. So let's talk about some average pricing.
(30:38):
Please don't wreck if you're drinking coffee, put your coffee down.
I don't want you spitting your coffee out all over
your table. So when you move into independent living, okay,
it largely depends on the size of the apartment and
whether you have one or two people moving in. But
(31:00):
the big differentiation would be how nice, how new the
apartment is, and then the size of the apartment. So
a studio is less than a one bedroom, is less
than a two bedroom, is less than a three bedroom. Right,
so we all, we all, we've got that right. So
it's going to be around thirty five hundred dollars a
month on the low end to maybe fifty five hundred
(31:20):
dollars kind of on the upper end. You can definitely
go higher than that. Maybe you could go a little
bit lower than that, but that that's going to be
a solid, a solid range, and that's per month. Now,
I have a lot of people say, well, now wait
a minute, Steve, I'll just my house is paid for,
I'm just going to stay at home. Well, have you
ever totaled up the cost of what it actually costs
(31:42):
you to stay at home with your mortgage paid off
and you have home owners insurance every month, personal property
tax and then the upkeep of again replacing water heaters
and repairing the roof and all the stuff. If you
add it all up, plus groceries and everything else, it's
not that far off. Not really Coming up next, I
(32:04):
am going to continue this conversation on the different levels
of care and the average monthly cost. So I'm going
to talk about the assisted living level of care coming up,
long term care level of care, and then I'm going
to throw a little curveball in there because we have
a couple a couple of other levels of care, And
(32:26):
then I'm going to talk briefly about a continuing care
retirement community. So, like I said, this is a fire
hose type of a program. Stick around. More coming up next.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. To contact Steve or a guest on his show,
this is Seniorcare Live dot Com.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
We'll have more coming up. So you've been living intopend
at home, but now it's not working out. It's time
to begin searching for a senior care community. But with
hundreds of independent living, assisted living, long term care, and
(33:10):
memory care options, how are you supposed to determine the
best place for you. Hello. I'm Steve Keeker, and this
is exactly why I created my firm, Senior Care Consulting.
I help my own grandparents through this difficult process, so
I know how overwhelming this can be. Our business model
ensures credibility and objectivity. We work directly for you and
(33:33):
we never receive reimbursement from any provider. We've helped hundreds
of family since two thousand and two, and we can
help you and your family as well. Call today for
a free consultation at nine one three nine four five
twenty eight hundred nine one three nine four five twenty
eight hundred a placement service with integrity at Seniorcareconsulting dot com.
(34:06):
Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live on the
Senior Care Broadcasting Network. Have a question, visit Seniorcare Live
dot com. All right, so we're talking about the different
levels of care, the average monthly cost and this stuff
is expensive. Is it worth it? Yep? If you need it,
it's absolutely worth it. Okay, So we talked about independent living,
(34:27):
let's move on to the assisted living level of care again.
It's the social model, helping you with your activities of
daily living. I've already talked about that a couple of
two or three times, and the biggest driver on the
cost differences would be the size of the apartment and
how much care you need. Most places have a base
(34:49):
charge plus a level of care charge. So if you
need a little bit of help, you're going to pay
a little bit of a level of care charge. If
you need a lot of help, you're going pay the
base plus a higher level of care charge. And then
that way, the person using fewer resources needing less care
would pay less than someone using more resources and receiving
(35:13):
more care. So it's a more of a fair type
of a payment model, if you will, okay, And a
studio costs less than one bedroom cost less than a
two bedroom, right, So both of those things are drivers.
We're looking at an average of six thousand dollars a
month to about nine thousand dollars a month. That should
cover most of the places. And I have a lot
(35:36):
of people asking, well, what if you have a couple
and maybe one spouse needs the care but the other
spouse wants to be with them. Can they live together? Yeah? Absolutely,
of course they can. And so the big question is
does that double the price? And I'm happy to say
it does not, okay. So the spouse needing the care
(35:57):
would be charged that somewhere between six to thousand, okay,
depending on how much care they need and what size
apartment you're in. And then the spouse that just wants
to be with his or her spouse would pay a
second person fee typically around one thousand to fifteen hundred
dollars a month, plus any level of care that they
may need, either now or in the future. So it's
(36:20):
I think that's the best value for two people to
live together in a care community would be found right
there at that assisted living level. And then if we
go over to long term care, this is when you
really need to hold on to the to your pocketbooks here.
So we have a couple of different options in long
term care, and we're looking at a shared room, which
(36:45):
means you have a roommate. Some of the rooms in
the older buildings, more traditional buildings, I mean there's a
bed on each side of the room, there's a curtain
down the middle. Not ideal, okay, But at this point
it's mostly about the care you rese and it's not
much about your personal space frankly, and you can use
(37:05):
different parts of the building throughout the day. But at
that long term care level, your room is really meant
to be more of a place where you would sleep,
take a nap, or sleep overnight. Of course, you can
stay in your room as much as you like, that's
not necessarily it's really more of a bedroom kind of
(37:26):
a situation. So that shared room eight thousand to nine thousand,
five hundred dollars again pretty common. And then if you
want a shared room, this is this is going to
come at a premium. Again, it's mostly about the care
that you receive, not very much about your personal space.
(37:47):
So you're going to pay a premium if you want
that personal space. You're going to look at eleven to
twelve thousand dollars to maybe upwards of fourteen fifteen thousand
dollars per month. It is very expensive. Now the curveball, Well, Steve,
you mentioned earlier there's a residential care facility. What about
that one? Okay, So I generally, not all the time,
(38:10):
generally referred to that as assisted living A little bit
to the lighter side of things. Assisted living is six
to nine thousand dollars a month. So in residential care
you could expect somewhere between, you know, thirty five hundred
to maybe six thousand dollars or so per month. That
ought to cover most of the places. Now there are
(38:30):
some exceptions, okay, and it could be more than that,
and they could provide more care than that, but that's
a general statement. Home plus that's the assisted living provided
in a house for four to six people, up to
ten to twelve people, higher staffing ratios, et cetera. So
(38:51):
I would call that assisted living on the higher end
of it, on the on the on the higher end
of care. Okay, So they're going to be pushing the
boundaries of what you can provide in the assisted living.
But again it's in a house. Eight to ten thousand
dollars a month is pretty common. So that's what we
have there. And then we have a couple of gray areas.
(39:12):
A lot of independent living communities will say, oh, hey,
we can do everything assisted living can do and so
you won't need assistant living. Well, I'm going to have
to call on that. One. That would be an independent
living community that has an on site home care provider,
and that could be a really good fit for some people.
They're not ready for assisted living. They can say in
(39:34):
their independent living apartment and then have an on site
home care provider come and visit you in fifteen minute increments.
I've had some clients where that was really a perfect fit,
but the general statement falls way short of oh, you
don't need assisted living, okay, fall short, and then you
have a lot of assistant living providers with the gray
area of oh, we're an agent place community and your
(39:58):
loved one can live here for the rest of their life. Well,
the reason I go on that one is because I
get the calls. I can't tell you how many calls
I've received when someone calls up and they're practically yelling
in the phone. We moved into this place and they
said they're an agent place and community. Dad could live
(40:18):
there forever. And then three months later, six months later,
we got this discharge letter saying they can no longer
meet his needs and we need to move him. Did
they lie to me? I'm like, no, I don't drag
me into that when I wasn't there. I don't know
exactly what was said, but it clearly fell into the
category of over promise under delivery. I'm telling you, every
(40:39):
single assisted living community has a threshold. If your care
needs exceed that threshold, you will be discharged period, so
you just have to be careful of that. And again
remember memory care is a special type of care for
a resident with cognitive impairment. It could be found at
(41:00):
the assisted living level, long term care level, and all
of the other levels of care that we discussed. And
then you could glue it all together and just put
a bracket over the whole thing and you have a
continuing care retirement community that has all of the above.
Where the concept is you downsize your house, you move
into an independent living apartment down the road. If you
(41:22):
need help with your activities of daily living, you can
easily transition to the assisted living part of the community
and receive that help. If you need more help than that,
you can easily transition to the long term care part
of the community. And you can live the rest of
your life knowing with that peace of mind, knowing you
never have to move again. They've got you no matter what.
(41:42):
They can meet all of your care needs through end
of life. I told you it was a fire hose today.
So if you have any questions about this reach out,
give me a call at Senior Care Consulting nine three
nine five twenty eight hundred. You can call me from
anywhere in the country. I'd be glad to help out.
If if you're looking at this and you're like, Okay,
(42:03):
wait a minute, we just started looking at places and
we've got it all wrong. We're going to need some
help on this. Or if you anticipate needing a place,
I would start looking today because all of the best
places have waiting lists. If you need our help, reach
out to my firm. Ask for a free consultation at
Seniorcare Consulting dot com or nine one three nine four
(42:24):
five two eight zero zero. All right, I'm Steve Keeker,
and I wish you grace in peace. May God bless
you and your family on this day and always join
me next week Right here on Senior Care Live.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
Does your business serve the elderly and their caregivers in
our area? There are hundreds of thousands of people either
receiving or providing senior care and they need to know
about you. A unique and successful program called Senior Care
Live is the perfect opportunity to let your target audience
know about your amazing products and services. Senior Care Live
(43:09):
is currently adding a limited number of partner sponsors, and
if you're aligned with their mission they want to talk
to you. They're interested in partnering with hospital organizations, physician groups,
home care providers, a state planning and older law practices,
financial advisors, insurance companies, real estate brokers, home health agencies,
and other providers serving the elderly and their caregivers. Senior
(43:33):
Care Live has a limited number of partner sponsor opportunities,
so call now at nine one three nine four five
twenty eight hundred nine one three nine four five twenty
eight hundred or visit seniorcare live dot com seniorcare live
dot com.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Quid pro quo a Latin phrase that means an exchange
of goods or services where one transfer is contingent upon
the other. Here's an example. I'll recommend your senior care
community if you'll pay me a huge kickback from my referral.
The free referral services have a vested interest in you
choosing one of their business partners. That's how they make
(44:10):
their money. Does this paid recommendation sound objective or credible?
Of course not. I'm Steve Keeker with Senior Care Consulting.
I'm so proud to say we have never received a
single penny from any provider ever. We offer a placement
service with integrity for help finding the right senior care community,
without conflict of interest and without the quid pro quo
(44:34):
called nine one three, nine four five twenty eight hundred
nine one three nine four five twenty eight hundred replacement
Service with Integrity at Seniorcare Consulting dot com
Are you caring for an aging loved one? Are you
a senior searching for answers? Welcome to Senior Care Live,
a program dedicated to you, providing information, education, and resources
for seniors and their caregivers. And now America's Senior Care Consultant,
Steve Keecker.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, and welcome to Senior Care Live. I'm Steve Keeker,
You're Senior Care Consultant, and I really appreciate you tuning
in today. And I'm we might call this the fire
hose Show because I've got a whole bunch of information
that I'm going to share with you today, So let's
jump right into that. And I want to and I
(00:45):
haven't talked about this for a little while, but there
are so many people throughout our entire country who have
made the decision that they're going to need a senior
care community, either for themselves or or a loved one.
And they may need it right away, they may need
it down the road, maybe by the end of the year,
maybe next year. Okay, but the decisions have been made.
(01:09):
So now what So what you must determine before ever
beginning your search, if you listen to this and pay
attention and then implement what I'm about to share with you.
This will save you dozens and dozens and dozens and
maybe dozens of hours of time. The average family spends
(01:32):
between fifty and one hundred hours if they're trying to
do their homework. They don't have to just grab something
in an emergency, but they're trying to get it right.
They're doing their homework, they're visiting all these places, asking
all the questions, they're online checking out all the stuff.
Fifty to one hundred hours that's been shared with me
over and over and over again over these past, you know,
(01:54):
over twenty years. Okay, so I'm pretty confident that that
is the the normal average. Okay, of course, senior care
consulting clients, they're done in four hours. Boom, they're done.
We save a ridiculous amount of time. But if you
want to do this on your own, this will save
you dozens of hours of time. And the biggest mistake
I see people make is it's the old shotgut approach. Well,
(02:18):
I'm gonna go check out this place over here, and
then maybe someone in the family. Hey, as I drive
to work, there's this place that it was just built.
It looks really nice. I'll just go check that one out.
I'm gonna spend some time with them, and well, I
heard about this place, I'll go check that one out.
And they're just they're going to places that don't fit,
that don't fit their criteria, and they're just literally wasting
their time, literally a waste of time. You feel good
(02:42):
because you're busy and you're doing stuff, but you are
wasting your time. So let's get organized. Let's have instead
of the shotgun approach, let's have the rifle approach. Okay,
so you know, bullseye and we're gonna do this very
very focused, all right, So what to determine before ever
(03:04):
beginning your search for a senior care community. The first
thing you must know or determine is what level of
care do you need? Well, Steve, what do you talk?
What do you mean? What are you talking about? What's
the level of care? I know that that's why we're
doing this. So I equate the level of care to
(03:30):
the licensure of the place. I relate it directly to
the licensure. So each place providing hands on care has
to operate and conform to the requirements of the licensure
that they have been granted by the state where they reside,
(03:51):
where they provide the care. Okay, so long term care
also known as a nurse home. That's that highest level
of care. That's the medical model. That is a level
of care. Long term care. That's the level and again
that's the medical model. It's the highest level of care.
(04:13):
A lot of people still refer to that as a
nursing home, skilled nursing, the health center. There are, you know,
all sorts of ways to describe that. I just call
it long term care because that's what it is. That's
exactly what it is. Okay, maybe you need the level
of care that would be the assisted living level of care.
(04:34):
So the assisted living level of care operates per its licensure.
And if the assisted living level, if you've listened to
this program for any length of time at all, you
would know that that is the level of care. And
it's very popular. Lots and lots of people go to
the assisted living level of care and receive great care.
(04:58):
So that's the level of ca that will help you
with your activities of daily living real it's not a
medical model. It's really more of a social model where
they can help you minimally or fully with your bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting.
They can provide incontinent support if that would be necessary.
They manage your medications. There's a full slate of activities
(05:19):
for meaningful social engagement. They make all of your meal, snacks,
and hydration. At that point, doctors make house calls. There's
transportation to get out of the building to see your
own doctor that you've seen for the last forty years,
thirty years, twenty years, or maybe a specialist. There's a
lot to like about the assisted living level of care,
(05:40):
but that is a level of care. So I have
long term care, which does all of that, plus medical care,
diabetic management with insulin injection, wound care, catheter care, urinary
catheter care, tube feeding, two person transfer, heavy heavy physical care,
plus all these medical care areas ost to meet care,
(06:03):
those sort of things. Okay, so you have long term
care assisted living. What about residential care? Now not all
states have this, but most do. I generally refer to that,
I'd say generally as assisted living light, So their licensure
would require that the residents living there, generally speaking, are
(06:25):
a little higher functioning, a little less staffing. They do
a little bit less for you, but there's still some
care in management and oversight. Now, what about the home plus.
Now this is something pretty unique to the state of Kansas.
So for example, Missouri would just refer to this as
assisted living, but in Kansas they have created a level
of care called home Plus. So it's basically speaking, it's
(06:49):
the assisted living level of care, but it's provided in
a house, literally in a house, so that home like setting.
They've got that down. Okay, So it's in a house.
Typically you're going to see four to six residents up
to maybe about twelve residents. So usually the staffing ratios
are really great at the home plus level. Typically one
(07:12):
to four is pretty common. For higher functioning home plus
residents or house maybe one to five or six, but
one to four is pretty common. That's a very good
staffing ratio. And then you may have an intermediate care facility,
which is essentially long term care without the Medicare certification. Okay,
(07:33):
So if all of that has your head spinning already,
this is why Senior care Consulting exists. We are not
intimidated by this. We speak this, this is what we do,
and we walk our clients through all of this. We
have a proprietary six page geriatric care assessment and that
(07:57):
helps us work together with you to determine the proper
level of care. And that's the first thing that you
must determine before ever thinking about beginning your search. And
back to that shotgun approach. All kinds of people with
very good intentions, and they're very busy and they feel
good about it because they're working on this. Okay, Well,
(08:18):
I'm going to go look at that place and I hey,
there's a new place on my way to work. And
so and so at church said that, you know, this
is a good place, and they're checking all these places out.
Maybe all these places are the assisted living level of
care when what you actually need is long term care.
You've just wasted all of your time, Okay, and that's
really really easy to do. I'm not scolding you, okay
or anything like that. I'm just trying to make my
(08:40):
point that you really need to determine several things here
before beginning your search so your search is more focused
and less kind of scattered, so you don't waste time again,
saving dozens and dozens and dozens of hours of time.
All right, Number two, what type of care? What type
of care do you require? Well, what do you mean, Steve,
(09:04):
the level of care, I mean, that's all we need, right, Nope,
it's not that easy. So maybe you need just general
I call it general care. Just every day get old
fashioned general care that is offered at the particular level
of care that you require. What about memory care, Well, Steve,
(09:24):
isn't that at a place? Nope, it's not. That's a
type of care. So memory care is a special type
of care for a resident with cognitive impairment period. That's it,
and that can be offered at the long term care
level of care, at the assisted living level of care,
at the residential care level of care, at the home
plus level of care, and the intermediate care facility level
(09:46):
of care. That just blew a whole bunch of people's
minds right there. Well I thought it was a place.
No it's not. It's a type of care that can
be offered at a whole bunch of different levels of care.
What about skilled nursing and rehab, Well, yeah, Steve, we're
going to need that skilled nursing and rehab paid for
by Medicare. Well, if that is the case, then that
(10:07):
is only offered at the long term care level of care.
You cannot get that in the assisted living level of care.
And then you have other types of care mental health care,
hospice care, respite care. So it gets pretty complicated, folks.
So what to determine before beginning your search level of
(10:27):
care and the type of care. And I'm going to
have more because it gets even more complex than that.
But let's not forget about the Senior Care Live question
of the week. Memory care is a level of care?
Is that statement true or false? What do you think?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. For more information, visit seniorcare live dot com.
We'll have more with Steve coming up next. A recent
Internet search for nursing homes in Kansas City provided thirty
(11:06):
two million results. It's daunting to think that there are
over three hundred and fifty senior care communities to choose
from in the Kansas City metro and on average you'll
spend fifty to one hundred hours trying to find a
place for your loved one. If this sounds overwhelming, that's
because it is. I invite you to reach out to
Senior Care Consulting. We've been serving family since two thousand
(11:28):
and two with our premium service. We do most of
the work for you.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You'll spend just a.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Few hours of your time finding the best place available,
and you can trust us to be objective because we
don't receive reimbursement from any provider. We work for you.
To learn more, call Senior Care Consulting at nine three
nine four five twenty eight hundred nine nine four five
twenty eight hundred, a placement service with integrity at Seniorcare
(11:57):
Consulting dot com.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live on the
Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For more information, go to seniorcare
Live dot com. Now back to our Senior Care Live
Question of the week. We'll see if you're paying attention.
Memory care is a level of care? Is that statement
true or false? And the answer is false. The answer
(12:35):
is false. Memory care is not a level of care.
And so many people believe that memory care is a
level of care. We would just go over there to
that memory care place. Well, no, what do you mean
in the memory care place? Was it long term care
or was it assisted living? I don't know, it's that
(12:55):
memory care place. It doesn't work like that. So again,
memory care is a special type of care. For a
resident with cognitive impairment. So if that person needs help
(13:16):
with their bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, medication distribution, some of
those sort of things, then they would be properly placed
or qualified at the assisted living level of care where
that assisted living provider provides general care and memory care,
(13:42):
so memory care. To get a quick ticket to memory care,
I think the primary reason to get you in there
or that would qualify you to be transferred there or
maybe move in on day one in memory care is
that you are what the industry calls an elopement risk
(14:06):
or a flight risk. So maybe you're not trying to
cause any troubles, but you're looking around. You're like, you
know what, this place is pretty nice, but it's not
where I live. I'm going home. And then you're out.
You're trying the door, you're out of there because you're
(14:26):
going to walk home that this is not my home.
It's a nice place. People are really nice, my neighbors
are friendly, but it's not where I live, right and
God bless these people. They have dementia, they have Alzheimer's,
you know, one of the one of the other forms
of dementia, et cetera. And they're confused and they don't understand,
and it's not where they they it's not their house,
(14:48):
it's not where they live. I think the second most
common issue that would get you a quick ticket to
memory care is over stimulation. So someone with dementia just
can't process all the noise. Maybe there's just there's too
much noise, there's too much stuff going on, there are
(15:09):
too many people around, there's just too much stuff. And
then you can just see them just started to wind
up and wind up tighter and tighter, and pretty soon, boom,
they're going to blow and they're going to start yelling
at people. And because they just get they can't process
this stuff, and they become belligerent, may be assertive, they
may even become combative. Okay, So they need a smaller
(15:34):
quiet space, less noise, less lights, fewer people, shorter halways
all and a coded a coat on the door. Okay,
you can leave the area. You just need to be
accompanied for your own safety and security. Okay. I think
those are those are the two main reasons. There are
(15:55):
some other reasons that you may need to be in there.
Your behavior could just be disruptive. You're walking in and
out of everyone's room. You're walking into someone else's room.
You're going in and you're laying down in their bed,
and it's very upsetting to that person. Hey, why Hey,
get them out of here, right. So that's another issue
that would get you a quick ticket to memory care
(16:16):
because they kind of expect that in the memory care area. Okay.
So memory care is a type of care that you
could find at that long term care slash nursing home
level where you have you need a lot heavier care,
you have some medical needs. It could be found in
the other primary area that you could receive memory care
would be at that assisted living level of care where
(16:39):
you need help with your bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, incontinent support,
medication distribution, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, and there's some
others as well. That would be the two main ones. Okay.
Then the skilled nursing and rehab we talked about that,
mental health care, hospice care, respite care. All of those
are the types of care. So you have carefully determined
(17:02):
what level of care you need and what type of
care you need. Now here's the uh, the eight hundred
pound elephant in the room. So to speak, how are
you going to pay for all this stuff? Oh? Boy,
it's expensive. Pretty soon, I'm going to get into that
some average monthly costs. And if you're driving, you might
(17:23):
want to pull over to the side of the road
when I talk about that, I don't want to cause
you to veer off the road. You're like, what, so,
it is very expensive. But if you hear the term
private pay, that means you use it. You're writ in
a check. I mean you're you're using your own resources
to pay for your care. You know, what about medicare?
(17:44):
What does it pay for? What about Medicaid? What is Medicaid?
What does it pay for? How do you qualify for that? Okay?
What about long term care insurance? Does that factor into this?
And I would say absolutely yes. I believe that the
national statistic about five to six percent of people needing
care actually have long term care insurance policies. So if
(18:07):
you have one, hang on to it. Hang on to
it because when that thing kicks in, it's worth its
weight in gold, and it is protecting your assets because
it's offsetting that cost. It's paying for the majority of
the cost, maybe all of the cost. Okay, then what
about the vaaid and attendance benefit do you qualify for that?
How much will you receive? And then how much will
(18:30):
that help your financial outlook here when paying for the
high cost of senior care. And then you have location,
like in real estate, location, location, location, and it is important.
We all want the convenience of this place being close
to us. But I think the better question is how
(18:50):
far are you willing to travel to get the best
care for your loved one. That's a question I ask
every single one of my clients with senior care consulting. Well, Steve,
I don't want to drive too far out, but you know,
maybe thirty minutes or so from you know, from where
we live or where mom lives or dad lives, Okay,
(19:11):
whatever that point is, maybe in Johnson County or Jackson County,
or north of the river, or Steve, anywhere on the
Missouri side or the Kansas site. And this conversation could
be had all around the country. Obviously, how far out
can we look and are you willing to drive to
(19:32):
find the best care for your loved one? So location
parameters very important. And then last but definitely not least,
any personal preferences and needs. So this would be something
very specific to you or your loved one. So I've
had several clients say, Steve, mother has played the piano
for several decades and it's just it's part of her
(19:55):
DNA at this point, and it would be fantastic if
they had a keano where she would be welcome to play.
And I'm a musician, so I understand that. I don't
think that's a would be nice to have. I think
that's a gotta have, okay, And so we need to
find a place that that's important to that particular person.
Maybe not to everyone, but that particular person. Another one
(20:18):
of my clients said, never serve my mother any foul
anything with the beak on it, forget it. No turkey
at Thanksgiving, no grilled chicken sandwiches, et cetera. So what
to determine before beginning your search. You need to know
the level of care, the type of care, payment methods, location,
personal preferences and needs. And coming up next, I will
(20:39):
review all of the levels of care, what they provide
and their average monthly cost.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. Have a question. This is Seniorcare Live dot com.
Stick around. We'll have more with Steve coming up next.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Hello, this is Steve Keeker, president of Senior Care Consulting.
I'm so excited to announce that we are expanding nationwide
by awarding Senior Care Consulting franchises. We help our clients
find the right senior care community, including assistant living, memory care,
long term care, and continuing care retirement communities. We are
(21:23):
not another run of the mill, free referral service. We're
very different. We offer replacement service with integrity. Owning a
senior care consulting franchise offers many benefits. Our market is
not affected by the economy. Operate from your home office
and enjoy work life balance. Pour your passion into a
business you can be proud of. For more information about
(21:46):
owning a senior care consulting franchise, call eight three three
seven two two three seven two six eight three three
seven two two three seven two six or visit Senior
Care Consulting. Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live
(22:11):
on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For podcasts to the program,
go to seniorcare live dot com or wherever you get
your podcasts. All right, so we're talking today about what
to determine beforeever beginning your search. Need to know the
(22:31):
level of care required. And here's what we do at
senior care consulting. We don't just look at today. I
am a meticulous planner and I look ahead. I look
way ahead, and I anticipate needs, and I anticipate other
levels of care and other things like that that may
(22:53):
be required or will be required down the road. So
look at today, but also a plan for the future
when you're doing all this, so you need to know
the level of care, the type of care, the payment methods,
how are we going to pay for this. It's all
very expensive, as I will share here in a little bit,
location parameters, and any personal preferences and needs. All right,
(23:19):
once you have that down, now you can have a
very targeted and focused search. So let me review the
different levels of care and then get into the average
monthly costs. So the first stop, if you will, in
this progression of senior care communities would be referred to
(23:43):
as independent living. Okay, there's no care provided at independent living,
but this is really more of a lifestyle change. So
let's say you're living in your house and you're using
about twenty percent of your house because all the family's
gone and moved out and the house is becoming home
(24:03):
ownership is becoming burdensome, and you don't want to worry
about hot water heaters anymore and leaves in the gutter
and cracks in the foundation and mowing the lawn and
scooping the snow and all the stuff and the rooflicking,
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. You're done with that
and you want a lifestyle change. You want to downsize,
(24:26):
shed yourself of that home ownership responsibility, and then move
into an independent living community so you're on your own,
but you're definitely not alone. You have a very nice apartment.
You have a fully equipped kitchen, so you can cook
anything any time you want. It's your plate. You can
(24:48):
do what you want to do. But they do offer
a meal, at least one kind of the main meal
per day. Typically, sometimes they'll offer a couple of meals
per day. Sometimes I even see all three, but they
always offer the main meal and maybe another one, okay.
And they also offer transportation so you don't have to
(25:11):
worry about going out in the rain or the crummy weather.
They offer transportation maybe once a week to run to
the grocery store, maybe another place to run to another
general storage, just to get stuff. There are socialization opportunities there,
but again, you are fully independent. You can come and
go as you'd like anytime you want. But but you
(25:35):
have some of these some of these other other benefits
and amenities at independent living. Okay, the next step in
this continuum, if you will, and it's a pretty wide lane,
it's the assisted living level of care. You notice I
(25:55):
said level of care. There is care provided at the
assisted living level of care according to the licensure that
they must operate from and meet all the requirements in
your particular state. Again, it's a social model. They help
with the activities of daily living. They can help you
(26:16):
minimally or fully your bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting. And you
may not need help with all of those things. You know,
you can pick and choose. You don't have to have
help with everything. If you don't need help using the toilet,
then of course they're not going to help you. But
if you need help with any or all of those things,
minimally or fully, that's what they're there to help you with.
(26:37):
And they can do all of that. They can help
out to there's a limit here to a point with
your incontinence care and support and management if that would
be necessary. They distribute your medications. They'll order it, manage it,
make sure you get them on time. That's huge. They
(26:58):
make all of your meals at this point, so you'll
have a small kitchenette where you can reheat stuff, but
you're not doing any cooking anymore. They're taking care of
all that for you. They'll provide all the snacks and
hydration for you throughout the day. There's a full slate
of activities for meaningful social engagement and quality of life.
(27:20):
There's transportation to get out of the building to go
see your doctor, go see a specialist. Doctors also make
house calls. This is pretty important, I think, so you
don't have to use the Usually there's always one, maybe
a couple of doctors physicians that would come into the building.
(27:41):
They're making a house call. So we think, oh, that's
so old fashioned, no one does that. Well, yeah they do.
If you live in an assistant living community, a doctor
will come to your apartment and make a house call.
You don't you don't even have you don't have to
go outside, you don't have to get in your car.
You don't have to drive anywhere. They come to you.
And I think it's huge. Okay, so you have a
(28:04):
lot of support at that assisted living level of care.
That's that wide. Now graphically, if we're on television and
I give this presentation all the time, I do tons
of presentations for different employers and civic groups and churches,
et cetera. But in the assisted living level of care,
(28:25):
there's a lot of leeway. You can choose to provide
very little care. And in its marketing, oh, we have
a vibrant, independent community and we're on the we're on
the go all the time, and all of healthy lifestyles
and we're walking clubs and all this stuff, and they
can choose to provide a little bit of care. Some
(28:48):
of them are clear over to the other side, leaning
towards long term care, providing a tremendous amount of care
in an effort to keep you out of a nursing home,
out of long term care. Oh and by the way,
everything in between. So I think that is the second
most difficult level of care to go out and try
(29:10):
to tackle on your own, because you could go to
six different places here, six different stories about what they
do and what they offer, and they could all be true.
That one's really tough because there's a pretty wide range
of what they can do and what they can offer.
That's the assisted living level of care. And then you
(29:30):
move over graphically, I've got them kind of in a
progression here. Then you move over to long term care
again also known to many people as a nursing home.
That's the medical model, and they can and they do,
provide everything that assisted living provides, plus full medical care.
(29:53):
And that could be a two percon transfer and God
bless them, maybe they're so weak that their bed bound.
They can provide all the care that you would need,
including showering on a flat gurney type of a situation.
Whatever's required, they can take care of you. They can
provide wound care, which would require LPNs and RNs for management.
(30:16):
They can provide catheter care. They can provide pain management injections,
diabetic management with insulin injections. They can provide tube feeding.
It just goes on and on and on. So they
can help out with all of those things. So those
are the big three. So let's talk about some average pricing.
(30:38):
Please don't wreck if you're drinking coffee, put your coffee down.
I don't want you spitting your coffee out all over
your table. So when you move into independent living, okay,
it largely depends on the size of the apartment and
whether you have one or two people moving in. But
(31:00):
the big differentiation would be how nice, how new the
apartment is, and then the size of the apartment. So
a studio is less than a one bedroom, is less
than a two bedroom, is less than a three bedroom. Right,
so we all, we all, we've got that right. So
it's going to be around thirty five hundred dollars a
month on the low end to maybe fifty five hundred
(31:20):
dollars kind of on the upper end. You can definitely
go higher than that. Maybe you could go a little
bit lower than that, but that that's going to be
a solid, a solid range, and that's per month. Now,
I have a lot of people say, well, now wait
a minute, Steve, I'll just my house is paid for,
I'm just going to stay at home. Well, have you
ever totaled up the cost of what it actually costs
(31:42):
you to stay at home with your mortgage paid off
and you have home owners insurance every month, personal property
tax and then the upkeep of again replacing water heaters
and repairing the roof and all the stuff. If you
add it all up, plus groceries and everything else, it's
not that far off. Not really Coming up next, I
(32:04):
am going to continue this conversation on the different levels
of care and the average monthly cost. So I'm going
to talk about the assisted living level of care coming up,
long term care level of care, and then I'm going
to throw a little curveball in there because we have
a couple a couple of other levels of care, And
(32:26):
then I'm going to talk briefly about a continuing care
retirement community. So, like I said, this is a fire
hose type of a program. Stick around. More coming up next.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. To contact Steve or a guest on his show,
this is Seniorcare Live dot Com.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
We'll have more coming up. So you've been living intopend
at home, but now it's not working out. It's time
to begin searching for a senior care community. But with
hundreds of independent living, assisted living, long term care, and
(33:10):
memory care options, how are you supposed to determine the
best place for you. Hello. I'm Steve Keeker, and this
is exactly why I created my firm, Senior Care Consulting.
I help my own grandparents through this difficult process, so
I know how overwhelming this can be. Our business model
ensures credibility and objectivity. We work directly for you and
(33:33):
we never receive reimbursement from any provider. We've helped hundreds
of family since two thousand and two, and we can
help you and your family as well. Call today for
a free consultation at nine one three nine four five
twenty eight hundred nine one three nine four five twenty
eight hundred a placement service with integrity at Seniorcareconsulting dot com.
(34:06):
Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live on the
Senior Care Broadcasting Network. Have a question, visit Seniorcare Live
dot com. All right, so we're talking about the different
levels of care, the average monthly cost and this stuff
is expensive. Is it worth it? Yep? If you need it,
it's absolutely worth it. Okay, So we talked about independent living,
(34:27):
let's move on to the assisted living level of care again.
It's the social model, helping you with your activities of
daily living. I've already talked about that a couple of
two or three times, and the biggest driver on the
cost differences would be the size of the apartment and
how much care you need. Most places have a base
(34:49):
charge plus a level of care charge. So if you
need a little bit of help, you're going to pay
a little bit of a level of care charge. If
you need a lot of help, you're going pay the
base plus a higher level of care charge. And then
that way, the person using fewer resources needing less care
would pay less than someone using more resources and receiving
(35:13):
more care. So it's a more of a fair type
of a payment model, if you will, okay, And a
studio costs less than one bedroom cost less than a
two bedroom, right, So both of those things are drivers.
We're looking at an average of six thousand dollars a
month to about nine thousand dollars a month. That should
cover most of the places. And I have a lot
(35:36):
of people asking, well, what if you have a couple
and maybe one spouse needs the care but the other
spouse wants to be with them. Can they live together? Yeah? Absolutely,
of course they can. And so the big question is
does that double the price? And I'm happy to say
it does not, okay. So the spouse needing the care
(35:57):
would be charged that somewhere between six to thousand, okay,
depending on how much care they need and what size
apartment you're in. And then the spouse that just wants
to be with his or her spouse would pay a
second person fee typically around one thousand to fifteen hundred
dollars a month, plus any level of care that they
may need, either now or in the future. So it's
(36:20):
I think that's the best value for two people to
live together in a care community would be found right
there at that assisted living level. And then if we
go over to long term care, this is when you
really need to hold on to the to your pocketbooks here.
So we have a couple of different options in long
term care, and we're looking at a shared room, which
(36:45):
means you have a roommate. Some of the rooms in
the older buildings, more traditional buildings, I mean there's a
bed on each side of the room, there's a curtain
down the middle. Not ideal, okay, But at this point
it's mostly about the care you rese and it's not
much about your personal space frankly, and you can use
(37:05):
different parts of the building throughout the day. But at
that long term care level, your room is really meant
to be more of a place where you would sleep,
take a nap, or sleep overnight. Of course, you can
stay in your room as much as you like, that's
not necessarily it's really more of a bedroom kind of
(37:26):
a situation. So that shared room eight thousand to nine thousand,
five hundred dollars again pretty common. And then if you
want a shared room, this is this is going to
come at a premium. Again, it's mostly about the care
that you receive, not very much about your personal space.
(37:47):
So you're going to pay a premium if you want
that personal space. You're going to look at eleven to
twelve thousand dollars to maybe upwards of fourteen fifteen thousand
dollars per month. It is very expensive. Now the curveball, Well, Steve,
you mentioned earlier there's a residential care facility. What about
that one? Okay, So I generally, not all the time,
(38:10):
generally referred to that as assisted living A little bit
to the lighter side of things. Assisted living is six
to nine thousand dollars a month. So in residential care
you could expect somewhere between, you know, thirty five hundred
to maybe six thousand dollars or so per month. That
ought to cover most of the places. Now there are
(38:30):
some exceptions, okay, and it could be more than that,
and they could provide more care than that, but that's
a general statement. Home plus that's the assisted living provided
in a house for four to six people, up to
ten to twelve people, higher staffing ratios, et cetera. So
(38:51):
I would call that assisted living on the higher end
of it, on the on the on the higher end
of care. Okay, So they're going to be pushing the
boundaries of what you can provide in the assisted living.
But again it's in a house. Eight to ten thousand
dollars a month is pretty common. So that's what we
have there. And then we have a couple of gray areas.
(39:12):
A lot of independent living communities will say, oh, hey,
we can do everything assisted living can do and so
you won't need assistant living. Well, I'm going to have
to call on that. One. That would be an independent
living community that has an on site home care provider,
and that could be a really good fit for some people.
They're not ready for assisted living. They can say in
(39:34):
their independent living apartment and then have an on site
home care provider come and visit you in fifteen minute increments.
I've had some clients where that was really a perfect fit,
but the general statement falls way short of oh, you
don't need assisted living, okay, fall short, and then you
have a lot of assistant living providers with the gray
area of oh, we're an agent place community and your
(39:58):
loved one can live here for the rest of their life. Well,
the reason I go on that one is because I
get the calls. I can't tell you how many calls
I've received when someone calls up and they're practically yelling
in the phone. We moved into this place and they
said they're an agent place and community. Dad could live
(40:18):
there forever. And then three months later, six months later,
we got this discharge letter saying they can no longer
meet his needs and we need to move him. Did
they lie to me? I'm like, no, I don't drag
me into that when I wasn't there. I don't know
exactly what was said, but it clearly fell into the
category of over promise under delivery. I'm telling you, every
(40:39):
single assisted living community has a threshold. If your care
needs exceed that threshold, you will be discharged period, so
you just have to be careful of that. And again
remember memory care is a special type of care for
a resident with cognitive impairment. It could be found at
(41:00):
the assisted living level, long term care level, and all
of the other levels of care that we discussed. And
then you could glue it all together and just put
a bracket over the whole thing and you have a
continuing care retirement community that has all of the above.
Where the concept is you downsize your house, you move
into an independent living apartment down the road. If you
(41:22):
need help with your activities of daily living, you can
easily transition to the assisted living part of the community
and receive that help. If you need more help than that,
you can easily transition to the long term care part
of the community. And you can live the rest of
your life knowing with that peace of mind, knowing you
never have to move again. They've got you no matter what.
(41:42):
They can meet all of your care needs through end
of life. I told you it was a fire hose today.
So if you have any questions about this reach out,
give me a call at Senior Care Consulting nine three
nine five twenty eight hundred. You can call me from
anywhere in the country. I'd be glad to help out.
If if you're looking at this and you're like, Okay,
(42:03):
wait a minute, we just started looking at places and
we've got it all wrong. We're going to need some
help on this. Or if you anticipate needing a place,
I would start looking today because all of the best
places have waiting lists. If you need our help, reach
out to my firm. Ask for a free consultation at
Seniorcare Consulting dot com or nine one three nine four
(42:24):
five two eight zero zero. All right, I'm Steve Keeker,
and I wish you grace in peace. May God bless
you and your family on this day and always join
me next week Right here on Senior Care Live.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
Does your business serve the elderly and their caregivers in
our area? There are hundreds of thousands of people either
receiving or providing senior care and they need to know
about you. A unique and successful program called Senior Care
Live is the perfect opportunity to let your target audience
know about your amazing products and services. Senior Care Live
(43:09):
is currently adding a limited number of partner sponsors, and
if you're aligned with their mission they want to talk
to you. They're interested in partnering with hospital organizations, physician groups,
home care providers, a state planning and older law practices,
financial advisors, insurance companies, real estate brokers, home health agencies,
and other providers serving the elderly and their caregivers. Senior
(43:33):
Care Live has a limited number of partner sponsor opportunities,
so call now at nine one three nine four five
twenty eight hundred nine one three nine four five twenty
eight hundred or visit seniorcare live dot com seniorcare live
dot com.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Quid pro quo a Latin phrase that means an exchange
of goods or services where one transfer is contingent upon
the other. Here's an example. I'll recommend your senior care
community if you'll pay me a huge kickback from my referral.
The free referral services have a vested interest in you
choosing one of their business partners. That's how they make
(44:10):
their money. Does this paid recommendation sound objective or credible?
Of course not. I'm Steve Keeker with Senior Care Consulting.
I'm so proud to say we have never received a
single penny from any provider ever. We offer a placement
service with integrity for help finding the right senior care community,
without conflict of interest and without the quid pro quo
(44:34):
called nine one three, nine four five twenty eight hundred
nine one three nine four five twenty eight hundred replacement
Service with Integrity at Seniorcare Consulting dot com
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