FOUR REASONS WHY NURSING HOME PLANNING IS SO IMPORTANT

Rhode Island nursing home planning attorneys can provide help with making a nursing home plan. Making a plan is important not only for people who believe that the need for nursing home care is imminent, but also for people who may someday need to get care in a nursing home setting.  
 
Fabisch Law attorneys will work with individuals and families to determine both if a nursing home plan is needed and to determine what legal tools should be used to create a plan. Though it is often possible to help a client who has an emergency or crisis need for long term care, there are often better options that can save you and your family more money and ensure better care by making your plans long before you actually need care. Some of the reasons making a plan is so vital include the following:

There is a High Likelihood Care Will Be Needed
One of the biggest reasons why you should have a nursing home plan in place for your parents and yourself is because there is a high likelihood that at some point you will need nursing home care. The Wall Street Journal has reported that according to a study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than 70 percent of people who are 65 years of age or older will end up requiring long term care services. A person who has reached the age of 65 has a 40 percent likelihood of eventually nursing home care and that same 65-year-old has a 20 percent chance of needing to spend five years or more in a nursing home environment.

Despite the likelihood that nursing home care will someday be required, too many people don’t make plans for the possibility of needing care. The result is that seniors or their families who have just experienced a medical emergency that makes it impossible for the senior to continue living on their own end up scrambling to find a home with an open bed. Yet, the immediate aftermath of a stroke, a fall, or another serious health incident is the worst time to be making important decisions about long-term care care.

Nursing Home Care is Expensive
The huge costs of nursing home care are also a big reason why a plan should be made in advance. In New England, nursing home care can easily cost more than $100,000 per year. Far too many families are simply unable to afford this cost for any length of time. Even those seniors who have been able to build up savings over the course of a lifetime find that this expense quickly depletes their lifetime of savings leaving nothing to pass on to their children and grandchildren.

Long-Term Nursing Home Care is Not Covered by Most Insurance
Unfortunately, while many seniors assume that Medicare will pay for their nursing home, in practice, this is unlikely to happen. Though Medicare covers very brief durations of time spent in skilled nursing facilities to receive specific specialized care. Medicare provides no coverage for custodial care at all, even though most people who go into a nursing home do so because they require custodial care.
Options for covering the costs of nursing home care are very limited if Medicare won’t pay. Long term care insurance is often prohibitively expensive, and the coverage may not be comprehensive, though considering the option of long term care insurance is one of the things we look at with you in putting together a plan. Paying out of pocket or getting Medicaid to pay for care could be the only two viable options. Unfortunately, Medicaid will pay only after you’ve spent away almost all of your wealth– unless you make plans in advance to protect your assets, including your home, while still qualifying for Medicaid coverage. Making a nursing home plan allows you to protect your money, property, and home and qualify to get Medicaid to cover you when you need care.

Planning Helps to Avoid the Risk of Nursing Home Abuse
According to the National Council in Aging, one out of every ten Americans aged sixty or older has been a victim of some kind of elder abuse. Though, unfortunately, too many cases of abuse are not reported, it is clear a substantial number of nursing home residents are neglected or are abused physically, emotionally, or sexually, or exploited financially.

Making a nursing home plan before you need care helps make sure you have the time you need to research care facilities in your area so you can find a high quality home with a good reputation, and where there is less of a chance that you or your parent will become the victim of abuse.

Getting Help from Rhode Island Nursing Home Attorneys
Rhode Island nursing home attorneys at Fabisch Law Offices can provide the comprehensive assistance that you need in finding a nursing home that will provide a high quality of care for you or your loved one. Our legal team will also assist you in taking the necessary steps to ensure you can afford to pay for the care you need it.

To find out more about the ways in which our legal team can help you, give us a call at 401-324-9344 or contact us online to get personalized advice from Rhode Island or Massachusetts nursing home attorneys with experience. Give us a call today to get your plans in place before it is too late and you suffer a medical event that necessitates you go into a nursing home.

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