CONSIDER THE FUTURE FOR YOUR ELDERLY LOVED ONES THIS…
Holidays are traditionally a time for families and friends to gather together, celebrating the season and each other. Often times, family members haven’t seen each other in months, sometimes even years, making the declining health of a loved one much more obvious than it may be to those who visit more frequently.
On the other hand, sometime the primary caregiver has had trouble fully explaining the needs of caring for an elderly parent or family member. Either way, holiday family gatherings are a good time to assess and discuss the long-term health care needs of your aging loved ones.
Discuss As A Family
Once you have everyone together, including the person who needs care, work together to develop a strategy for how things will be handled. Consider creating a checklist of the various factors that will need to be addressed, including both financial and physical requirements.
Financial Concerns
Long-term care can be expensive and many people incorrectly believe that medicare, medicaid, medical insurance or disability insurance will cover the cost of all or majority of their long-term care. Unfortunately, health insurance may only cover limited or specific types of long-term care, while disability policies generally do not cover any cost at all. Most often, the cost of long-term elder care is paid from an individual’s personal savings and income.
In general, medicare only covers the costs for acute care, such as doctor visits, drugs and hospital stays. Under certain conditions, medicare may also cover all or a portion of a short stay in a skilled nursing facility, hospice care or home health care, while medicaid is designed to helping low income individuals pay a portion or in some cases, cover all of their health care bills. Depending upon the circumstances, medicaid (known as Medi-Cal in California)will pay for medical care, long-term care services in nursing homes and long-term care services provided at home.
Another option to help defray the cost of elder care is long-term care insurance and you should find out if your aging family member has any long-term care insurance and if so, how to apply the policy when the time comes. If not, consider finding out if your family member still qualifies for long-term care insurance.
Physical Assistance
Like many people, your loved ones might prefer to stay at home as long as possible. If everyone agrees that staying at home is a viable option, consider if any modifications are necessary to make the environment as safe as possible.
Some changes might be easy, such as improved lighting, stair lifts and grab bars. Additional resources and assistance may be required as well, such as cleaning services, food delivery service or home care nursing.
Should it become to difficult or dangerous for your aging family member to live at home, there are several types of assisted living facilities. Perhaps a continuing care retirement communities would be a better choice for your family. These types of elder care facilities may include a wide range of housing options, such as independent living units as well as assisted living and nursing homes, all within the same community. Should it be necessary, there are also numerous nursing homes to provide the most service-intensive housing, including skilled nursing services and therapies as needed.
For more information about elder care communities, facilities and home-care options throughout California, please contact CaliforniaRegistry today.