In Florida if you can't care for yourself or don't have a relative close by to care for you, and don't have a private long-term care policy, most roads lead to a nursing home or other long term care facility.

 

We have many clients who reside successfully, with quality of life and for long periods of time in skilled nursing facilities. The issue here is premature placement because of the upside down funding structure.

Many older people and their adult children do not realize that Medicare does not pay for long-term care needs, and that Medicaid pays very little for assisted living or home health care. Medicaid was designed to pay only for the costs of nursing home care in Florida which tends to be approximately $75,000.00 per year

Approximately ten years ago, Florida instituted a Medicaid program, now called the Medicaid Diversion Program, intended to keep people from entering nursing homes before necessary.  However in 2009 an AARP analysis reported that only 14 percent of Medicaid's long-term care funding in Florida is spent on home and community-based care compared to the national average of 27 percent. This forces families to place their loved one in a nursing home before they would necessarily need to as a result of simple financial concerns. Advocates in Tallahassee have tried repeatedly to convince legislators that spending more money on home and community-based programs would be cheaper than nursing homes and could result in overall savings in the State. Since the average cost of home care is $8,000.00 a year, this is a far cry from the $75,000.00 a year it costs to keep a person in a nursing home.

In our practice we see this problem played out all too often. It is our goal to keep people at home as long as they want to and are able to, and to transition to assisted living when it's needed. The assistance the Medicaid Diversion Program provides, is a godsend for family members who did not want to place their loved ones in a nursing home prematurely. Nonetheless, because the program is not funded regularly, we have clients who are on the waiting for this program and often other family members are required to pick up the tab.

 

Our office also applies for Veterans' benefits for long-term care needs at home or in assisted living facilities to help defray the cost of this care. If you, anyone in your family, or in your professional life needs assistance with paying for the cost of long-term care needs, don't hesitate to contact our office. In the meantime we can only hope that Florida will figure out that it's cheaper to keep people in the community than to force them into nursing homes prematurely.