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Nursing Home, Assisted Living, Home Health Care Costs 2010

By Deirdre Wheatley-Liss

No surprise, but nursing home and assisted living costs are on the rise. MetLife has produced and published its annual "2010 Market Survey of Long-Term Care Costs". This is a great source to do a check of what is a good, reasonable, or high rate for care in your area (they have national and state-by-state analysis of the costs of nursing home, assisted living, and home health care, a break-down of costs by metropolitan areas within a state, and even an adult day care survey).

What are the costs of care in a nursing home versus assisted living versus home health care (certified aide or companion) in New Jersey? 

Nursing Home - Daily Cost of Care

Daily Cost of Care	Low	High	Average
Private Room	$156	$525	$307
Semi-Private Room	$131	$331	$277

Which translates to an average of:

• $9,030 per month for a private room or $108,360 per year

• $8,310 per month for a semi-private room or $99,720 per year 

 

Assisted Living - Monthly Cost of Care in NJ

Monthly Cost of Care	Low	High	Average
Assisted Living Facility	$2,000	$6,650	$4,286

Which translates to an average of $51,432 a year.

 

Home Health Care - Hourly Cost of Care

Hourly Rate	Low	High	Average
Home Health Aide	$17	$30	$21
Companion (Not certified)	$16	$26	$20

 Which translates to an average of: 

• $1,008 per month for 4 hours/3 days per week, or $12,096 per year

• $3,360 per month for 8 hours/5 days per week, or $40,320 per year

• $14,122 per month for 24/7 care, or $169,344 per year 

The study has lots of other great information about costs of care.  Some of these are summarized at caregiving.com in their article  "Costs of Long-Term Care Continue to Rise".  :

Private room nursing home rates rose 4.6% to $229 per day or $83,585 per year, while assisted living rose 5.2% on average to $3,293 per month, or $39,516 per year. These increases come on top of increases from 2008 to 2009 when both nursing home and assisted living costs were up 3.3%.

Costs for home health aides and adult day services were unchanged in the past year. Home health aide costs remain at an average price of $21 per hour, while adult day services costs are still $67 per day.

The highest average daily rates for nursing homes continued to be in Alaska, where rates are now $687 for a private room and $610 for a semi-private room. Costs are lowest in Louisiana, outside the Baton Rouge and Shreveport Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA), at an average of $138 per day for a private room.

For assisted living, the Washington, D.C., area had the highest average monthly base rate at $5,231, while Arkansas, outside of the Little Rock MSA, had the lowest average monthly rate of $2,073. 

Alaska is making New Jersey look good - a nursing home here is only $108,360 compared to $247,320.  I am guessing the number one piece of advise from elder care attorneys in Alaska is "move to the lower 48".

Full post as published by New Jersey Estate & Elder Planning Blog on October 27, 2010 (boomark / email).