Alphabet Soup of Senior Living

Alphabet Soup of Senior Living

By:  Brenda Lecco
Marketing Director, Encore at Avalon Park

When we are young, buying our first home, we choose a home that will be a nice place to raise a family. We think about school districts, floor plans, resale value and where we are going to put the pool. We do not think about the feasibility of growing old in that home.  Many seniors find that the home that offered a lot of space for raising children and entertaining grandchildren has become too much for them to care for as they age- especially the upstairs and the lawn.  For the majority of seniors, health and finances drive their housing choices.  It is often a health problem, particularly a fall, which creates an awareness that perhaps their current living environment may not be suitable for their changing needs. There are a lot of different types of senior living and sometimes it is difficult to understand what all those letters- ALF, SNF, MCR, MCD- mean.  Oh, and who is going to pay for it?

For older adults that need a little more help, there are independent living options (IL) that allow you to age in place.  That means that help can be brought to you as your physical needs increase.  Private duty care, also referred to as “companion” or “homemaker” services can be brought into your home to help with grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, transportation and personal hygiene services. Private duty care can be covered by long-term care insurance and Veteran’s benefits, but most often paid for out of pocket.   Home health can also assist with what is called “skilled” care.  Skilled care refers to nurses and therapists that assist with medication administration, lab work, wound care, mobility training and other physician-prescribed exercise.  Medicare (MCR) Part “A” and/or part “B” will pay for skilled care in your home with a physician’s order.  Private duty and Home Health care can be brought to you wherever you call home-even if you live in assisted living or a nursing home.

Assisted living (AL or ALF) is for seniors that are no longer safe in their home despite the addition of private duty and home health. Assisted living provides access to assistance 24 hours per day.  Most communities offer 3 meals per day, housekeeping and laundry services, and transportation to shopping and physician appointments.  Activities are abundant in assisted living.  The average cost of assisted living in the Central Florida area is around $3300/month and most are private pay only.  Memory care assisted living, for people with dementia, can run between $4500-$7000/month. Medicare DOES NOT pay for assisted living.  For seniors with financial restrictions there are some Medicaid (MCD) programs that can help but the application process is long.

Skilled nursing facilities (SNF), a.k.a “nursing homes” are accepting fewer long-term residents and focusing on rehabilitation as they absorb the impact of Medicare and Medicaid cuts.  Waiting lists for long-term care in a skilled nursing facility can be lengthy, and Medicare only pays for up to 100 days of nursing home care.  Skilled nursing can cost anywhere from $7,000-$9,000/month. Medicaid is the largest payer source for long term nursing home care.

Growing old today is not quite as simple as it was in generations past where children were expected to take care of their aging parents.  The decline of the extended family has prompted seniors to look beyond their children for living options, and it has become extremely important for living options to be a part of the retirement planning strategy.  The vision of Avalon Park is for our community to become one where we can live, learn, work, play and age.