SKILLED NURSING FACILITIES
Nursing Homes Cost More Than Ever Each year, Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services releases certain financial information that impact eligibility for its programs. One of these figures is their calculation of the average monthly cost of a nursing home in the state. The 2021 figure was $11,099 per month or $133,188 per year. If you think that’s expensive, wait till I give you the 2022 figures. This year, DHS tells us that the average cost of a nursing home is $14,676 per month or nearly $180,000 per year!!!! That’s a 25% increase in one year! Can you imagine needing to spend $180,000 annually for care? Now, before you draw the conclusion that the nursing homes are solely to blame, consider what they’ve been through in the last year or two. They’ve had to spend much, much more money on protective and medical equipment to battle COVID. They’ve had to increase their
wages to be able to find people willing to work in a nursing home. So, to be clear, I don’t put the blame for these costs solely on the nursing homes. I place the blame directly on our government’s rulebook that requires people to go broke before they help pay. We, unfortunately, have a health care system that provides for Medicare payments for seniors’ acute care needs like surgery and hospitalization. However, Medicare doesn’t pay for the single biggest expense seniors face… custodial long term care. These costs are your personal responsibility, they say. This leaves us with a system that picks financial winners and losers based almost entirely on your health care needs… which are largely unavoidable. Your financial security is a role of the dice. So, the question for you then is… “What are you doing to protect your family and legacy from these harsh rules?” I suggest you become educated on your options and consult with an elder law attorney to determine if an Asset Protection Trust may be right for you. Editor’s Note: This article was written by Certified Elder Law Attorney* Tim Sechler, Esq., Sechler Law Firm, LLC. See our ad on the Back Cover or contact us at 724564-6615 or www.SechlerLawFirm.com. *Certified as an Elder Law Attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation as accredited by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
190 GREATER PITTSBURGH AREA - SPRING 2022 - SUMMER 2022
