My mother is 95 and semi-mobile but needs help dressing, bathing, exercising etc. She cannot live by herself so she lives with my husband and me. We were charging 1350.00 per month but things have gone up (food, gas etc.) so we are thinking about raising the amount to $2000.00-2500.00. Do you think this is fair and I would be interested in finding out what others, in my situation, pay.
Thank you.
Let's say you opt to take it as a gift. Five years from now she needs a Nursing Home, and she applies for Medicaid. Medicaid will impose a penalty for gifting. That would be $1920 x 60months=$115,200 penalty. That means Medicaid will not pay for the first $115,200 in Nursing Home bills. So you get to keep mom, forever.
I don't think minimum wage is a fair wage for caregiving duties.
Also, when someone lives in your home with you, there is no such thing as an 8 hour day, in that you're on-call for all your waking hours, and actually if there is an urgent need in the middle of the night, you'll have to wake up and take them to Urgent Care and stop by the pharmacy. Those are not minimum wage jobs.
I think you should have an agreement drawn up by an Elder Law attorney who can advise you whether to increase the room and board rate and/or add a caregiving fee, and can probably also give you typical rates in your area. The one-time cost of consulting a lawyer will be more than worth it to have all your ducks in a row in the event Mom ever needs to apply for Medicaid.
Since she is your mother, and not a stranger, another factor to consider is what she can afford. For example, although the room and board and care my sister provided our mother was undoubtedly worth $2000 -$2500, Mom only had $850/mo income. She got a "family discount" LOL.
pamstegmann you have a very good price on ALF at only $2670/month, that is an incredible deal. In my area that would be rent alone, and maybe 10 meals/month, and absolutely no extras.
the national average for assisted living is about $3500 per month.
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