Medicare is willing to pay long term nursing homes thousands of dollars a year. My disappointment is with Medicare's practice of standards with not assisting or even paying for the cost of Home Health Aides 8 to 24 hours a day to enable the families/caregivers to have their elderly people remain in their homes. The cost to house elderly people in Long Term Nursing Homes is thousands and thousands of dollars a year, versus the percentage of money to have the elderly live in the homes of family/caregivers.
When did our rights to choose on how and where we live at the end of life get taken away. Wake up people we will all be geriatric people one day!!! Shouldn't we get to tell Medicare what they're going to pay for instead of them telling up??? After all, most of us pay into this fund all of our working lives.
1. Federal and State laws.
2. National coverage decisions made by Medicare about whether something is covered.
3. Local coverage decisions made by companies in each State that process claims for Medicare. These companies decide whether something is medically necessary and should be covered in their area.
Unfortunately my Mom is refusing these services :{
Most of the time whomever inherits the house may not be able to qualify for a new standard loan to pay back the reverse mortgage, thus the house has to be sold quickly or it goes into foreclosure.
Thank goodness a new ruling took effect back in August that now allows the surviving spouse, who was not on the reverse mortgage loan, to continue to live in the house.... but this is only for new reverse mortgages taken out starting in August. When my boss' wife died, he had to scramble and sell the family home that he inherited because only her name was on the loan.
It doesn't make the situations less frustrating, but at least we can know we are not being taken advantage of (on Medicare and SSI, anyway).
Medicare does cover Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) care up to 100 days per benefit period, and Home Health care for medically necessary services that you would ordinarily receive at a hospital or SNF. Examples include: Wound care for pressure sores, patient and caregiver education, nutrition therapy or iv therapy, monitoring for unstable status or serious illness, and injections.
It is a logical theory that if Medicare paid for custodial care (activities of daily living or ADLs, such as dressing, feeding, medication, toileting, bathing, walking and transferring) that there might be fewer medical expenses, but as freqflyer pointed out, even at just $10/hour for unskilled care, providing 24/7 care would be $87,000 a year. Someone could live on in such a situation for decades. Presently over 10,000 people a day are turning 65. From the US Census Bureau in 2012: Approximately 56.7 million people in the civilian non institutionalized population had a disability in 2010. About 38.3 million people had a severe disability. These are people who need help with ADLs. There just aren't enough resources.
Medicaid really does a remarkable job, especially considering the need for Medicaid is going up significantly every year.
If there is still a mortgage, that needs to be paid, along with property taxes, home insurance, and umbrella policy to cover if a caregiver gets hurt. The monthly water bill, electric, gas, cable, telephone, etc. Outside maintenance, like weekly lawn mowing and yard care. Repairs to the house, such as the furnace breaking down, needing a new roof, needing to replace an appliance, etc. All that can add up quickly.
If Medicare paid for around the clock care 52 weeks out of the year, it would be bankrupted.