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5 Simple Steps To Choose The RIght Senior Care Provider
Finding the right Senior Care Solution for an aging loved one
is one of the most complex decisions you can face in a lifetime. It's
incredibly stressful, and often needed to be done in a very short
timeframe. It is for that reason that we've developed OurParents, and
why we're outlining some best practices other families have used to
find the right answer that meets their loved ones' unique personal and
financial needs.
Here is a five step program to help you make an informed choice.
1. Assess where your loved one is starting from, physically and mentally
To find the right Senior Care option for your parent, you need to
honestly ask yourself some tough questions about your loved one's
current condition. That includes things like:
* How mobile are they?
* Are they able to clean themselves?
* Are they keeping up with their daily medical needs (taking their
pills, etc.)?
* Do they have chronic illnesses that continue to increase in severity?
* Do they have memory issues that are starting to concern you?
If you need help doing an independent assessment, use our acclaimed
FREE Care Options Advisor. It is a great tool that takes about 4
minutes to complete, and asks you in plain, straight-forward terms to
describe the aging loved one's current situation, then lays out the
available senior care options you should first consider (answering
important questions like "Is in-home care a viable option for my
parent?")
2. Understand all the available care options
This is a really important decision for a family, and the senior care
industry doesn't make it any easier by all the complex terms it uses
to describe different care options.
You should make sure you have a decent understanding of all of the
different senior care options that are available to you and your loved
one. A great place to start is by reading this article that outlines
the major options, and what they mean.
3. Determine your loved one's ability to pay
There are five primary means to pay for care, and often, families use
several of them to pay for the care of their loved one. They are:
* Social Security
* Medicare
* Medicaid
* Pensions (Military / Government / Business)
* Money and/or Home owned by the aging loved one
Social Security is a primary component used to help pay for a senior's
living expenses.
Medicare is the program most families use as a core component of how
they pay for Senior Care / Senior Medical Expense. There are several
components to the Medicare Program, as well as insurance products that
help lessen the out-of-pocket medical expenses encountered (Medicare
Advantage).
Medicaid is a program targeted at helping senior living in poverty.
Pensions, while not offered as much in businesses anymore, also can
play a role in both paying for living expenses and healthcare (some
unions and buinesses offer retirees good healthcare benefits, but
again, that is becoming rarer and rarer.).
Family assets, including 401Ks, IRAs, saving accounts, as well as the
equity in a house or condo owned by the senior, can also play an
important role in determing what care options are viable. Please note
that some senior care providers only accept private payments (no
Medicare/Medicaid).
There are lots of other things that can play a role in helping pay for
senior care - things like long-term care insurance. We are just
focusing on the components most families ask us about.
If you'd like to understand all the potential government benefit
programs that your aging loved one may be eligible for, here is a
great tool to get started.
4. Search for the right senior care provider
The heart of OurParents is the 100,000 plus senior care provider
directory. Once you know where (i.e., what town/city/zip) you'd like
to look for a provider, just use our search tool to enter the location
in, and we'll give you a list of viable providers. You can then sort
the results by things like overall Medicare quality rating, cost, and
closeness to your requested location. You can also use the check
boxes on the page to specify any unique requirements you have (e.,g.,
"I need Alzheimer's support").
Each Senior Care Provider has a detailed profile page, with lots more
information about them. You can see user reviews, detailed services
provided, Medicare audit results, and lots of other good information
that can help you make an informed decision. Use the search tool to
narrow down your list of senior care providers you are interested in.
With a single click, you can request any of these providers to reach
out to you to provide more specific information (like costs), and/or
schedule an on-site visit. Again, all this is a FREE service from
OurParents.
5. Interview the finalists and make the decision
No decision as important as this should be made without an actual
visit to any senior care facility you are considering (or an in-person
interview with any proposed in-home care provider).
It is important for you to see first-hand what the care experience is
like, what the person/poeple are like who you loved one will interact
with, and whether this care provider makes sense for your aging loved
one.
Each situation is different. Each senior has their own personality,
their own needs, their own interests. You are the best judge of what
solution works best.
To help you make this important decision, we have a series of
interview checklists you can use to make sure you ask all the
questions on your mind during the interview/visit.
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