Blog, Medicare

How to Pay for Nursing Home Costs in Tennessee

Are you a baby-boomer? Are you turning age 65?  Today, around 70% of all 65+ years need some type of long-term care, and 20% of people will need it for longer than five years, according to LongTermCare.gov. The average cost of Tennessee long-term care in a nursing home care is so high that the cost of that care can financially cripple a family.

Doctor visiting senior people care home and talking with elderly couple sitting on couch.

But there are steps you can take; whether a nursing home is needed now, next month or next decade – to minimize the financial strain of nursing home costs. You have many options to cover the costs of long-term care, including savings, investments, assets, long-term care insurance, state long-term care partnership programs, the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program and tax advantages.

Planning for Long-Term Care in a Nursing Home Costs in Tennessee

Medicare does not provide an all-inclusive long-term care component. If certain conditions are met, Medicare offers limited coverage (up to 100 days per benefit period) for some beneficiaries. Since Medicare does not cover long-term care, the program does not pay for assisted living costs, though it may cover certain services, such as home health or outpatient therapy benefits for assisted living residents.

Financial planning for TN long-term care in a nursing home should occur long before the need arises. Long-term care insurance, Medigap and employer-provided or private health insurance plans can offset the cost of long-term care. But if these policies aren’t in place before a major health event occurs, they are usually no longer available to consumers.

If your family’s facing imminent need for nursing care and doesn’t have an insurance plan for it in place, there are still options to help defray the costs. Make no mistake: Those costs can be staggering. The national annual median cost of care now ranges from $102,200 for a private room in a nursing home to $19,500 for adult day health care services (based on five days per week per year) according to the Cost of Care Survey 2019 Genworth Financial. A semi-private room ran $7,513 a month, or $90,156 per year. And the average nursing home stay is 835 days, or more than two years, according to the government’s latest National Nursing Home Survey.

Medicare

Seniors and their families facing a near-term need for a nursing home should first determine whether Medicare will cover at least a portion of the stay. The Medicare program provides coverage for rehabilitation – but not long-term care. Medicare will pick up the tab for up to 100 days of care in a skilled nursing facility each benefit period. A benefit period is how Medicare measures the length of stay in a hospital or skilled nursing facility.

Make sure you buy insurance from a reliable company that’s licensed in your state. At HealthPro Consultants, we are a licensed Financial Marketing Organization in Georgia. Our Tennessee Long-Term Care in a Nursing Home experts will take care of all your nursing home care needs. Contact us now.