It's a good idea not to mix up the terms for senior/eldercare facilities. In the U.S., there are many different types of facilities, some for-profit and fewer that are non-profit.
The general categories are:
- Independent living, such a senior community facility or development. "Over 55+" designations are usually used.
- Assisted living, which can be defined in many different ways. Different facilities will have different rules for determining what amount of "assistance" is provided versus what is charged extra for.
- Skilled Care, which is what "nursing homes" and "convalescent facilities" are classified under.
- Memory Care, specifically 24/7 for the dementia-afflicted. Rates charged are usually the same as Skilled Care, but not always.
Senior facilities can be any combination of the above. States determine licensing standards, so what is "legal" in your state may not be applicable to another state's laws.
Although Medicaid rates Skilled Care facilities, they do NOT rate Assisted Living facilities. Some states inspect and rate all types of senior facilities, but some do not. The ones that do, usually post ratings on state websites. If your state does this, it's one of the first places you should research to select a facility, but especially for Skilled Care/Convalescent and Memory Care.
Asst Living costs vary widely according to individual facilities. I live in a high-labor cost state, and AL facilities cost from 50% to 65% of SCare/MCare.
As far as I know there are no federal or state programs that will grant funds for AL. There are often state or county programs that offer financial help for at-home care, so there may be a local governmental program somewhere that gives $$$ for private facility-based AL.
I can only say in my state, such programs are for at-home care only, restricted to those in financial need - essentially Medicaid-based care. If a senior doesn't qualify for Medicaid, any AL costs must be personally paid for.
It is not wise to assume that if you can afford to pay for a full-service seniorcare facility, that if you live there for a while, even if you eventually run out of $$$ the facility will "have to keep you as a patient if you need nursing care". I do not think any post to this discussion said this, but I know I have read this kind of statement on several different senior forums by more than one person.
This is probably dependent upon state laws, but I can say unequivocally it is NOT true in my state. We researched a number of eldercare facilities in 2014 for my MIL, and of 9 facilities, four said in response to my question, that any resident who could no longer afford their charges, had to move out.
What may cause confusion is that unless the facility actually closes up (which on rare cases has happened), the facility cannot just "dump" a patient out on the street, according to MOST states' laws. However, what they can do is put that patient's name on a waitlist for a Medicaid-only facility, and as soon as that patient is accepted, they are moved out.
Interestingly, we found that monthly rents for units in seniorcare facilities didn't differ much between the for-profits and non-profits. But once patients moved into Skilled Care/Conv and Memory Care, there was a BIG gap between the two types of companies. For-profits were 15-20+% higher in monthly cost.
But she never asked for or needed [that] much. She lived in 3 different ones, and they ALL were nice...efficiency style apts.
