If you work in the home care industry, I need your help to answer a few quick questions. What does it cost in your city and state to have around the clock home care? What is the difference in cost between three shifts of caregivers in a 24-hour period who each spend eight hours a day with a client versus a live-in caregiver?
Please comment as soon as possible, because I am trying to compile accurate pricing information for a new guide book that I have written for seniors, “Selecting Senior Housing for Seniors in the Silver Tsunami.” Recently I blogged about reputable home care costing more than hiring a caregiver “under the table.”
Statistics are telling me that the cost of a reputable home care company providing around the clock nonmedical caregiving is around $15,000 to $18,000 a month. Do you agree? This includes three shifts of caregivers in a 24-hour period who are awake and can help the senior client at any time. My understanding is that live-in caregivers cost less, the senior client must be able to sleep through the night, and the caregiver by law gets eight hours of sleep. Is this true?
When you comment, please provide your city and state. It would be excellent if this discussion could accumulate a response from every state in the United States and show costs in other countries as well.
Thanks for participating.
“Selecting Senior Housing for Seniors in the Silver Tsunami,” will be coming soon to Amazon.com. If you sign up for my weekly newsletter on the right side of this blog, you will be notified when my new book becomes available. Check out my new website: Tips2Seniors.com or please follow me on Facebook.
Diane Twohy Masson is the author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available at Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. The book is required reading at George Mason University as a part of its marketing curriculum. Within this book, the author developed a sales & marketing method with 12 keys to help senior living providers increase their occupancy. Masson developed this expertise as a marketing consultant, sought-after blogger for senior housing and a regional marketing director of continuing care retirement communities in several markets. She has also been a corporate director of sales and a mystery shopper for independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled care nursing communities in multiple states. Currently, Masson is setting move-in records as the regional marketing director of two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Interestingly, this career started when she was looking for a place for her own mom and helped her loved one transition through three levels of care.
Please not that these are not the price list for Alzheimer And Dementia Care(R) LLC. We are a for profit agency and our prices a hire. The prices for one particular agency non profit agency in NYC are as fallow:
Hourly Rate Visit Rate
Home Health Care $21.50
License Practical Nurse $55.00 $ 65.00
Register Nurse $75.00 $ 85.00
Physical Therapy $110.00
Occupational Therapy $110.00
Speech Therapy $110.00
Social Work $ 90.00
Special Services:
Bath Service $44.00
Ambulatory Escort Service $80.00
Initial Nursing Assessment $95.00
PRI and Screen $150.00
Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment $200.00
Geriatric Care Management $175.00
Their actual rate may be higher based on service needs. Live-in rates are based on a 14-hour charge per day. Holidays billed at time and a half the regular billing rate. Overtime billed at time and a half the regular billing rate for nursing services and $5.83 per hour above their standard hourly rates for home health aide services.
I hope this information answered your question(s)
In Hamilton, Burlington, and Oakville Ontario the average hourly cost for home support services range from $25 to $29 hourly. There may be a discounted rate for night time hours. You are pretty accurate in your estimate that it would cost between $15,000.00 to $18,000.00 monthly.
From Linked In Senior Living and Care Professionals
Kathy Heery MS, RN, CCM
Principal and Founder Health Care Solutions for You
Thank you for this post. I run workshops and classes for communities around the cost/benefit for each level of service, where/what insurances will cover (both health and long term care products), state programs and qualifying markers as well as checklists and quality indicators to evaluate. Sometimes paying more for private home care services makes sense if the differentiators and reputations are well defined. For me it is important to know the agencies well (how they vet caregivers, monitor the plan of care, provide exceptional service). Some agencies are unable to take on complex care clients because their caregivers and staff are not trained or experienced. Home care ranges from $23-$30/hr in the Boston markets. Some agencies charge up to $1.00 more an hour for weekends; time a half for holidays and live in around $250-$280 day.
Mark H. Friedman
Owner Senior Helpers Boston, Management Consultant
Live in rates posted are very, very low. Boston live in rates average $300-$325.
There is a met life study with this data
Jerry Vaughan
Chief Operating Officer at Blakeford At Home
Home Care Services in the Nashville, TN area range from $15-$30/hr, with time and a half for holidays. The biggest challenge with 24/7 home care is adequate staffing and experience level of caregivers. I have only worked in the private pay home care market and our biggest challenge was finding well-qualified caregivers (CNA or CNT) with a strong work ethic.
From Linked In Home Care and Healthcare Advocacy
Nina Fitzgerald
CNA/CHHA at ComForcare Home Care
I got paid $200.00 for a 24 hr shift x that by 30 + company’s overhead which is 100% so 400 x 30 = 12000?? This is one of the reasons working for some companies is challenging. People are struggling to pay for care – they think you are making what they are paying and I am struggling cause I don’t make that much. Then there’s the issue of companies not being able to keep you working. I really want to continue in home health but I am struggling.
From Linked In – The Eldercare Network
Candi Lethcoe
President of Stress Free Home Care Corp
Our cost is the same hourly rate. Sometimes if the caregiver can sleep I will reduce the rate by $1.00. My rates start at $18.50 per hour. Depending on the level of care the cost could be as much as $23.00 per hour. We do give a couples rate of $24.00 per hour. We are located in North Carolina.
Chris Dobson
Director at Synergy Homecare – Salt Lake City
Round the clock care will be in a range of $408 – $470. Live-in (after the first of the year we can only staff 1 caregiver for 2 days due to the caregiver overtime law change so will need 3-5 caregivers to staff a full week.) runs about $240-$270/day. Caregiver works 13 hours per day, sleeps 8, and 3 hours break. 6 hours sleep must be uninterrupted or you have to pay them for the full 8 hour sleep time their hourly.
There is no cost differential based on three 8 hour shifts vs two 12 hour shifts.
Salt Lake City, UT
Delores Moyer
Consultant/Administrator (Interim) at Own-Optimum Health Care
I teach a class (continuous as many people sign up for it) as related to all long-term care services and have developed check-off sheets (after defining what the long-term care service is/what they offer/range of costs for area/quality of care assessments/survey assessments, etc.) and have so many people sign up the class will probably continue indefinitely. It appears not many seniors/families know much of anything about the various types of long-term care entities, how to evaluate them and find the best to meet your specific needs. I have a MHA and been in hospital mgt/home care/nursing home mgt. for years as well as a compliance officer for these entities as part of a hospital system and consultant. I also am a licensed nursing home adm. and have dealt with all these entities over the years, know the regs., etc. Thus, you need to find out a LOT OF THINGS about the services you wish to have – not just costs. I had a back injury whereupon I used a sitter service (C.N.A.’s) from an agency I knew, needed help getting to/from bathroom initially, etc. and the 2nd. night, had a very nice gal sitting with me and heard this beeping sound, asked her what it was and she showed me her ankle bracelet. Needless to say, I was shocked and quite alarmed as to making it through the nite. Thus, background checks are also recommended as well as drug tests, etc. None of us (even us more knowledgeable people) are free from making errors in judgment; thus, guess my classes are so popular…..It’s not just price……
Kathleen O’Neill
Bookkeeper/Software Consultant/Virtual Assistant
@Delores this was my experience. IHSS has a rate and then the others. Tough situation. Just imagine a Dementia\Alzhiemers patient! They don’t remember anything. IHSS does live scans
@ Delores I don’t mind a person with priors but I want to know and interview the person before hiring.
Peter C. Leighton MS Ed.
Long Term Care Insurance Claims, Senior Care, Best Care Private Duty Caregivers
SFL regional priavte duty care for 35 yrs, family owned, about $16.50 per hr so $396 a day for round clock care, live in rate is about $175 a day but may edit some with caregiver OT new fed law. No diff in costs for 2×12 hour shifts, its $16.50 per hr. 3×8 hour are same. However caregiver OT standard as of new year 2015, may only have us doing round clock with 3 (8s). AVG for SFL on care is $18.75 per hour and live in AVG is $225 a day.
Kathleen O’Neill
Bookkeeper/Software Consultant/Virtual Assistant
I think the problem with my posts is that Florida is so ahead of the curve and California is the wild wild west.
Kathy Heery MS, RN, CCM
Principal and Founder Health Care Solutions for You
Thank you for this great exchange. I also run workshops and classes for communities around the cost/benefit for each level of service, where/what insurances will cover (both health and long term care products), state programs and qualifying markers as well as checklists and quality indicators to evaluate. Sometimes paying more for private home care services makes sense if the differentiators and reputations are well defined. For me it is important to know the agencies well (how they vet caregivers, monitor the plan of care, provide exceptional service). Some agencies are unable to take on complex care clients because their caregivers and staff are not trained or experienced.
Mariea Scott
Director of Marketing and Sales CCOR – Companion Care of Rochester
I also work for a homecare company in Rochester New York and the cost of 24 hr homecare is 3792 per week.
From Linked In – Boomers – Aging Beats the Alternative
Anna Maurizi, M.S.
Client Care Manager at Home Care Assistance
Hi Diane! I hope you are doing well, and had a Happy Thanksgiving! I just wanted to comment on your question above. Below is my understanding of the “cost.” Meaning what is costs Home Care companies to place caregivers in the home. This isn’t the actual “charge” that companies pass on to the clients. I work out of Orange County, CA. The minimum wage here is $9/hour. Currently. Overtime laws require caregivers to not work more than 9 hours a day and 45 hours a week. In January 2015 that transitions to 40 hours a week and 8 hours a day. So you will see an adjustment again on cost/rates for many companies. So currently for 24 hour/hourly care where each caregiver is up for their shift (three caregivers on eight hour shifts) the cost would minimally be $216 dollars. However, to find a good caregiver I would always suggest paying higher than the states minimum wage. Alternatively, you could do two-twelve hour shifts where overtime is calculated in. This allows for more consistency for the client and less people traveling in/out of the home. This would be $297 per twenty for hours for the awake staff per day. For a live-in the cost does go down significantly, but yes it does require the caregiver to get 8 hours of sleep overnight, and on-site breaks throughout the day. With that being said I’m not 100% sure on the minimum cost for a home care company to provide live-in service. I believe it will be dependent on the number of breaks that they take, and if the company initiates any lodging fees etc. for the caregiver while working. To my knowledge it can range from $157 to $176 per day as a cost. Now, if a client needs 24/hour care with awake individuals, it is possible to save a few dollars by placing a live-in caregiver in the home and then staff an hourly individual for 8 hours in the evening while the care-giver is getting their sleep. Again, the savings depends on the company and the pay-rates of the caregivers. Hope this helps. And again everything changes in January so it will be different for companies at that time.
From Linked In Senior Living Internet Marketing Group
Stanton Lawson
Co-owner & CFO at Sequoia Senior Solutions, Inc. Home Health Care Providers
We operate in Northern California. Our Live-In rate is $372.00 per day. This assumes that the caregiver will get 8 hours of sleep, of which 5 must be uninterrupted sleep (California law).
If we do 3 – 8/hour shifts, the cost is $26/hour for the morning and afternoon shifts and $29/hour for the night shift, which totals $648/day.
Pricing will change on 1/1/2016 as the Affordable Care Act will greatly impact our costs.
Cliff Oilar Jr
President at Back Home Senior Care
We operate in Northern California, the Bay Area east bay and are costs are comparable to Sequoia in the north bay