Average Cost of a Nursing Home Inches Closer to $80,000 a Year
Although the US economy has seen price rollbacks during the last year, long-term care providers have actually been raising rates, according to the 2009 MetLife Market Survey of Nursing Home, Assisted Living, Adult Day Services, and Home Care Costs. Private room nursing home rates rose 3.3 percent to an average of $79,935 a year or $219 a day, while assisted living also climbed 3.3 percent on average to $37,572 a year or $3,131 a month.
Home health care aides now cost an average of $21 per hour, which represents a 5 percent jump, and adult day care services now average $67 per day, a 4.7 percent increase over 2008.
The MetLife survey also reports on the cost of a semi-private room in a nursing home, which increased 4 percent to $198 a day, or $72,270 a year. The cost of a semi-private room in an Alzheimer’s or Memory-Care wing averages $75,920 annually.
Once again, the highest rates for a private nursing home room in 2009 were found in Alaska, where the cost is $584 a day on average. The lowest rates were found in Louisiana (with the exception of Baton Rouge and the Shreveport area), at $132 a day.
The cost of assisted living was the highest in Wilmington, Delaware, at $5,219 a month and the lowest in North Dakota at $2,014 a month. Home health care aide services ranged from a high of $30 an hour in Rochester, Minnesota, to $13 and hour in the Shreveport area. Adult day care services were highest in Vermont at an average $150 a day and lowest in the Montgomery, Alabama, area, at $27 a day.
For the full MetLife 2009 survey report, including the average long-term care costs for selected cities, please follow this link:
