5 things agents should know about adult day services

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3. Day services providers have computers, and know how to use them.

The WHCOA staffers who wrote the conference brief on long-term services and supports (LTSS), or long-term care, mention adult day support centers once.

“Adult day support centers allow for the older adult to live at home but receive some assistance,” the briefs wrote.

The day services providers themselves mobilized to add many comments emphasizing the importance of their centers in helping informal caregivers to provide some care without burning out, or giving up their ability to live their own lives.

The WHCOA website streams comments in a column on the right side of the policy briefs section, and that means the day services providers’ comments are helping to make day services a major focus of website visitors with an interest in policy briefs.

See also: What if an older client has no LTCI? 

4. Using adult day care service is much cheaper than paying for nursing home care, and often much cheaper than paying for comparable home care.

CareScout recently told Genworth Financial Inc. (NYSE:GNW) that the median annual cost for a private nursing home room in the United States is about $91,000.

The median cost for 50 weeks of adult day health care services is just $17,000. In some states, the median cost is just $10,000.

In other words: Even a stand-alone long-term care insurance (LTC) policy that provides just $100,000 in benefits could pay for 10 years of adult day services.

See also: 5 cheapest states for adult day health care

5. The federal government is already supposed to be supporting adult day services providers.

Section 2601 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) encourages states to spend more Medicaid nursing home money on various types of home care and “community-based care.”

One of the most common types of “community-based care” is adult day services.

See also: Home care planning: 4 things LTC planners should know about the new regs 

Image: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais;