There are many things you might need help with when considering elder care. What home health care service would you use? What nursing home would you want to go to? Can you afford help? Does family live close enough and have enough time to help? Do you need insurance? Who can you trust? We will address a few of these questions in this article!
What Home Healthcare or Nursing Home Service Should You Use?
There are hundreds if not thousands of home healthcare, adult daycare and nursing home options. You do NOT want to have to decide what service providers to use when the need is pressing. Instead, as part of your elder care planning, start learning what companies are in your area now. Things to research are what their pricing is, what type of insurance do they take, what specific services they offer, etc... Another very important thing to consider is what is the companies reputation. We all have heard horror stories about elder care facilities or workers. One of the easiest things to do is check the online reviews (like Google) for the places near you. This can help you quickly narrow down your search. You can also ask friends and online platforms (like Facebook) for recommendations and their experiences with elder care. A place with good reviews and testimonies likely cares about their reputation and about providing quality care for its customers.
What Insurance Should You Consider?
Insurance, like elder care providers, offers a lot of options. First you need to decide WHO you want to help you look for insurance. This can be a minefield as many agents and agencies do long-term care very infrequently, relying on third party companies to sell the occasional policy that comes across their desk. Other agents are captive to only one company or sell products strictly based on the higher commissions they receive. The first thing you ought to when trying to find a long-term care agent is look at their online reviews as well as their website. If their website hardly mentions Long-Term Care you can bet that they do not have much experience with it! The second thing you need to figure out is which insurance companies to consider. There are not as many options as their used to be, but there are enough for it to be confusing. By finding a good, independent agent you can learn the difference between the different companies and their plans. Be wary of insurance companies that only sell through captive agents as it can be hard to get unbiased information about those plans.
Discuss With Your Family!
We remain big proponents of discussing your future elder care needs with your family. Getting on the same page as your family about your potential long-term care needs and how you plan to handle them is very important. Here are some things to discuss:
Cost - How will you pay for help?
Who - Will family or a professional service provide help?
Where - Will you receive help at home or at a nursing home?
Timeline - If family can help, how long would they need to provide help? How long could they?
Estate - Could LTC costs eat away at your estate? Should you use something like insurance to protect your estate?
Real Life Situations - Ask family, friends or read online to see what others went through with a LTC situation!
Compile Your Plan!
Once you have at least considered the above steps, you will be well positioned to know WHO can help you during a future Long-Term Care need and HOW you are going to go about taking care of yourself or a loved one. The biggest mistake people make when it comes to Long-Term Care is to not have any plans at all. If you are reading this article you are already a step ahead of most people. If you want more help considering all the options then feel free to give us a call at 770-452-9335. You can also schedule a phone or video appointment here: https://calendly.com/ga-health-insurance/daniel-meeting?back=1&month=2022-08