Putting the Parents out to Pasture?

[Terry in Crapchester]

Nursing homes are for those who need full time nursing care of some level and have no money.

Nursing homes are damned expensive to the tune of 70+K/year... and these are places for people with "no money?"

The 70k ones are kind of on the level of those motels on COPS where they do the prostitution stings. Even a good nursing home is a shit hole. The ones for people without that kind of money make the places homeless people live seem nice.

You really think these people with "no money" carry the insurance requisite for full coverage? If your parents are going to live out their final days at a nursing home, they better be damned prepared to put up their house as collateral. Medicare covers like the 1st 100 days and then that's it.

Old people in nursing homes don't have insurance, they have Medicare- which as you said, only pays the first 100 days. As I recall, they only pay 100% for the first 20 days after a qualifying hospital stay and I think 70% for the remaining 80 days. Anything beyond that first 100 days is strictly on a cash in advance basis for a month at a time.

I don't know how it works elsewhere, but in New York if someone needs to go into a nursing home, you can get Medicaid to pay the full shot. The quid pro quo is that the person in need of nursing home care has to divest himself of all assets at least three years before applying for Medicaid, or else the state will seize those assets (except for a relatively small amount of exempt assets) to pay for your care.

Around here, most nursing homes cost upwards of $100G per year, so almost everybody who needs a nursing home has to apply for Medicaid.

[Mister Bushice]

Pretty much the pattern here, too. Insurance, then personal assets, then the taxpayers foot the bill. The details of that I haven't had to deal with yet and hopefully won't, and some of the terminology is different from state to state, but the end result is the same. The only exception I see is that if you are elderly and perfectly healthy you won't qualify for medicaid (called medi-cal out here in california). It's intended as a last resort for those who have run out of options but still need some level of care they can't provide themselves. Medi-cal does include custodial care, but medicare does not. California is probably more liberal in that regard than other states.

[ucantdoitdoggieSTyle2]

Oh yeah... For those with parents in declining health... while you still have a chance... do something with them that they'll love. My dad was the biggest Bruins fan in the history of the world. About 3 months before he passed away, I took him to see the Bruins/Habs at The Fleet. Boston tied the game with about 2 minutes left and won with about 30 seconds left in overtime. Samsonov had both the tying and winning goals. Great fucking game (Late March of 03).... Of course, it pales in comparison to him taking me to see Orr, Bucyk, Esposito, etc at The Garden as a kid. However, I will never forget this day. I think he enjoyed himself... if but for one day.

[ucantdoitdoggieSTyle2]

It's intended as a last resort for those who have run out of options but still need some level of care they can't provide themselves. Medi-cal does include custodial care, but medicare does not. California is probably more liberal in that regard than other states.

Bushy,
I am pretty sure Medicaid is the universal payer of last resort. At the very least, I've never heard of it NOT being secondary to Medicare or any TPL.

[Mister Bushice]

Of course, it pales in comparison to him taking me to see Orr, Bucyk, Esposito, etc at The Garden as a kid

Hockey was my sport as a kid. I went to signings and met Phil Esposito, Johnny Bucyk, and Derek Sanderson, Shook Johnny Mackenzies hand, got their autographs, went to games, watched all the other games on TV. Never got to meet my boyhood hero Bobby Orr, though. That was one thing I shared with my Dad growing up, but at his age now I think he prefers the barca lounger and the big screen hi def TV I bought him, with his own crapper right down the hall, a glass of hooch, and my moms always unbelievably good dinner within easy access, and no long drive home when the games over.

It's not always a place to take or send them either, but what you can do for them.


Edit:

Did you know Pie is still kicking and is coaching the Berklee Ice Cats, the hockey team at Berklee College of Music in Boston? Dude is still going at age 70.

[Mister Bushice]

It's intended as a last resort for those who have run out of options but still need some level of care they can't provide themselves. Medi-cal does include custodial care, but medicare does not. California is probably more liberal in that regard than other states.

Bushy,
I am pretty sure Medicaid is the universal payer of last resort. At the very least, I've never heard of it NOT being secondary to Medicare or any TPL.

Yeah, you're right it is, it's funded jointly by the fed and the states, but I believe the states run it, including determining who qualifies. They call it medi-cal out here, though, not medicaid. Medicare is what you had outlined earlier, short term health care, with no support for medications outside of hospital stays, and no assisted living care. More restrictive.

Nice to know that if we don't have our shit together by then we're stuck with that level of hell, eh?

I plan on retiring wealthy, then proceed to gradually slip in to senility.

On the positive side, I'll get to meet new people every day.

[War Wagon]

My siblings and I have been going thru this for the past 10 years with my soon to be 87 year old mother. It started with assisted living until she fell and broke her hip, and now she's been in a full fledged nursing home for the past 2 years. She's confined to a wheelchair and pretty much incapable of doing anything more strenuous than feeding herself. They take decent care of their residents from what I've seen, and always call me whenever she has a problem.

As for the cost, she still had enough cash left to pay the full price of $4,000 a month for about a year. Don't know about other places, but the way this facility works is that if you're able to pay the full amount for at least a year, they'll then continue to care for her after her funds have run dry and accept whatever it is that Medicare/Medicaid pays, which is about $2,500 a month or so.

If she hadn't been able to pay the full amount for a year, she would have never been accepted in the first place.

When I visited with her at Christmas, she pretty much told me that she wasn't going to be around much longer.

Old age sucks.

[Rich Fader]

Dad is a Veteran so he qualifies for the VA homes - if worse comes to worse.
Problem is they have rules against smoking, and possesion of firearms, so he might last there 2 weeks at most.

Alzheimers and guns don't mix.

I call bullshit.

Sin,

[fix]

Of course, it pales in comparison to him taking me to see Orr, Bucyk, Esposito, etc at The Garden as a kid

Hockey was my sport as a kid. I went to signings and met Phil Esposito, Johnny Bucyk, and Derek Sanderson, Shook Johnny Mackenzies hand, got their autographs, went to games, watched all the other games on TV. Never got to meet my boyhood hero Bobby Orr, though. That was one thing I shared with my Dad growing up, but at his age now I think he prefers the barca lounger and the big screen hi def TV I bought him, with his own crapper right down the hall, a glass of hooch, and my moms always unbelievably good dinner within easy access, and no long drive home when the games over.

It's not always a place to take or send them either, but what you can do for them.


Edit:

Did you know Pie is still kicking and is coaching the Berklee Ice Cats, the hockey team at Berklee College of Music in Boston? Dude is still going at age 70.

One of the benefits of growing up in a hockey country.. I did. On more than one occasion.
Orr-Walton Sports Camp... 60 minutes north of me.
For a summer to remember, kids got to go to Orillia to be taught by the best...

[smackaholic]

I became a Cub fan in the early 60's primarily just to piss him off...

I thought people became cubfans to piss themselves off.

[Atomic Punk]

All the nurses do is hand out medications (which was probably what made AP want to become a nurse 2 or 3 careers ago)

Whatever happened with that? Is Androgynous Panties making his $100K a year yet and dating multiple hottie nurses simultaneously, as promised?

It will be about $100k/yr when I pass the State Board. And yes pothead, there are a lot of hotties out there in the profession. Easy pickin's with a much younger group of girlies.

Anyway, I read this thread and have had experience with both assisted living and nursing homes to get my required CNA/HHA to enter the local nursing program. As some dickhead said where I actually work, I don't wipe asses and don't work as a CNA while going through the nursing program. Anybody that sends a family member to a nursing home is sending them to a cruel departure unless the relative has dementia or AD. The CNA's and NA's are mean and somewhat lazy Hindu bitches and Mexicans that get paid slightly above minimum wage. I'll fucking dig ditches before I do that job.

Nursing homes are bad news folks. It's a bad way to leave the planet. The care sucks and I've seen those lazy Hindu's let old fossils lay in their shit and urine over night so the AM shift can clean up. Nursing homes have an extremely high turnover rate with CNA's and I can't tell you how many call out with the Budweiser flu or just don't show up to work. That puts extra pressure on those that do show up and they burn out. Nothing like walking into a facility and smelling shit and piss that would make a rabbit keel over from the strong smells. I can't tell you how bad it is to go into a facility at the beginning of an AM shift. The Hindu's let these old people soak in their shit and piss to the point they get pressure sores and it's just fucked up.

Assisted Living: I was told under no circumstance I should take a job doing that gig even though it's a good deal for the old folks. $1900 a month? The cheapest around here is about $3000/month and the nicer ones are around $8000/month. That is in fucking Fresno of all damn places. It's basically an apartment with a medical staff as an add-on and you can pay extra for services like meals and laundry.

If you actually love your aging relatives, you might want to look into building a little cottage on your property if it's allowable and have a home health aid check in on them every so often. Seriously, unless you don't give a shit about your relatives, don't put them in a nursing home unless that is the best possible option. The Hindu's and Mexicans don't give a shit about them either. Mostly it's the Hindu's that let them suffer. I absolutely hate those vile pieces of shit of a people.

[War Wagon]

Rack Mace for the excellent post and rack AP just for having the guts to show back up in here again.

[Smackie Chan]

Is Androgynous Panties making his $100K a year yet

It will be about $100k/yr when I pass the State Board.

Really? Who's telling you this? I'm guessing since you have a considerably more vested interest in this than I do that you've done some fairly extensive research into it. But what little research I've done shows that what can be expected to be earned is not terribly close to $100K/yr. If I'm not mistaken, isn't RN the top of the nursing career ladder? I assume that's what you're working toward; correct me if I'm wrong.

Based on the data on this Web site, the national median salary for an RN w/ 20+ yrs experience is about $60K/yr, with the entry-level median around $44K, and in CA, the median income for all RNs (irrespective of experience) is about $67K/yr, based on using round figures of a 2,000 hr work year. Using this figure (which may or not be appropriate; I'll let you make any necessary corrections to my assumptions), one would have to make $50/hr in order to earn $100K/yr. If the values on the linked site are anywhere near being accurate, I'm having a tough time believing that you'll be able to walk into the office of a prospective employer, flash your newly-earned sheepskin, and be offered anything close to $100K/yr. My guess is that the offer will be closer to half of that. But if you can hook me up to a source perhaps a little more authoritative than one of your posts to refute this, I'll graciously accept that I'm in error.

Happy New Year, Mike!

[Cuda]

It's closer to 100k than it is to $1million. Maybe that's what he means

[Smackie Chan]

It's closer to 100k than it is to $1million. Maybe that's what he means

That, or we may have different definitions of about and nearly. For instance, where I may consider $98K to be about $100K, our lingerie-wearing compadre might deem $51K to be nearly $100K.

I guess it all depends on what your definition of is is.

/Sin/

[Atomic Punk]

Smackie, nice to see you around again...

Nope we are really talking around $100k. You do know that there are various levels of RN's right? The highest being nurse practitioner? Also, it depends upon who the employer is. Since a few people like to talk about where people work, I think I'll keep that bit of info on my future employer to myself. Hell, I know LVN's that make over $70k/year. I wouldn't put up with several years of "butt wiping" smack if it wasn't worth the move back to Cali to get licensed.

[Smackie Chan]

we are really talking around $100k. You do know that there are various levels of RN's right? The highest being nurse practitioner? Also, it depends upon who the employer is.

OK, but referring to the same Web site for Nurse Practitioner, and taking everything you cite into consideration, I'm still not buyin' it. I'd be surprised if starting pay in the Fresno area is over $70K. Granted, using my occupation as a gauge, I found the figures cited to be lower than what I make. But if they're even in the ballpark (and I believe they are), the median income cited for a nurse practitioner in NYC is a little > $87K, and this takes into account the fact that the Big Apple is one of the highest cost areas in the country, and the median is based on those with experience. This probably means that those in entry-level positions make < the median, and I doubt that Fresno, even though it isn't cheap, pays what NYC does. San Francisco, San Diego, and LA may be close, and perhaps that's where you'll be looking, but $100K to start is still highly optimistic. But hey, props to you if you can land an entry level six-figure gig.

[Atomic Punk]

Ahhh, I see that you assume I'll be working in Fresno. I'm just here for school then back to a bigger city. However, if I told you who I'd be working for, you'd know why 6 figures is pretty accurate. Then again, the cost of living is much higher there too. Hospitals are some of the lowest paying gigs if that gives you a hint. Not going to work for a hospital. I figured this out when I was still living in New Jersey.

I could stay here and make around $70k as an instructor for the VA, or even $68.5 as an entry level flight nurse. I have a better idea. My number 1 consideration is location. As you all are well aware, I've moved around the country too much. They were good experiences to finally gain focus. I'm still considering opening a LLC business doing air med flights for the Indian reservations on govt. contracts. Those bring in about $5000 to $7000 per flight. A buddy that flies for American Airlines has been trying to get me to start that business so he can quit. It may happen, but first thing is first. I need to permanently go back to LoCal and not ever consider living north of the I-10 ever again.