It's no secret that nursing facilities prefer residents who are able to pay with their own resources for at least some period of time. To gauge who can pay and who can't, the application process includes the grueling task of filling out detailed financial statements. Financial requirements to move to the head of the queue vary. In other words, a bed will materialize. Many nursing facilities hesitated to give prices over the phone until we provided specific details of our relative's condition.
Some nursing homes segment their rates according to the kind of care a person requires.
Researchers at the Health Care Financing Administration, which supervises the Medicare program, have identified 44 different types of care a facility could provide. In the absence of standard terminology, it's impossible to know, for example, whether one facility's enriched residential care is similar to another's intermediate. Price isn't necessarily related to quality. CR compared daily rates at 60 facilities in metropolitan centers around the country, trying to compare price with the quality of care. That benefit can be paid for as short a time as one year, or it can last until the policyholder dies.