Why does a Nursing Home and Assisted Living cost so much money?

Most consumers assume they can get a hotel room for less than the cost of a nursing home stay.

There are many reasons the cost of care in a Nursing Home is much higher than one would expect.

One must first understand what a Nursing Home is before they can say, “I can hire someone for $10 an hour to take care of my mother and it will be cheaper than a Nursing Home.”

Nursing Homes are a bridge between a hospital and a private home. In the 1970′ and 1980′s Nursing Home’s were a place for old people to go and spend the last 10 years of their life. Today, Nursing Homes have become like the recovery section of a hospital. Due to the tightening of reimbursement on Hospitals, patients are now discharged after 3 days to a Nursing Home after having major surgery like a hip replacement. The patient then spends anywhere from a few weeks to a few months in the Nursing Home recovering from surgery and getting physical and occupational therapy.

If a hospital charges over $1000 a day, then spending $300 – $400 a day at a Nursing Home is considered a bargain!

But why does it cost $300 a day when a hotel only costs $100 a day?

We can break it down like this.

Nurses & Nurses Aides: $150 – $200 a day.It is not just the aide who helps Mom go to the bathroom, there are specialty nurses, wound specialists, regulatory nurses, nurse supervisors, staff recruitment & retention etc.

Food: $20 – $25 a day. This includes a dietician to make sure the food is healthy, kitchen staff, and food itself. The regulations do not allow serving Mac & Cheese everyday.

Utilities: $10 – $20

Housekeepers, Maintenance, Laundry: $20

Building Cost: $15 a day. This is what it costs to build a nursing home. Remember, a nursing home is built like a hospital not like an apartment building. There are special Fire & Safety regulations.

License Fees: $5 – $10 a day (That is correct, the federal government pays for Nursing Home care via Medicare and then the state government charges the Nursing Home licensing fees)

Real Estate Taxes: $5 – $10 a day

Administration Costs: $10 – $20 a day

Medical Supplies: $10 a day

Medicine: No Limit

Physical, Speech & Occupational Therapy: Varies

Now you have a general idea of what goes into the costs of a nursing home.

So you are interested in the latest and great most effective anti wrinkle, anti aging, anti botox, better than botox, newest reformulated retinol, gerovital, emu oil, carnosine, or daily moisturizer now called wonder cream?

You saw the ads for these skin products that make you look 10 years younger or even 20 years younger. There is one problem with the ads. They usually show a woman with freckles in the “before” picture and then without freckles in the “after” picture.

So instead of buying the latest and greatest anti aging  skin care you may want to invest in a photo editing software that can remove your wrinkles and then use that for your Match.com profile picture. It will work wonders until someone actually meets you in person and sees that you are nothing like the picture!

It is interesting that the most popular anti aging cream sold on Amazon is a $15 moisturizer from Olay called “Total Effects Daily Moisturizer”. If you read the description of what is does for you, it says;

“Moisturizer with vitamins + anti-oxidants fights 7 signs of aging for visibly younger-looking skin 1 Fine lines and wrinkles: Reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles 2 Uneven Tone: Balances and helps even out tone 3 Age Spots: Reduces appearance of age spots 4 Uneven Texture: Smooths and evens skin texture 5 Dryness: Provides nourishing moisturization 6 Dullness: Gives skin a healthy-looking radiance 7 Pores: Minimizes the appearance of pores.

When you look at something like AuraVie which is heavy promoted in online ads, it costs ten times the price of Olay. Now we are not chemists and when cannot tell you what the real difference is, but we did notice something interesting.

If you look at anti aging creams in the $10 – $30 range, they are all called “cream”. Once you move into the secret, magical, wonder creams they are now called “Serum” and cost over $100!

Here is an interesting blog post about Serum vs. Cream vs. Lotion.

There isn’t an absolute definition between a serum, a lotion (sometimes referred to as a fluid or fluide) and a cream in the cosmetics industry; companies are free to use whatever descriptors they want. Read More…

Here is a great way to test which skin care works the best.

Walk into Nordstrom, Sephora or your local major department store. See what product the sales person in Nordstrom and Sephora try to sell you and then take those two names and walk into CVS. Ask the pharmacist at CVS which CVS brand product has the same chemical makeup of the name brand high fashion product. You will probably find the same product at Rite Aid or CVS for a fifth of the price and the bottle may be just as pretty!

Our favorite way to see what is hot is head over to Amazon Face Cream Best Sellers.

Every couple of years, online marketing giants seek the next diet pill that they can sell millions of bottles worth at $50 a piece. Health supplement producers can take a simple white bottle, add beautiful graphics and even create a Doctor, and then market the supplement at the next best secret weight loss formula. Take Garcinia Cambogia for example. Look at how many names it has! Why didn’t they name it Garcia (as in Jerry) and Cambodia (as in the country)? That is what Ben & Jerry’s would have called it if they made it into an Ice Cream flavor!

Garcinia goes by many names: Acide Hydroxycitrique, AHC, Brindal Berry, Brindle Berry, Cambogia gummi-guta, Garcinia Cambogi, Garcinia cambogia, Garcinia gummi-guta, Garcinia quaesita, Gorikapuli, Hydroxycitrate, Hydroxycitric Acid, HCA, Kankusta, Malabar Tamarind, Mangostana cambogia, Tamarinier de Malabar, Vrikshamla. There will probably be more names by the time this article is published.

If you take a look at any health supplement website you will find Hydroxycitric Acid as a supplement that you can purchase is a variety of sizes and dosages. However, when you stumble across an ad for the product they will entice you to buy it with a money back guarantee.

The problem with these super drugs or secret weight loss formulas is that the FDA does not evaluated vitamins or supplements because everything contains vitamins. Vitamin C for example is use to fend off colds and Vitamin C can be found in orange juice. The FDA cannot regulated Vitamin C like it does Xanax or Ambien because it is a natural product found in most food. Image the FDA saying you can only drink two cups of orange juice a day? It wouldn’t work!

So you get vitamin manufacture trying to find new ways to sell the same old product so they repackage it and call it by a new name. If you read medical research on sites like WebMD you will find barely any information about risks and dosage amounts. All you will find is they say it doesn’t do what the ad claims it will do but that is it.

The smart consumer will read the label, see what the basis of the supplement is, head over to amazon and by the one with the not so pretty label for a fifth of the price. Compare Prices of Hydroxycitric Acid on Amazon

The original Assisted Living & Nursing Home Comparison Checklist to use when comparing nursing homes and assisted livings.

Click here to download the checklist as a pdf.

A Nursing Home Compare Checklist to use when comparing nursing homes.

It is a good thing you are in Ohio, because below you will find a list of all the nursing homes.

Visit our favorite Nursing Home, The Anderson Nursing Home located in Cincinnati Ohio.

Nursing Homes in Ohio

Baltimore is not just famous for the best craps and awesome teams like the Ravens & Orioles. Baltimore has a bunch of outstanding nursing homes for both short term rehabilitative care and for long term care. See The Best Nursing Homes in Baltimore!

Still can’t find a nursing home? Try our custom Nursing Home search engine.

Where would President Obama send his parents if they needed a nursing home in Washington D.C.? Probably one of the nursing homes listed below.

Yes, Washington D.C., the capital of the United States, has a bunch of Nursing Homes to choose from.

Packing List for Nursing Home Stay

List of items to consider packing when going to stay in a nursing home.

This list can also be used for a short term stay at an Assisted Living or Vacation

Ever get lost in New Jersey looking for a Nursing Home. We are glad you found us to be your guiding light!

Central New Jersey Nursing Homes & Rehab Centers

New Jersey Nursing & Rehabilitation facilities.

Yes, there are real people living in New Hampshire, they are actually very nice people.

Here is a directory of the Nice Nursing Homes of New Hampshire.