LV nursing home rates up 10 percent

Michelle Swafford

Monday, Oct. 4, 2004 | 10:57 a.m.

Nationally, the price for a room at a nursing home rose about 6 percent in 2004, while the Las Vegas Valley's rate rose about 10 percent, an insurance company's study reported last week.

MetLife Mature Market Institute reported in its annual survey of nursing homes that consumers are paying an average of $192 per day for a private room, or $70,080 per year, in 2004 compared with $181 per day, or $66,065 per year, in 2003. The national average rate for a semiprivate room was $169 per day, or $61,685 per year, in 2004, compared with $159 per day a year ago.

In comparison, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported recently that the cost-of-living benchmark Consumer Price Index rose 2.7 percent from August 2003 to August 2004.

"The cost of long-term care continues to rise," MetLife Mature Market Institute director Sandra Timmermann said in a statement. "Whether one chooses care at a home or care in a nursing home, the costs can be exorbitant."

MetLife, which offers insurance and financial services, estimates that the average American spends 2.4 years in a nursing home, which equates to a cost of about $168,912. About 1.6 million people live in one of the nation's 18,000 nursing homes. The study said people are living longer and that means an increased chance of developing a chronic, physical or cognitive condition.

In Las Vegas, the average nursing home price per day for a private room was $175 per day, or $63,875 per year, in 2004, compared with the year-ago rate of $159 per day, $58,035 per year. The average semiprivate room rate locally was $156 in 2004.

Charles Perry, executive director of the Nevada Health Care Association, said Las Vegas "in the overall scheme of things is doing a little better than some of the communities in how much it costs to be in a nursing home per day."

He said costs in Clark County's 24 nursing homes rose about 10 percent because of increases in the cost of living, liability and labor costs. He added that the rates in the study are in line with what he has heard about daily rates from his nursing home members.

There is no central repository that tracks nursing home rates, but insurance companies conduct such studies to help their business, Perry said.

"Insurance companies are trying to market long-term care insurance so they (consumers) don't have to spend down their resources, so they don't have to go into their nest eggs," he said. "I think it's good. The only thing that can save the Medicaid programs across the country is to go to an insured product. Population is exploding in the number of people that are eligible for that."

Perry said the majority of Nevada and the nation's nursing home patients are on Medicaid and Medicare covers another 10 percent. The remainder pays for their care through private insurance, veterans' benefits or personal finances.

Christina Tso, spokeswoman for MetLife, said nursing home rates vary by area because of difference in the cost of living and labor costs.

For example, Alaska posted the highest daily rate in 2004 at $561 per day, or $204,765 per year, while Shreveport, La., had the lowest average rate at $99 per day, or $36,135 per year.

MetLife also assessed home health care costs and found that the average hourly rate nationally was flat at $18. In Las Vegas, the hourly rate rose to $25 in 2004 from $23.

More than 1.3 million people received home health care services from 7,200 agencies in 2000.