The average cost of nursing home care was up nearly 3% this year over 2006, while home health care costs rose 12%, a study by New York Life Insurance Company finds.
The rate of increase was moderate compared to 2006, when nursing home costs rose an average of 6% over the year before.
New York Life's latest study shows the nationwide average cost of a nursing home private room with a single occupant climbed in 2007 to $209 a day, or $76,322 per year, from around $204 per day in 2006, or $74,445 per year.
Semi-private rooms, with double occupancy, rose to an average of $185 a day, or $67,554 a year this year, compared to $180 dollars a day, or $65,700 a year in 2006.
The hourly rate for a home health aide hired from a Medicare-certified agency averaged $37.36 per hour in 2007, or 12.2% over last year. Hourly rates across the country ranged widely, but the combined average hourly rate for Medicare-certified and non-certified home health aides is $28.17, a 6.1% increase from 2006, New York Life found.
"It is a common misconception that long term care refers only to care in a nursing home," Dennis O'Brien, head of New York Life's Long Term Care Division observes. "In fact, most long term care is received in the home."
