Numerology: LTC Costs Spike

While inflation might be tamed in the overall economy, price cuts have yet to hit long-term care. The 2009 MetLife Market Survey of Nursing Home, Assisted Living, Adult Day Services, and Home Care Costs found that private room nursing home rates rose 3.3% from 2009 to $219 per day, or $79,935 per year. Assisted living costs rose 3.3% nationally to an average of $3,131 per month, home health care aides in 2009 are charging an average of $21 per hour, which represents a 5% increase, while adult daycare services rose 4.7% to $67 per day on average.

The study, from the MetLife Mature Market Institute, found that Alzheimer's patients who enter an assisted living community, or who develop the dread disease after entering an assisted living community, will pay an average monthly cost of $4,435.

"These across-the-board increases may be surprising to many given the economy over the past year," Sandra Timmermann, director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute, pointed out in a prepared statement, but while the Consumer Price Index (CPI) decreased, "costs for medical care are 3.3% higher, which parallels our findings on long-term care."