contributed by Steve Fought
The Situation
[My wife] Gina and I are both retired. Our medical needs have increased in these last few years. I’ve had heart surgery; Gina has Parkinson’s. We live in Sun City, have a wonderful HOA, and great neighbors; but we can’t take care of the house anymore. Social functions are enjoyable, but difficult to manage; long-distance travel is out of the question. It’s just too much.
Our situation isn’t unusual; in fact it’s commonplace among our friends and neighbors. We’ve given it a lot of thought over the past years, and concluded that our next move will be to an Independent Living Facility.
We’re all generally familiar with these things and, having lived in a lot of places, and been in this community for nearly 20 years, we’ve seen a lot of these facilities spring up. Some of them start big, promising the world, then gradually settle into a lesser, but fairly standard, fare. I say “some but not all” because the pattern isn’t universal; but it occurs sufficiently often that it has to be considered.
Beware of Changes
The first phase is where the new facility offers high-end amenities at bargain prices (e.g., three meals per day provided by a gourmet chef, maid service twice a week, including laundry, a health center with fitness coaches at no additional cost, a chauffeur-driven van to take you anywhere you need to go, and even valet parking if you still have your car). All of this at a reasonable cost compared to what it may cost to remain in your current home (especially if you have a mortgage and have to hire a home-health service).
After a couple of years (and for whatever reasons) a new owner/manager arrives on the scene, cuts costs by reducing or eliminating amenities and services. The gourmet chef is replaced by line-cooks who provide two meals a day, maid service moves to weekly, the “no-cost fitness coach” becomes a for-hire private trainer, and the monthly rates go up. The services that are shed are those that aren’t well used (so the impact may be minimal). The rest of the changes on the first round are bearable, and the overall lifestyle is still quite good.
Then, after another couple of years, a third owner/manager takes charge and repeats the process of cutting costs and increasing rates. By the time this phase is finished the facility looks pretty much like all of the others in the area that have been around for 5 to 10 years. The services are still good, and the lifestyle is comfortable, albeit a bit more expensive and less luxurious than originally presented. But clearly satisfactory.
I say “pretty much the same” because facilities are not identical, nor do all of the changes I just mentioned happen at every facility, or necessarily in the order I listed them. Once things settle out, there can still be significant differences between and among the facilities. Some of these differences aren’t obvious at first blush and may matter to some people and not to others. Some of the differences can be important, but subtle. A few items can be deal-makers/breakers and fall into the “wish I would have known that.” Here are some of the items we consider important — at least to us.
Stability
Our first criteria is Stability. How long has the facility, and the current management team, been in place? In my opinion, the longer, the better, on both, for the reasons cited previously.
DINING MATTERS
Our second area to examine is Dining Options. All of us have to eat, and meals are a prime time for socialization.
- What meals, and how many meals are “included”?
- What is the cost of additional meals (and meals for guests)?
- What are the operating hours for each dining option?
To our surprise, many of these facilities have their evening meal between 4:30 and 6 — that’s “early bird” dining for us, and not something we practiced. Best to know these things ahead of time if it’s an issue for taking medications, or some such. It’s also useful to have at least one casual option, offering something other than sit-down service (e.g., bistro, buffet, etc.).
GETTING AROUND
Third, Transportation, to-and-from the facility and your various appointments.
- Where will they take you “for free”?
- Are there geographic limits to the “free” transportation?
- Can you arrange for transportation beyond those limits (for a fee)?
- Is the service only available during certain hours/days?
- Does the driver wait for you, or is it a drop-off and call-when-ready service?
- How much advance notice is needed to schedule transportation?
- And, if you use a mobility device (wheelchair, walker, etc.), can the system accommodate your needs?
FUTURE CARE NEEDS
Finally, there’s the issue of Long-Term Continuity of Care. Many of us will start in Independent Living, but eventually need Assisted Living and even Skilled Nursing. In an ideal world, you could start in an Independent Living unit and, as your needs changed, the service would be provided at your unit. However, most of these facilities have separate Independent, Assisted, Skilled Nursing, and even Memory Care units. In which case, each time your needs change, you have to move to a new location. Sometimes that location is in the same general facility; other times it’s at an entirely new location. Sometimes the additional service isn’t even available through the same organization. It is best to know these things ahead of time, not to discover them when the need arises.
We are fortunate here in Georgetown to have a wide range of excellent options, some of which have been here for a long time, others are newer and offer great services. We did a number of site visits (got lots of free lunches!), could easily have selected any one of the ones we saw, and heard great things about many of the others we didn’t visit.
Basically, we didn’t find a “bad choice” in the area — and that’s heartening.
A Smart Investment
One last comment. We bought Long-Term-Care Insurance about 20 years ago. The reason we bought it was to give some assurance to our children that they wouldn’t suffer a financial burden having to take care of us in our old age if we needed a lot of hands-on care. Now, as we leave Sun City and head to Independent Living, with a near certainty to need care at the Assisted Living level, we are realizing how important the insurance is to us (not just the adult children), both personally and financially. I’m glad we took out the policies, and we are encouraging our children to do the same, because they are now at the same age we were when we bought ours. Just something else to put into your thought process.
Steve and Gina moved to Georgetown and Sun City in 2006 and have been very active in civic affairs. Gina served on the boards of Kiwanis and Seeds of Strength. Steve served three terms on the Georgetown City Council and three terms on the Sun City Board of Directors.