Long-Term Care

As you age, simple daily tasks – such as bending over to put on a pair of pants or standing for hours to do chores – become more challenging. You’ll likely need nursing care in addition to home assistance as your health deteriorates. Unfortunately, health insurance and medical assistance often only cover a small portion of the expense of a nursing facility, which is why long-term care insurance is particularly important. A plan helps cover the cost of a nursing home, assisted living facility or other long-term care option. Long-term care insurance pays for a wide range of services and procedures that typically aren’t covered by medical insurance. The types of care fall into three categories: skilled, intermediate and custodial.

Skilled Care

If you have a serious illness or injury that you can recover from, you will probably receive skilled care from nurses or professional therapists. Skilled care is provided daily, usually ordered by a physician, and involves a treatment plan. In short, skilled care helps get you better.

Intermediate Care

This type of care is similar to skilled care, but not provided on a daily basis. For instance, if you injured your leg and need to visit a physical therapist five times a week to help you heal, that would be considered intermediate care.

Custodial Care

Unlike skilled and intermediate care, which is used to improve your health, custodial care isn’t intended to heal you. Instead, custodial care includes assistance with daily activities like bathing, eating, dressing, toileting (getting on and off the toilet and other tasks associated with personal hygiene), continence and transferring (getting in and out of bed and chairs). Catheter or colostomy maintenance is also included. Custodial care can range from in-home care provided two or three days a week, to 24-hour nursing home care.