Sample Costs

If you’re new to home care, you might be wondering, “How much does home care cost—especially long-term or ongoing care?” The fees you pay can vary and depend in large measure on the level of services you or your loved one needs, as well as how many hours a day you need help. To give you a better sense of what you could pay, here are three examples of people with different needs—and different costs, based on their specific situations.

Short-Term Care after Surgery

For Alice, having knee-replacement surgery means she’ll be able to get back to her active life—but in the meantime, she needs help getting to and from appointments as well as assistance around the house. Standing at the sink to do dishes and carrying laundry to and from her basement won’t be on her list of things to do as she recuperates.

Alice has decided that a home health aide for the first four days she’s home will be sufficient. Her aide will come for six hours each day, and will shop for and prepare meals that Alice can simply heat up, as well as help around the house.

APPROXIMATE COST: Alice’s cost for the help she needs is under $450.

Care for Additional Hours

Mary has Alzheimer’s. She lives with her daughter Catherine and qualifies for Medicare benefits that provide a home health aide for four hours, five days a week—but Catherine works full time, and Mary is becoming increasingly forgetful. It’s gotten to the point where Catherine’s health is suffering because she’s so worried about what she’ll find when she arrives home.

Because Mary already has home health care services through the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, her VNSNY nurse recommended that Catherine call Partners in Care. Mary’s aide will extend her day from four hours to eight. The VNSNY portion of the aide’s services will still be 100 percent covered, and Mary will receive a discounted rate for the four additional hours of the same home health aide’s care.

APPROXIMATE COST: Mary’s out-of-pocket costs for the care she needs is about $1,500 per month.

Round-the-Clock Care

John has Parkinson’s, and although he manages quite well, his children are still very concerned about his safety—not too long ago, he fell on his way to the bathroom and his neighbor found him the next morning. John is adamant about not leaving his house, but his children live out of state and can’t give him the help he needs.

Partners in Care sent a nurse to assess both John’s physical abilities and the safety of his home. She made recommendations and created a Plan of Care that allows for John to stay at home. Because John’s children want someone to be with him around the clock, John will have aides around the clock.

APPROXIMATE COST: John’s cost for his safety and his family’s peace of mind is less than $8,000 a month.