Nevada ranks high in nursing home costs, survey finds

The annual cost for a private nursing home room in Nevada is more than $4,000 above the national median, and the hourly rate to receive care at home is more than $2 an hour over the average paid in the rest of the country, according to a health care survey released Tuesday.

The survey, done annually by Genworth Financial, a Virginia-based company that aims many of its products and services at the needs of the retired, also found that consumers have the power to negotiate with care providers.

“That’s something that I’m not sure a lot of people understand,” said Deborah Pont, a spokeswoman for the company. “Assisted-living facilities, for example, often charge a one-time fee when a client first moves in. But if the facility is in a competitive marketplace, that fee is often waived if people just ask.”

If vacancies are high at a nursing home or assisted-living center, Pont said, it is often possible to negotiate a lower price.

Daniel Mathis, head of the Nevada Health Care Association, was not surprised that the median annual rate for a private nursing home room is $82,125 per year, compared with the national rate of $77,745 per year.

“We have a real shortage of nurses and skilled medical personnel,” he said. “There’s a lot of competition for personnel, and that drives up labor costs.”

California’s home health hourly cost rate is the same as Nevada’s at $21 an hour, but a private room in a nursing is much more at $91,250 a year.

“The entire West has a shortage of medical personnel,” Mathis said.

The Nevada Health Care Association represents nearly 50 nonprofit and for-profit assisted-living, nursing facility and sub-acute care providers that care for more than 6,000 elderly and disabled statewide.

Mathis said the entire state has only 5,800 skilled-nursing facility beds.

“Only Alaska has fewer,” he said.

The hourly cost of health care at home is also driven by labor costs, he said.

“Again, you’re talking about a shortage of nurses and therapists,” he said. “Labor is the biggest cost.”

A spokeswoman for Maxim Health Care, which sends medical personnel to the homes of patients in Southern Nevada, said hourly costs can run from between $19 and $35 an hour.

“It all depends on how ill the person is and what we must do,” she said.

Pont said surveys by Genworth have shown that people throughout the country prefer long-term care at home.

“We have found though that most people who care for loved ones are unpaid relatives,” Pont said.

Mathis said the stagnant economy has kept many more people caring for loved ones at home.

“When the economy was better, there probably would have been more people sent to skilled-nursing facilities,” he said.

The survey did have some good news for Nevadans.

In Nevada, the annual cost of assisted-living care is $33,000, compared with $39,000 nationally.

That, Mathis said, has no doubt been found to be what the market will bear.

Pont said people should try to plan for long-term health costs.

“Too many people are caught trying to do this at the last minute, and that can be difficult,” she said. “If at all possible, you should talk to relatives beforehand about what kind of care they would prefer.”

Contact reporter Paul Harasim at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2908.