New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show the price of in-home care for the elderly increased by 14.2 percent between March 2023 and 2024, reports The Hill.
The hourly cost of a home health aide could be more than $30, depending on here you live. If you hire a home health aide for four hours a day, typically the minimum required by agencies, you’ll pay $120 a day.
Last week, I shared an article in The Washington Post that offered insights into why the costs of assisted living facilities can soar. With this news about the costs of home care, I know we all wonder how anyone will be able to afford help.
I think we also wonder about why the costs of care have increased. For instance:
Did home care agencies also raise the rates that they pay home health aides?
Did home care agencies invest in better training for their home health aides so the aides can provide better care?
Did the home care agencies take on pro-bono clients (clients which received services at no cost) which increased their costs?
I think if any (or all) of these three possibilities are the reality, then we would feel better about the price increase.
I would imagine that the costs of recruiting to find home health aides to hire contributes to this price increase. We don’t have enough home health aides so costs to attract staff must be significant.
But, we don’t know what contributes to the price increase because we don’t have transparency in pricing in the home care industry. It’s the same in the assisted living and long-term facility industry; we don’t know what contributes to the monthly costs that residents pay.
Last week, I shared that it’s time for transparency in pricing for the services we pay. Because we need to know:
Where is all the money going?
(Image by Stefan Schweihofer from Pixabay.)
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