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Description:

• Skilled Nursing Facility, commonly called Nursing Home or Convalescent Hospitals, offer services to patients who require 24-hour nursing care. Most homes have a mixture of residents of various ages who have a variety of medical conditions.
• Nursing Home patients may be confined to bed all or most of each day. These facilities usually employ nurses, occupational, speech and physical therapists, dietitians, and social service specialists to assist in patient rehabilitation.
• Following therapy, patients return to their homes, or transfer to an assistant living residence, a small residential care home, or a long-term care unit in a skilled nursing facility.

Cost:

• In average, nursing home costs approximately $8,000 $14,000, or even more.

Who Pays: Based on previous statistics, the total spending for nursing homes in America amounted to $72 billion.

• Medicaid pays approximately 52% of this amount.
• Patients pay approximately 33% of this amount.
• Medicare pays approximately 9%
• Private Health insurances pay only 2% of this amount.

Characteristics:

• These facilities may be owned by private individuals for profit, public and/or non-profit organizations. Because of the excess need and high demand for these facilities, they are normally over-crowded and cannot provide the optimum care that is needed.