Assisted Living Executive Director Helps Families Talk About Costs of Assisted Living Facilities

KH: I'm here with Margie Veis, the Executive Director of Summerhill Villa, an assisted living facility in Santa Clarita, California.

KH: How long have you been doing this work?

MV: I have been an executive director for ten years, all of them at Summerhill Villa.

KH: How do you help families talk about the costs involved with assisted living?

MV: I think a big mistake is families look just at numbers. They'll say: "I'm going to look at place A and place B. They're both assisted livings. They're both going to give care. One's a thousand dollars less." They go with the one that's a thousand dollars less and they base it purely on money.

You get what you pay for. There might be a reason why it's more expensive. You want to look at the care staff. What's the training? Some of our competitors have what's called a universal care giver. One person is doing care giving and food service and activities, whereas in our building I have an activities staff, a care giving staff, and a laundry staff. I have to pay that staff. I have to keep that staff trained. That's going to cost more. It costs me more to run my building but you're getting better care.

Price is a factor - yes. Amenities are a factor - yes. But what does it feel like? You have to trust that.

KH: What you said is interesting because the numbers weren't really that out of whack for mom here based on home care, insurance, food and everything.

MV: You take that into consideration. We talk about that with families. Is there a house payment? Are you paying for a house keeper, a gardener, a pool man? You have to buy groceries. You're paying for insurance and utilities. And, what's your time worth? Are you going over there everyday to make sure mom's eating? Are you getting called can you pick me up this? Can you pick me up that? So you have to punch that all in and it isn't always more expensive.

But, to the elderly that's a lot of money because they're thinking depression years.

Also, I hear from many of our residents they don't want to spend the money because it's the childrens' inheritance. I also hear the children saying that's too much money because that's my inheritance. I have children saying: "That's a lot of money. I can do it for less and then I'll have more when I inherit." They say it. I think that's a big mistake too.