Could Life Care Be Your Best-Ever Decision Too?

Both James and Karen had been through some challenging times while caring for their elderly parents. Karen says they learned some valuable lessons as a result, and they wanted to do what they could to ensure their children wouldn’t have similar “stress and distress” when the time came that she and James might need more assistance.

“Because of our experience with our parents, the Life Care agreement was our No. 1 priority when looking at places to move. We tried to get all the information we could about Life Care options, so we understood the decision we were going to commit to.”

“When The Stayton was still just a concept, we looked at another community here in Fort Worth and decided if that was the only game in town, that’s probably where we would go. But when The Stayton opened and we learned about all it offers, including Life Care, we knew it would be a better choice for us.”

James and Karen talked with their children about their plans to move to The Stayton, explaining how the Life Care benefits would affect them, as well.

“They were grateful that our decision was made not just for us, but with them in mind,” Karen says.

The Holcombs became part of The Stayton community in early 2015, and, Karen notes, they “never looked back.”

At its core, Life Care is a way to ensure you have priority access to advanced levels of care you may need in the future, at a predictable cost. While many senior living communities offer various levels of care, not all of them offer Life Care options.

Residents of a community that does not offer Life Care may still have priority access to advanced care services, but they may have to pay the market rate for those services at the time they’re provided.

To give you an idea of just how expensive higher levels of can be, according to Genworth, the median cost of nursing home care in 2023 was approximately $8,700 per month for a shared room and more than $9,700 per month for a private room.

Although fee structures differ among Life Care communities, residents typically pay an upfront entrance fee when they first move in, as well as a monthly fee to cover ongoing costs for services, amenities and more.

At The Stayton, we offer you a choice of agreements with different monthly fees, so you can select the one that best suits your circumstances.

Many seniors find that Life Care also comes with substantial tax benefits. For instance, you may be able to deduct a portion of the money you pay toward advanced care, even if you haven’t used any. A tax professional can advise you about the potential tax advantages you may have with a specific Life Care agreement.

No. While all Life Care senior living communities are also Life Plan communities, the reverse is not true. Not all Life Plan communities, also called continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs), offer Life Care services.

As the term implies, a continuing care retirement community is one that offers independent living along with a range of options to meet residents’ needs as they get older, such as assisted living, memory care, rehabilitation services, and short- and long-term skilled nursing care. Some CCRCs also offer hospice and respite care.

Several years ago, the senior living industry adopted a newer description of these communities, referring to them as Life Plan communities. When you see a reference to a CCRC or a Life Plan community, one is the same as the other.

And, again: Not all Life Plan communities, or CCRCs, offer Life Care services.

Life Care contracts are also known as Type A contracts. Some Life Plan communities offer Type B and Type C contracts.

With a Type B contract, the entrance fee may include advanced health services for a limited number of “free” days, after which residents must pay the market rate per day. As an alternative, a Type B contract might cover health services at a rate that’s slightly discounted from the current market rate, with no time restrictions.

Under a Type C contract, or fee-for-service contract, residents pay market rates for any type of long-term care they access through the community, whether it’s on-site or off campus. Residents who require only short-term care will need to continue paying the monthly fee on their independent living residence in addition to the going rate for housing and care services associated with assisted living, memory support or skilled nursing.

Karen and James knew they wanted to stay in the Fort Worth area. As Karen puts it, “We love this city. We’d been here for so many years, we couldn’t even think about living someplace else in this last chapter of our lives.

“One of the things we committed to, to each other, was that if we were going to enter into a Life Care agreement and make this move to The Stayton, that we felt we could support each other as our health declined,” she adds.

They assumed, based on their age difference, that James would probably experience a decline before Karen did. He told her when he thought it was time for him to transition into assisted living, where he lived for two and a half years. Then, after a stay at a nearby hospital, he returned to skilled nursing care at The Stayton for about seven months. During the last month of his life, he was in hospice care.

Other than when James was in the hospital, the Holcombs were able to remain together at The Stayton the entire time.

“We have been so grateful that we’ve had these years here, for so many reasons,” Karen says, acknowledging once again that it was “the best choice we have ever made.”