Movement of rates for long-term care is mixed, with assisted living and home health aide rates up but rates for in-home nursing visits and nursing homes declined year over year, according to a new report from long-term care insurer Illumifin.
The insurance company’s 10th annual Cost of Care study and analysis, released Wednesday, includes national, state and regional long-term care cost data among various settings. A companion website, What Care Costs, includes interactive maps and projection tools to sort, rank and evaluate average costs of long-term care around the country.
The average hourly rate for a home health aide, according to the data, increased by 5.2% year over year to $30.62 in 2023. A home visit from a registered nurse increased 1.6% year over to Meanwhile, the average per-visit rate for a registered nurse in 2023 was $147.72, a decrease of 1.6% over the previous year, to $147.72, “potentially reflecting rates beginning to normalize post pandemic,” the company said.
Assisted living community rates, on average, increased 0.6% to 3.8% in 2023, representing a reversal from the pandemic era, the insurance company said, which found assisted living community rates trending downward.
Skilled nursing facility rates, on average, saw a year-over-year decrease between 0.4% and 1%.
The most expensive states for home health aides were Washington and New Hampshire, whereas Mississippi and Louisiana were the least expensive, the company said. New Hampshire and New Jersey had the most expensive assisted living rates last year, with Alabama and Oklahoma having the lowest assisted living rates.
