Cost of assisted living goes up...

According to a recent article in McKnights Long Term Care News & Assisted Living, the cost of care is going up... by leaps and bounds.The article is below:assisted living facilities are charging an average of 13% more than twoyears ago, while nursing home operators have hiked prices 7% over thesame time span, according to a new nationwide survey.The average daily cost for assisted living residents is $3,241 permonth, or about $108 per day, according to the 2008 Long-Term Care CostStudy, which was released by Prudential Financial on Monday. It was thelargest jump among long-term care providers surveyed.Average rates for a private nursing home bed, meanwhile, rose to$79,810 per year (or about $6,650 per month or $222 per day), thesurvey showed. Annual rates for semi-private rooms were about 11% lessthan private rooms. That equates to about $70,810 per year ($5,900 permonth, $197 per day).Geography played a familiar role in calculations, with Alaska($183,595), New York City ($160,965) and Stamford, CT ($148,920),ringing up the biggest bills for private nursing care, while Louisiana($48,180) Kansas ($53,655) and Missouri ($55,845) billed at the lowestrates.Prudential teamed up with LifeCare, an independent "adult care"services provider, to conduct the telephone survey of 1,613 long-termcare operators from November 2007 to January 2008.