Two years ago, Carl Gorski, 39 years old, learned that his older aunt was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. A doctor told Gorski that his aunt could no longer live alone without at least some assistance. Like a good nephew, Gorski was only too happy to lend a helping hand. But there were a couple of obstacles he needed to address. He lived 400 miles away in Virginia. (She resided in New York.) And he had four kids to raise.
The doctor recommended Gorski call a professional geriatric-care manager (GCM) to coordinate his aunt’s care while he was in Virginia. Gorski, who’d never heard of GCMs before, knew he needed some assistance and took the physician’s advice. The care manager helped Gorski come up with a short-term plan using home health-care aides until he could move his aunt closer to where he lives.
Then he called Linda Aufderhaar, a GCM based in Fairfax, Va., to help him transition his aunt into an assisted-living facility that specializes in Alzheimer’s patients. He also hired her to monitor her care and help out whenever emergencies arise.
What’s a GCM? Think of it as your own private consultant who can help guide you through the highly complex and fragmented health-care and long-term-care systems. GCMs are usually social workers or nurses. Their primary functions are threefold. First, they assess care needs. A practitioner will meet with the older family member (who’s referred to as the client) and the family caregiver to determine what health-care services are necessary.
A GCM will then develop a plan that will ensure that all of the client’s needs are met. And if the caregiver wants some added assistance, the care manager will even make the phone calls and set the program in motion. He or she can supply the names of the three best home-health care agencies in the area, or go so far as to hire an appropriate aide for the client.
For an added fee, a GCM can also monitor the client’s care. This is especially helpful for people who live at a distance from Mom or Dad. This service includes everything from stopping by unannounced — a strategy that’s sure to keep aides on their toes — to attending a nursing home’s monthly case-planning meetings and monitoring the daily log to ensure the client is getting the medications he or she needs.
How much will this cost? GCMs typically bill their services by the hour. Customers should expect hourly fees ranging from $100 to $250. Many practitioners will, however, charge a flat fee of $250 to $500 for an initial evaluation. While such fees may seem expensive, experts argue that a care manager can save people time and money. How? GCMs are well versed in public benefits and can put clients in touch with free services in the community. They’re usually knowledgeable when it comes to long-term care policies and Medicare’s ever-changing rules as well.
Aufderhaar, for example, saved one client some money by debunking the myth that home care is cheaper than therapy in a nursing home setting. After a client fell down and broke her hip, the client’s son thought it would be more cost effective for his mother to move back home and hire home health aides. What he didn’t realize, says Aufderhaar, was the Medicare would pick up the bill if she went to a nursing home to recover. While the government health-insurance plan would also cover some home therapy, in that case she’d still need to hire someone to help her with other daily living activities.
Once you work out the financial side of the equation, you can focus on the benefits a care manager can provide. The biggest one Gorski discovered was that, with a GCM’s assistance, he could stop worrying about his aunt’s care and focus on enjoying his visits with her. That kind of peace of mind is priceless. |