What is a Community Fee

Looking for a new home for your loved ones can be very stressful and overwhelming situation specially for someone that is going through the process for the first time. Lots of questions come to mind regarding their health and well-being. We question ourselves whether or not we are making the right choice or have selected the right home for our friends and relatives. There are a lot of communities out there that can meet our loved ones needs. Each facility/community works a little bit different from each other with the goal of providing the best possible care for their residents.

There is one more thing we need to worry about, finances. The prices for these communities can vary significantly from one another. Something we need to keep in mind though is that each community will charge according to the services they provide, the level of care or type of assistance that our loved ones will receive, accommodation, location, etc. It is really a though decision to make especially when we have a budget to meet. For the most part all these charges are self-explanatory but then we see something that we not always know what it is for, a “Community Fee”… What is this fee for? How does my loved one benefits from this charge? Is it even for the benefit of my loved one or does it mean it’s a fee that the community gets to keep?

Community Fee does apply on behalf of our loved ones. Let me explain. There is a lot more than saying “yes” to a new customer. Here are some of the areas that this money goes towards.

1. Resident Assessment: Every time a community accepts a new resident they need to make sure it is an appropriate placement, meaning, that they will be able to meet the needs of each one of the residents they care for. It is crucial to know about the prospect resident’s base line, daily routine, medications, behaviors, cognitive level, special needs, level of assistance this person will need, skin assessment, treatments needed, etc. and in order to obtain this information community representative must spend time talking to any physician, resident itself, relatives or responsible party, case managers, social workers, nurses, caregivers, etc. All documentation provided by any of them then needs to be reviewed before initiating the process of admission if prospect resident gets accepted.

2. Travel Time: Facility representative often has to travel to where the prospect resident is located in order to obtain accurate assessment and information.

3. Health Screening: Facility Representative has to identify any medical condition or diagnosis associated with the future resident to assure consistency in treatment plan.

4. Care Plan: Once resident was accepted, facility representative will have to make sure there in a plan of care initiated upon resident’s arrival to the community. The purpose of the care plan is to identify residents need/problem, goals based on their needs as well as the approaches to meet those goals. Resident’s functional levels and capabilities are also identified during this process.

5. Staff Education & Training: it is important that prior to admission, staff is aware of the needs of any future residents that way they can assist to adjust to the new environment which can be challenging at times.

6. Notification and Coordination: Staff needs to make sure that there is consistency in resident’s medical regimen. This mean community needs to communicate with any entities that are going to be involved in the care of the resident this includes but is not limited to physicians, pharmacies, hospice agencies, home health providers, equipment/devices suppliers, etc.

7. Room accommodations: Every facility needs to make sure that upon resident’s arrival, the room/apartment is in good condition. This includes coordination of furniture and equipment that will be in the rooms as well as making sure that other accommodations are in place such as adequate lighting, television, phone lines, water supply, etc.

8. Referral Agencies: Yes, that is correct. There are multiple agencies that assist families in their search for the best possible home for their loved ones at no cost. In reality, this referral agencies do charge the communities a fee every time they refer a new resident. This fee is usually a portion of the monthly rent families have pay for the services that their loved ones will receive and this fee varies from 50% to over 100%. So in reality, a lot of times, communities will not have any revenue for the first month of a residents admission.

There is a long process, communities have to go through prior to admission of any of their residents in order to customize and provide ultimate care. Every community has its own protocol so feel free to ask any questions that come to mind during the process of admission.