What Does The Senior Living Move-In Paperwork Entail?
Have you ever bought a house? Or even a car? Remember that giant stack of paperwork? Paperwork you thought would never end? I’m your host Valerie Borgman and in this week’s blog post, we will be looking at the senior living community move-in paperwork.
It seems like endless signing when buying a house or a car, you’re hoping you aren’t signing your life away. And who actually reads all those pages anyway?
We’ve talked in the past about how most people really don’t want to think about moving to Assisted Living. Most of the families we work with aren’t just looking for a community, they’re dealing with healthcare issues and many are providing care. Many are working full time and raising their children. So when families have finally made the decision to have mom move to senior living and have chosen the perfect place, they are sometimes overwhelmed by the …yes, you guessed it… the giant stack of paperwork. At the very least it can come as a bit of a surprise and at the worst, it can be very overwhelming.
It’s hard not to wonder if you’re missing something, especially when senior living can be expensive, big financial investment. This week we’re going to talk about what you can expect in the move-in paperwork, clear up a couple of misconceptions families we’ve worked with have had and hopefully when the time comes, make it a little more doable.
So let’s start with the most asked question we get: Is it a lease and are we committing to a year for example? Families ask this of course because this is what we’re used to when it comes to renting a regular apartment. The answer is no, while most communities do require a 30 day notice when you want to move out you are not committing to any specific length of time. Last week’s blog post was all about moving out and giving notice so be sure to check it out so you can learn more about that 30 day notice and how it works.
While community paperwork can differ, many states actually regulate what goes into the move-in paperwork. You might find that if you’ve moved from one community to another that the paperwork is basically the same. Here’s a basic list of what you might find.
The main paperwork will contain the usual legal ease you might find in any contract:
-What to do if you have a disagreement with the community (most will say mediation)
-How billing works
-Rate increases
-The monthly fee you’re agreeing to pay
-The community’s Medicaid policy
-The community fee
-A list of any additional fees including how meals and housekeeping works. For example some communities only include one meal per day
-Emergency contact form
-Office hours
-Move-in and move-out procedures
-The procedure for giving that 30 day notice
-POLST Form – You may already have this form – This is basically a Do Not Resuscitate form
-What you can and can’t do to the apartment. For example, you can usually hang pictures, wall mount tv’s but you may have to negotiate painting.
-A copy of an ID or Driver’s License
-There may be additional paperwork pertaining to on-site salon or any other services.
If you’re moving into Assisted Living or Memory Care you can expect seem additional paperwork:
-Doctors Orders – This may or may not be something you will be in charge of obtaining – this form goes to your loved one’s primary care physician and they’ll fill it out with any diagnosis and a list of medications.
-Forms for any visiting doctors such as a podiatrist and for the pharmacy the community works with – This paperwork will be specific to each physician – think of it like the paperwork you have to fill out when you go to a new doctor
*a side note – you usually have the ability to keep your own doctors and pharmacy*
-the care plan and care costs
-list of supplies that may or may not be provided and charged for – for example depends, gloves and wipes
For memory care:
– list of items you may or may not be allowed to bring to memory care – for example some memory care communities don’t allow live plants
– list of items you’re actually bringing and that those items be labeled with your loved one’s initials or name.
Overwhelmed yet? The paperwork meeting usually takes about an hour or longer if there are questions so if you haven’t been through it yet, you can see why it can be a little overwhelming. You can definitely ask for the paperwork up front to review it and fill out as much as possible before move-in day.
Beware that you may have negotiated certain terms with the Marketing Director, the one who gave you the tour, but you might be sitting down to sign paperwork with the Executive Director. So it is entirely possible that the executive director didn’t get the memo about what you negotiated.
If you negotiated terms you’ll want to pay very close attention to the paperwork where these number are and may have to write in what you negotiated.
For example, the community may have a policy that requires 2 years of private funding before accepting Medicaid but you negotiated it down to one year. Be sure they note that in the paperwork and everyone signs or initials.
On a final and very important note, it might go without saying but get a copy of everything you sign! You might have just said to yourself…well of course I would! But I can tell you, we’ve worked with countless families who either didn’t get a copy or can’t find their copy. No matter how great things seem in the beginning, you just never know what could happen, what disagreements can come up, especially when it comes to finances.
So hopefully this week’s episode will help you be a a little more prepared when it comes to the move-in paperwork.
