Pandemic has made long-term care cost go up in Utah and nationwide

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of things to cost more and long-term care is no exception. While the national annual median cost of long-term care increased across the board in the past year, those services in Utah were mixed as the pandemic intensified providers’ existing challenges in meeting the increasing demand services, according to Genworth Financial’s 17th annual Cost of Care Survey.

The survey showed costs in Utah increasing for homemaker services (up 5.21 percent), home healthcare (up 8.33 percent), adult day healthcare (up 23.61 percent) and private rooms in nursing homes (up 10 percent). The cost of a semi-private room in a nursing home dropped 0.24 percent while the cost of staying in an assisted living facility stayed flat.

Nationally, annual median costs increased 6.1 percent for assisted living facilities, 4.4 percent for home care and 3.5 percent for skilled nursing facilities.  

Providers told Genworth they will have to raise rates again in the next six months to cover the added cost of providing care under the extraordinary challenges posed by COVID-19. 

Providers pointed to several factors that resulted in increased costs, including a shortage of workers in the face of increasing demand for care, increased spending for training on new safety procedures, testing, purchase of PPE and cleaning supplies, higher mandated minimum wages as well as higher recruiting and retention costs and an increase in the cost of doing business, including regulatory, licensing and employee certification costs.