Hawai'i's nursing homes among most costly

[cougarnurse]

I can understand this; they're cut off from the mainland.....
Nursing homes in Hawai'i among nation's most costly | HonoluluAdvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser

Hawai'i boasts the fourth-highest cost for private nursing rooms, according to a new study that found the average daily cost is 44 percent higher here than the national average.

The average daily rate in Hawai'i was $306 a day in 2008, a study by the MetLife Mature Market Institute found. That works out to $111,690 a year.

Hawai'i trailed only Alaska, Connecticut and New York in statewide daily rates and was $94 higher than the national average of $212. The costs here are tied in part to the higher cost of doing business in the Islands, which includes higher wages, energy costs, services and materials.

"Everything costs a little more (in Hawai'i)," said Emmet White, CEO of the Arcadia Retirement Residence and related companies. Arcadia provides long-term care and assisted living among its services.

"It's just a fact of doing business here."

For example, Hawai'i's per kilowatt-hour electricity costs are the highest in the nation, average about three times the national average. White said Arcadia's electricity bill was $88,000 last month, or $30,000 above what had been budgeted.

The lowest statewide rate for private nursing-home rooms was in Louisiana, where it cost $132 a day, or less than half of Hawai'i's average rate. In general, costs were lower in the south and higher around major metropolitan areas.

MetLife didn't release state-wide numbers last year, but did include those for Honolulu. From 2007 to 2008, the average cost of a private room in Honolulu rose $6 to $277 a day.

The figures also show that the average monthly rate for assisted living communities declined over the past year. It reported the 2008 cost was $3,566, or about 5 percent less than 2007.

That ranked the state as having the 12th highest monthly assisted-living rate in the nation. Hawai'i was still above the national average of $3,031.

More info. here: www.metlife.com/Applications/Corporate/WPS/CDA/PageGenerator/0,4132,P2801,00.html

[cougarnurse]

And more on N. H. costs: Westport’s MetLife Issues Report on Nursing Home Costs - WestportNow.com - Westport, Connecticut

Westport’s MetLife Mature Market Institute said today that average rates for a private room in a nursing home remained essentially unchanged nationally from 2007, while semi-private rates increased 1.1 percent from $189 daily or $68,985 annually in 2007, to $191 daily or $69,715 annually in 2008.

The Institute, located at 57 Greens Farms Road, said that average assisted living rates increased by 2.1 percent, from $2,969 monthly or $35,628 annually in 2007, to $3,031 monthly or $36,372 annually in 2008.

The highest daily rates for nursing homes are in Alaska, $577 for a private room and $566 for a semi-private room, the Institute said. In 2008, the non-metropolitan and non-suburban areas of Louisiana had the lowest daily rates for a private room in a nursing home, averaging $127 per day.

Copies of the 2008 MetLife Market Survey of Nursing Home & Assisted Living Costs can be found at www.maturemarketinstitute.com under “What’s New.”