By Rod Rose/The Lebanon Reporter
Lebanon — Home health aide costs are a bargain in Boone County.
A survey done for the MetLife Mature Market Institute found the per hour cost of a home health aide ranged from a low of $13, in Shreveport, La., to $30, in Rochester, Minn.
The $5 flat fee charged by Boone County Senior Services is cheap in comparison.
“That’s why,” BCSSI Executive Director Sue Ritz said, “we’re going to change.”
On Jan. 1, the agency will shift to a sliding fee, based on a person’s income, Ritz said. For a single person, earning less than the federal poverty level baseline of $10,830 a year, the fee will not change, she said.
A health aide’s visit here “is however long it takes to complete the necessary aid,” Ritz said. Health aides perform basic personal care such as bathing, measuring blood pressure and testing blood sugar levels.
The agency charges $10 for a once-per-month visit by a nurse, Ritz said.
The MetLife study assessed the cost of semi-private and private rooms in nursing homes, assisted living community costs, home care services and adult day care services between 2008 and this year.
Increases were found in every category, the MLMMI found.
For more of the story, see Thursday's Lebanon Reporter.
