For people who cannot or who prefer not to maintain an independent household because they need long-term assistance or medical care, one option to consider is a nursing home.

A nursing home is an institutional or convalescent setting providing the highest level of medical care for people who are chronically ill as well as those recovering from acute illness. Stays can be temporary, such as for caregiver respite or to recover from a broken hip, or permanent, which requires 24-hour care and monitoring.

Included in rates that range from $80 to $150 on average a day are room and board, health monitoring, personal assistance, nursing, and other health and rehabilitative services. Most costs are paid for by families out of pocket. Medicare pays only for the first 100 days after a hospital stay of at least three days, if the facility is Medicare-certified, or only while a resident's condition is considered improving. Medicaid pays for all long-term care services for those qualified.

Sometimes a loved one is placed in a nursing home not because of failing health, but because the caregiver is burned out.

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