Respite care

Respite care is a break for the caregiver. Someone else takes over for a defined period so the person doing the daily work can go to a wedding, have surgery, sleep, or simply stop for a week.

It comes in several forms. In-home respite sends an aide to the house. Adult day programs cover the daytime hours. Residential respite means a licensed care home takes your parent as a short-term resident, typically for anywhere from a few days to a month.

How a residential respite stay works

A small care home with an open bed can usually accommodate a short stay. The home charges a daily or weekly rate rather than a monthly one, and the rate is generally higher per day than the equivalent long-term rate, because the home is filling a bed it would otherwise rent for a full month.

Most homes will want the same intake paperwork as a permanent resident: a physician’s report, a medication list, a care needs assessment, and emergency contacts. Build in a week or two of lead time. Some states set a maximum length for a respite stay before it is treated as a regular admission.

Book earlier than feels necessary. Small homes have few beds, and the weeks families want most, holidays and school breaks, are the same weeks everyone else wants.

What it costs and who pays

Expect the daily rate to run above one thirtieth of the home’s monthly rate. Ask what is included and what is billed separately, the same way you would for a permanent placement.

Medicare does not pay for respite care in an assisted living or residential care setting. The one Medicare exception is hospice respite: a patient enrolled in the Medicare hospice benefit can get up to five consecutive days of inpatient respite care, and that is a specific benefit with its own rules.

Some Medicaid home and community based services waivers cover respite, and the VA covers respite for eligible veterans. Long-term care insurance policies frequently include a respite benefit that policyholders never use because they do not know it is there. Read the policy.

A trial run in disguise

Families often use a respite stay as a low-stakes way to test a home before committing. That is a reasonable use of it. Your parent gets to sleep there, eat the food, and meet the staff, and you get to see how the home handles a real person rather than a tour.

If you are considering it that way, tell the home. A good operator will treat it as a mutual evaluation.