Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 11, 1995 TAG: 9508110047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The area's median charge of $82 a day for board and a semi-private room in nonhospital facilities is $5 below the state median, reports the Virginia Health Services Cost Review Council.
Comparable charges in other regions are $85 in Central, $90 in Eastern, $93 in Northwest and $118 in Northern Virginia. These charges are based on data collected Feb. 1. The median means that there are an equal number of facilities charging more and less than that amount.
The highest fee reported for a semi-private room is $140 in Northern Virginia. The lowest is $48 in Central Virginia.
In the Roanoke Valley, the highest daily charges are $96 at the Virginia Veterans Care Center, $92 at Our Lady of the Valley and $91 at Brian Center Nursing Care in Fincastle.
For skilled care, the top fee is Burrell Nursing Center's $250 a day.
"We probably have the most high-level acute care in the area. This is an atypical nursing center," said Stanley Kamm, Burrell's executive director.
Burrell also shows up as the only Roanoke Valley facility that accepts ventilator patients.
In the New River Valley, Pulaski Community Hospital has the highest skilled-care charge in the area, $272 a day.
The Cost Review Council has produced an annual survey on nursing home charges for 17 years, but this year's is more consumer-friendly than the 300- or 400-page book format of the past. The 1995 report has been broken into five regional consumer guides that display charges for room and board and for other services, such as laundry and therapy, in a chart form.
The guides also include tips on selecting a facility, finding alternatives to nursing home care, paying for care and how to understand a nursing home inspection report. Phone numbers and addresses of facilities are included, along with a work sheet to use in comparing the homes.
"This is a very new and very first-time effort here, more in keeping with the administration's effort to reach the citizens," said Dick Walker, director of administration for the council.
It also turned out to be less expensive to produce, although distribution charges could make it similar in cost to the old guide, he said.
The old-form guide had limited distribution, but 25,000 of the new ones have been printed and are available free at a variety of public places, including Area Agency on Aging offices, Social Services offices, health departments and hospital discharge offices, he said.
People who don't have access to those local offices can order a guide by calling the council at (804)786-6371.
by CNB