Every term in eldercare carries jargon, marketing, and acronyms. We strip those off and tell you what it actually means — and what they're not telling you.
The basic self-care tasks: bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, continence, and eating.
Structured daytime programs — meals, social activities, sometimes medical oversight — for adults who can't be home alone.
A written document spelling out your healthcare wishes if you can't speak for yourself.
Two ways to bring a paid aide into a home: through a licensed agency, or as a direct employee.
Argentum (formerly ALFA) is the trade association for assisted-living operators.
A federally-mandated regional agency that connects older adults to services in their county.
A care setting for adults who need help with daily living — bathing, dressing, medication, meals — but not round-the-clock medical attention.
A National Association of Home Builders certification for contractors trained in universal design and aging-in-place modifications.
A campus that sells you all three levels of care — independent living, assisted living, and skilled nursing — bundled into one entry contract.
The federal rating system for every Medicare-certified nursing home, on three components: health inspection, staffing, quality measures.
The frontline workers in nursing homes and assisted living — bathing, transferring, feeding, vitals.
The hospital staff member who arranges the patient's next setting after discharge.
A medical order instructing healthcare providers not to perform CPR if your heart stops.
Legal authority for someone to act on your behalf for financial or healthcare decisions.
A lawyer specializing in Medicaid planning, asset protection, and incapacity planning for older adults.
The likelihood that a person will fall — and a clinically meaningful predictor of decline.
Federal law giving eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to care for a family member.
A court-appointed role giving someone legal authority over an adult deemed unable to make decisions.
Home- and Community-Based Services Medicaid waivers — they pay for home care and adult day services as alternatives to nursing-home placement.
Written permission allowing a healthcare provider to share your medical information with someone else.
Non-medical help at home — bathing, meals, errands, companionship.
Skilled medical services delivered at home — nursing visits, physical therapy, wound care.
Changes to a home that make it safer and more navigable for someone aging in place.
Comfort-focused care for someone with a terminal diagnosis and a life expectancy of six months or less.
The next-level tasks: managing meds, cooking, shopping, money, transportation, phone, housework.
An apartment or cottage in a community for older adults, with no medical care included.
Private insurance that pays for assisted living, nursing-home, or home care under specific trigger conditions.
The five-year window before a Medicaid application during which any asset transfers are scrutinized.
Federal health insurance for people 65+ and certain younger people with disabilities.
A bundled Medicare alternative offered by private insurers, often with extra benefits.
Private insurance that pays the deductibles and coinsurance Original Medicare leaves behind.
A locked-unit setting designed for adults with Alzheimer's, dementia, or other cognitive decline.
A licensed facility providing 24-hour skilled medical care plus help with daily living.
Specialized symptom and pain management for someone with a serious illness — at any stage, with or without curative treatment.
Palmelle's 0-100 facility ranking, computed from federal CMS and state inspection data.
How Medicare pays nursing homes for skilled-nursing services as of 2019.
Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment — a portable medical order covering CPR, intubation, antibiotics, and feeding tubes.
Same building as a nursing home, but the term emphasizes the medical-care function over the residential one.
A nursing home flagged by CMS as having a sustained pattern of serious deficiencies, requiring twice-as-frequent inspections.
Short-term, intensive therapy in a skilled-nursing setting after a hospital stay.
The handoff between settings — hospital to SNF, SNF to home, home to assisted living.
The three structures by which CCRCs charge for higher levels of care: Type A (life-care, mostly prepaid), Type B (modified, partial discount), Type C (fee-for-service, you pay market rate when you transition).