They say you learn something new every day...
And one of the things I recently learned was a new oxymoron: a social media budget. Because in most companies, it simply doesn't exist. They expect Fans, Followers, Likes and Pins to fall from the sky.
But that's not the worst part...
No, the worst part is when you see how companies actually spend a social media budget if they have it.
Because most of the time it's wasted on vanity metrics and hot trends.
And the problem typically resides with the HIPPOs (highest paid person's opinion), because the highest paid person is also (usually) the least knowledgeable and furthest away from the front lines.
Here are three of the worst ways that companies waste money in social media.
Money Waster #1: Squandering Your Offline Resources
One of the best ways to grow a social network is to funnel people from existing sources. That could mean your existing website traffic or email database. Or it could simply mean your foot-traffic and other offline sources.
This is the best source of visibility and awareness most companies have. But by overlooking a few key principles, they're wasting time, energy, effort and money.
For example, the typical offline, social media call-to-action (CTA) usually looks like stickers in a store window saying "People Love Us On Yelp."
In this case, all you're doing is promoting Yelp (and cluttering up your window). There's no CTA, and no customer benefit.
And this problem isn't isolated to small mom-and-pop shops either.
Large corporations and big ad agencies do this all the time on commercials. Next time you're interrupted during your favorite television show, count how many commercials show a Facebook icon, and...nothing else.
No Facebook page URL, no direct call-to-action, and no reason or incentive to actually get-off-the-couch and take action.
Again, all they're doing is promoting Facebook. And promoting Facebook is a terrible long-term strategy (which we'll discuss in Money Waster #3 below -- and why you should use email marketing instead).
Now compare this to a good example from a paper receipt that reads "Want 20% off? Go to Yelp and write a review. Bring it in with this coupon and receive a 20% discount." It has an extremely clear call-to-action, and a compelling reason to take action.
Now think about how powerful this is...
Customers are MUCH more likely to leave a negative review on Yelp than a positive one. But if you can incentivize people after a good experience, than you start to really harness the potential of customer-generated marketing.
Money Waster #2: Community Management Free-For-All
"The average, large company in the U.S. has 178 corporate-owned social media accounts," according to Marketing Pilgrim.
Contrary to popular belief, social media isn't free. So exactly who in your organization is responsible for managing 178 different social media accounts? Who's going to create new content for each, and respond to customers in a timely fashion?
The tiny, underfunded, understaffed Social Media department?
The cost associated with proper community management is significant. And for 178 different accounts, it's astronomical.
But that's not even the worst part...
You're also completely confusing your customers. Which accounts are they supposed to follow or interact with? Who do they respond to with general questions, product support, or service follow-up?
Countless psychological studies have shown that when people are presented with too many options, they freeze up and don't make a decision.
So they give-up completely, and are left with a bad taste in their mouth. Or instead of working through their customer support issues, they go trash your business on Yelp.
Money Waster #3: Facebook Double Taxation
It's been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly but expecting different results.
Keep that in mind as you read the next few lines...
In the early 1990s, America Online (AOL) spent over $300 million in mailing CDs to everyone's mailbox. According to then-CMO Jan Brandt:
"At one point, 50% of the CDs produced worldwide had an AOL logo on it. We were logging in new subscribers at the rate of one every six seconds."
In a decade, AOL rose to over 25 million users -- an unbelievable number at the time. They were the hottest company in the world. And they began opening up new opportunities for brands to reach consumers.
Companies raced to build up their AOL brand pages, and you would see "AOL" all over the commercials.
But eventually it fell out of favor (like every social network to date), and lost users in droves. Those huge marketing investments companies made into AOL were wasted -- because it was a "closed system." All the data and user information belonged to AOL, not the companies who worked so hard to build it in the first place.
Today, we have the same exact thing going on with Facebook.
Companies love talking about "Likes" and promoting their pages wherever they can. But here's the problem...
Facebook is starting to double-tax you to reach your own fans. According to The New York Observer, "Facebook acknowledged it as recently as last week: messages now reach, on average, just 15 percent of an account's fans. In a wonderful coincidence, Facebook has rolled out a solution for this problem: Pay them for better access." As their advertising head, Gokul Rajaram, explained, if you want to speak to the other 80 to 85 percent of people who signed up to hear from you, "sponsoring posts is important."
So if you want to reach more of your own fans -- the ones you already spent time, money and energy acquiring in the first place -- you have to PAY AGAIN with advertising. That doesn't seem very logical, does it?
Getting referral traffic from Facebook is great. And using it to reach new people, while also increasing engagement and retaining customers is good, too.
But don't throw a lot of money down the drain by investing in a closed system that you don't own or control.
If you're looking for awareness, then track visits, not "Likes." If you're looking for sales from repeat visitors, then use email marketing, not Facebook.
Because social media has changed the medium -- not the principles. And timeless marketing strategies still apply.
(Source: Brad Smith, Digital Marketing Consultant and Founder FixCourse, published in Social Media Today, 11/19/12)
According to a recent comScore study, from its TabLens service, nearly 2 in 5 U.S. tablet owners read newspapers and/or magazines on their device in August, with 1 in 10 reading publications almost daily.
Analysis of readership activities across platforms revealed that Kindle Fire users displayed the strongest propensity for reading newspapers and magazines on their device.
Mark Donovan, comScore SVP of Mobile, says "...tablets are...redefining how people consume news and information...with the format more conducive to reading longer form content...in the case of online newspapers, tablets are now driving 7% of total newspaper page views...impressive...considering the relative infancy of the tablet space..."
In the three-month average period ending August 2012, 37.1% of tablet owners read a newspaper on their device at least once during the month, with 11.5% of tablet owners reading newspapers almost every day.
Kindle Fire users demonstrated the greatest tendency to read newspapers, with 39.2% doing so in August, slightly edging out iPad at 38.3%. NOOK Tablet owners boasted the greatest percentage of high-frequency newspaper readers with 13.4% doing so on a near-daily basis.
Magazines/periodicals showed even higher readership rates than newspapers with 39.6% of tablet owners reading magazines on their device during the month. Kindle Fire owners once again showed the highest readership rate at 43.9%, followed by iPad users at 40.3%.
Newspaper and magazine tablet audiences closely resembled one another in gender, age and household income distribution, says the report. Newspaper audiences were 17% more likely to be male compared to an average tablet owner (index of 117), while magazine audiences were 11% more likely to be male (index of 111).
People between the ages of 25-34 represented the highest share of readers, accounting for 27.4% of newspaper consumers, and 28.2% of magazine/periodical consumers. People age 35-44 accounted for 1 in 5 readers in both categories. More than half of readers had a household income of $75k or greater, while those in the highest income segment of $100k or greater skewed most heavily toward readership.
(Source: The Center for Media Research, 11/16/12)
There was nothing small this year about Small Business Saturday sales.
Small Business Saturday, when consumers are encouraged to support their local small businesses two days after Thanksgiving, gets bigger every year, says Small Business Administrator Karen Mills.
"We see tremendous momentum out there," says Mills. "This Small Business Saturday has really gone viral."
Small businesses can't usually compete with big-box stores' big sales on Black Friday, so many hope to use Small Business Saturday to get a piece of the action during the biggest shopping weekend of the year.
Small Business Saturday is the most important shopping day of the season for 36% of independent retailers, according to the National Federation of Independent Businesses. Only 24% say that day is Black Friday.
Leah Daniels, owner of Hill's Kitchen, says this Small Business Saturday was probably twice as big as last year's, and the store was packed all day.
"Color me a happy person," says Daniels. "Let's hope this means there's going to be a big holiday season."
Ross Steinman, psychology professor at Widener University, says the popularity of Small Business Saturday is a revolt against big-box stores from consumers who are willing to pay extra and see the money go to their communities.
"There's so much negative attention in recent years on Black Friday and the rampant consumerism that's associated with it," he says. "Small Business Saturday is a response to that."
Laura Smith, 52, says she's a big fan of Small Business Saturday. She spent the day shopping at all her favorite stores in Terrytown, Va., and was sure to have lunch at Can Can, a locally owned French restaurant.
"It was really pleasant. It was fun and kind of like back in the old days where people would just walk up and down the street visiting the local stores," says Smith.
Jim Brownell, VP of retail solutions for GT Nexus, says that Small Business Saturday is a great opportunity for retailers because there are "a lot of feet on the street," but it doesn't work unless they get the word out about promotions.
"It's unfortunately going to require some sort of service promotion or product promotion to draw people into the stores," Brownell says. "You can't sit back and hope that the SBA with all their advertising is really going to be the ones that will bring everybody in."
Alan Au, co-owner of Jimmy Au's For Men 5'8" and Under, a fancy clothing store for shorter men, had a big Small Business Saturday sale on pretty much everything, but refused to advertise the sale beyond individual invitations to customers.
"The more full the store is, the harder it is to help anybody," says Au. "I function a lot better with a steady stream of customers."
Nevertheless, the store was busy the whole day, and Au says it's a good indication December sales will be up as well.
When Au's store was in the Glendale, Calif., shopping mall, his Black Friday sales drew customers who were already in the mall to make other purchases. However, once the store moved to a street location in Beverly Hills, he found he was trying to compete with the big retailers at the mall, whose Black Friday crowds he previously relied on for customers.
"We tried to compete against that with some really killer deals, but we can't beat something like that," says Au. Now he holds the sale on Saturday.
(Source: USA Today, 11/26/12)
In recent years, brick-and-mortar retailers have grown increasingly weary at the sight of customers showing up at their stores with smartphones in hand.
Apps now let shoppers make price comparisons on the fly. Scan a barcode, and you can immediately find out where the product on the shelf can be found cheaper. The result: Hordes of shoppers visiting retail locations to "showroom" -- test out a product in the store, then go home and buy it online at a lower price.
It's a problem that retailers are scrambling to address this holiday season, and a couple of retailers will even take the potentially costly approach of offering to match the prices of online competitors like Amazon. But some experts suggest that a smartphone-equipped shopper should be seen not as a problem, but as an opportunity.
Hey, Big Spender
That's especially true in light of the latest iteration of Deloitte's annual Christmas shopping survey, released last month. The survey found that so-called omnichannel shoppers -- those who shop both in-store and online -- will spend 71% more this holiday season than store-only shoppers, with an average expenditure of $600 on gifts.
Why this should be the case isn't entirely clear -- it may simply be that those with smartphones and tablets are in a higher income class, and thus have more disposable income to throw around at Christmastime. But as smartphone penetration has soared over the last five years, it has become less of a signifier of income.
Rather, it may simply be that consumers are more likely to make a purchase if they're able to convince themselves that they've researched their full range of options and prices.
"The folks that use the omni approach as a consumer -- checking prices, using social media, reading reviews – maybe they feel more comfortable spending," says Joe Welter, a partner in Deloitte's retail practice.
Whatever the cause, there's little doubt that this is a market segment that retailers should be eager to please. And that means tailoring their sales approach in a way that gives these savvy consumers the multichannel convenience to which they're accustomed.
"The smart (retailers) early on have adopted an omnichannel vision that says you can buy online and pick it up in-store," says Welter. "Or you can see it, feel it and touch it in the store, then go to a sales associate and they'll ship it with gift wrapping."
The former approach is seen at most retailers with an online presence, allowing consumers to get the convenience of online shopping without having to pay shipping fees. (Walmart, for instance, offers free site-to-store shipping on most items.) And the latter is also on the rise. Take Target, which has fully embraced smartphone-equipped shoppers by putting QR codes on select items; shoppers with Target's app can scan a QR code, buy the product online and ship it anywhere for free.
Deals, Deals, Deals
Other retailers are wising up to the fact that the smartphone in that shopper's hand is another channel for delivering promotional offers.
Walmart's mobile app, for instance, embraces omnichannel customers in a number of ways: You can shop Walmart's website through it, or if you prefer to shop at your local store, it will show you the aisle numbers of the items on your list. And it also recognizes the value of letting customers get promotional offers from their smartphones. The app lets you find your weekly ad, and also lets you "clip" coupons of your choice for use in store.
Unfortunately, it's not a totally convenient process. Rather than letting you simply bring up the coupons on your phone while you shop, the app emails you a link to your clipped coupons. You must then open the email on a computer, install a printer plug-in from Walmart.com, then print them out and bring them to the store.
But others are offering a more seamless experience. Coupons.com, which carries codes and printable coupons for supermarkets and department stores alike, announced Wednesday that it's integrating with Passbook, one of the new features of Apple's iOS 6. Intended to relieve some pressure on your overstuffed wallet or purse, Passbook lets you store everything from boarding passes to movie tickets to gift cards and coupons on your iPhone or iPad.
While the Coupons.com app doesn't yet integrate with Passbook (there, as with Walmart's app, you'll still need to email and print at home), the mobile site works well with the new feature. If you have iOS 6 on your iPhone or iPad, visiting the site will show coupons from a variety of retailers that accept coupons on phones; clicking "Send to Passbook" will do just that, and participating retailers -- including Barnes and Noble, Macy's and Old Navy -- will be able to scan the coupon right from your phone.
That's convenient for consumers who don't want to physically clip coupons, and like the idea of grabbing deals while they're standing in the store. But it's also a boon to retailers. "We're seeing the convergence of e-commerce and the in-store shopping experience, and as long as the opportunity to save online and in-store is equal, consumers are very happy to make that purchase (in the store)," says Coupons.com CEO Steven Boal. "And if they can have a fluid experience, they're more likely to buy."
And more and more shoppers are seeking out ways to get deals on their phones. In survey results released recently, price-comparison site PriceGrabber found that 70% of shoppers intend to download and use coupon apps this holiday season.
Of course, price is still going to be the bottom line for many consumers, and particularly savvy shoppers with the full range of price-comparison apps might still go home and buy on Amazon or another e-commerce site if they find a lower price even after couponing.
But as J.C. Penney has learned the hard way, the promotional value of coupons and special offers can't be underestimated. If retailers can seamlessly deliver those offers directly to a customer standing in the store, that customer is a lot more likely to make a purchase on their way out.
(Source: Matt Brownell, Daily Finance, 10/24/12)
Focus On Pre-Rolls and Branded Entertainment Is Counterproductive
Online video advertising should be ushering in a new golden era for our industry. Except it's not, because most of the ad business is focused on the wrong things.
There are essentially two areas of discussion that dominate the conversation when it comes to online video. Both are tethered to the Mad Men world of "things we've always done."
The first is pre-roll -- putting spots in front of content. We focus on this because it's what all the big agencies are set up to do and it's where the dollars are.
The second is the creation of branded content. Another page from the history books. We did it with soap operas. Red Bull seems to have made it work. Let's do it again. We focus on this because people who work in advertising all secretly wish we worked in Hollywood.
These are important opportunities for sure, but to limit our attention to them is myopic.
Advertising used to be about things like persuasion, perception, inspiration, desire. It was Bill Bernbach who said "It's not the numbers of ads you serve, it's the impression you make. Today, the word "impression" has a whole new meaning, and advertising is about spreadsheets and quantifiable ROI.
It can be about both. It should be about both. Online video can bridge that gap.
Marketers should be thoughtful about considering every opportunity that digital video presents. Here are a few:
Discoverable content
Google is a zillion-dollar business because they stumbled upon something powerful in the marketing funnel -- intent. When people want something, they search for it.
Rapidly, video is becoming a more and more critical part of that search. This summer, I decided to put my BBQ skills to the test and figure out how to make a brisket. It didn't even occur to me to read a recipe. I went straight to YouTube to learn how. I went through dozens of crappy home videos before I finally found a good one.
Shame on Kingsford Charcoal for not making sure I discovered a quality, search engine optimized video they produced. That's a big missed opportunity.
What are your customers looking for? Make sure you help them discover it.
Owned media
Often, brands will put budget into high production value for spots, but treat video created for their own website like a Cinderella stepchild. The thinking is that less people will see it, so let's spend less producing it.
That's silly. Sure, the audience that will see them is smaller, but certainly they are not less important. These are the people raising their hands, clicking their mouses and saying, "Yes, I want a deeper relationship with your brand."
No one is saying you should run out and try to create the next Bud TV. You don't need to become a TV station.
I'm talking a great opportunity to tell a deeper story to the right audience. Why skimp there?
Native video
One big trend in that the VC community is buzzing about today is "Native Monetization." Sponsored Stories on Facebook is an example of an ad that is "native" to its platforms. Now, all manner of content providers are devising ways to integrate brand content -- particularly video -- into their actual content. This can be highly effective.
When Buzzfeed readers checked out a piece of content called "This is how you get on Santa's Naughty List" last Christmas, they got to see a cute video from FootLockerabout a teenager holding a reindeer hostage to get Santa to get him new sneakers. Like most Buzzfeed content, it's designed to put a smirk on your face. And it does the job.
Experience integration
One of the most compelling opportunities open to brands today is to delight or create value for consumers through digital experiences. Video can be integrated into those experiences to make them more powerful, more compelling and yes, more engaging to your customers.
We created a campaign for Adobe called "Real or Fake?" that challenged players to guess whether a series of images were real or faked with Adobe tools. We used AfterEffects to create a video of a ballerina dancing on top of the Roosevelt Island Tram. After guessing if it was real or fake (it was fake), 50% of people who played the game and checked out a tutorial on how they could do it themselves.
(Source: Adam Kleinberg, CEO of Traction, a San Fancisco interactive agency, Advertising Age, 11/01/12)
Andee St. John is searching for an assisted-living facility near Columbia, S.C., for her 69-year-old mother, who was hospitalized recently after several falls. But finding the place with the right combination of price, amenities and services has been difficult.
So far, Ms. St. John has consulted with a financial adviser, a geriatric social worker and an elder-law attorney as part of her research.
"It's been very eye-opening," Ms. St. John says. "You don't just pay one fee a month for assisted living. There are all these different add-ons."
A growing number of families are wrestling with the same dilemma: rising costs for long-term care and a mind-boggling array of options.
Nationwide, long-term-care costs in a number of categories have risen faster than inflation over the past year, according to research released on Tuesday by insurer MetLife's Mature Market Institute. At the same time, care providers are changing the types of services available or bundling services in new and at times confusing ways.
But there are strategies that can help. People who identify the specific services their loved ones need, haggle aggressively on price and explore alternative-care options can save money -- or at least get more care for the money they do spend, experts say.
The broad category of "long-term care" includes a variety of health and daily-living services, either in facilities or in people's homes, for people with chronic illnesses or disabilities.
Costs are rising for most kinds of care, according to the MetLife study, which surveyed nearly 6,700 long-term-care providers and is the first to analyze the ways providers have started bundling together various add-on services, such as transportation or extra meals, in their fee structures.
The average rent at assisted-living facilities, which provide help with day-to-day activities but not necessarily round-the-clock skilled-nursing care, shot up 17% to $3,486 over the past five years, according to the study. That is based on facilities offering six to nine services.
The price of a private room at a nursing home, meanwhile, rose 4% over the past year to $248 a day. And while prices for home-health aides and adult-day services didn't rise, on average, the brief respite comes after increases in recent years. Home-health-care spending by Medicare beneficiaries, for example, climbed 129% to $19 billion from 2000 to 2010, according to a March report to Congress by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
With fees rising and the menu of services changing, here are some strategies families are using to stretch their long-term-care dollars further.
Paying for Care
Before exploring which kind of long-term care a family member needs, you should be clear about how you are paying for it.
Some consumers have long-term-care insurance, which covers an array of expenses. But the policies often have been money losers for insurers, and in recent years several have exited the business. The ones that remain have raised premiums, cut back on coverage for new policies or both -- meaning consumers will have to pick up more of the tab themselves.
Most people simply reach for their checkbooks. But there are a couple of ways to ease the sting.
Married couples with some savings might want to consider buying an immediate annuity that pays benefits for a set number of years, to preserve savings for the "well" spouse while the other spouse receives care, says Gary Cotter, a certified financial planner in Sun City Center, Fla.
The benefit: Such an annuity wouldn't count against them in qualifying for assistance from Medicaid, the state and federal program that pays for health and long-term care for the poor. The catch: The well spouse has to live through the entire period the annuity is making payments. If not, the state has the first claim on any remaining payments, Mr. Cotter says.
One often-overlooked benefit is available to millions of families of wartime veterans. The Department of Veterans Affairs' aid-and-attendance benefit pays up to $2,020 a month to married veterans who qualify. Single veterans and surviving spouses might qualify for smaller payments.
Choosing the Right Care
Once the financing is settled, it is time to choose the kind of care you need. That should start, experts say, by cataloging the various daily living tasks you and your loved one can and can't perform. That will give you a sense of whether a few hours a day of personal assistance can do the job, or whether it is time to make a costlier move.
Genworth, one of the country's largest long-term-care insurers, uses five levels, ranging from independent (level one) to completely dependent on skilled-nursing care (level five).
At the second level, the older adult suffers from disease symptoms or early dementia and typically needs help shopping and paying bills, tasks a family member often can perform at no cost. At level three, people need four to five hours a day of help with activities that take place at predictable times. People at level four need considerable assistance from someone who is constantly on call.
Experts say most families wait until there is an immediate need for more care before they research and shop for it. A better approach: asking your loved one's doctors for help anticipating what you might need next. That way, you have more leverage. You can figure out in advance which assisted-living facility has vacancies and might waive a move-in fee or other charges, for example, and which one has a waiting list.
Some families turn to geriatric-care managers, typically social workers or registered nurses who charge an hourly fee. The managers can help you figure out what kind of care you need and review contracts before you sign to make sure there are no hidden charges, such as move-out fees.
Assisted Living
Of all of the various long-term-care options, assisted-living facilities are becoming the trickiest to figure out, experts say.
That's because, in the past five years, a growing number of facilities have started packaging more services together, rather than charging for them a la carte. This year, for example, 65% are providing six to nine services in their base rate, up from 59% five years ago, and 31% include 10 or more services.
The problem: People who need added services often must choose plans with a higher base rate that lumps more services together -- and end up paying for some services they don't need. The "personal-care" category -- which may or may not include dressing, bathing or other tasks -- costs an average of $504 a month, according to MetLife.
But many services have wiggle room for discounts, experts say. A good starting point, they say: move-in fees and monthly "wellness fees" that sometimes include only blood-pressure checks, which many residents can do on their own with a $30 cuff from a drugstore.
Kathleen Dempsey, a geriatric-care manager in Minneapolis, often recommends that clients buy a medication-monitoring system rather than pay for a nurse to do so, a service that costs $347 a month on average, according to MetLife. The website e-pill.com offers several different choices.
Jalaa McNeal, a 71-year-old retired physical-education teacher, moved to an assisted-living facility in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, this summer after she was diagnosed with water on the brain and had a shunt implanted. When she moved in, she needed to have her medicine administered a few times a day. But after months of therapy, she was tested by a neuropsychologist who said she can manage her medicine on her own. She canceled, saving $500 a month.
Independent Living
Some families are delaying or avoiding costly assisted-living care by moving to so-called independent-living apartments. Traditionally, most of these communities were little more than age-restricted apartment complexes. But in recent years, many have added nonmedical services such as transportation, meals and concierge desks. Families can hire their own home care separately if they need it.
One big advantage: Unlike fancier continuing-care retirement communities, independent-living facilities typically don't require lump-sum payments, says Mr. Cotter, the Florida planner.
"A lot of people prefer independent-living apartments because they can contract with a home-health provider themselves," he says. "It puts them in control of the whole thing."
Kevin Skipper, a financial adviser in Columbia, S.C., paid $2,000 a month for his mother's independent-living apartment, which included rent plus three meals a day. When he added companion care, the total cost was $2,900 a month, allowing him to delay moving her to a nearby assisted-living facility, which was charging $4,500.
Home Health Care
Many people prefer to remain at home rather than move to a facility. It can be costly, but there are ways to save. People who don't need 24-hour care can sign up for hourly services. Rates average about $20 an hour for basic services such as housekeeping and meal preparation, and $21 an hour for hands-on assistance with bathing, dressing and other activities, according to MetLife.
Families using home care on a consistent schedule, or for several hours or more every day, might be able to cut the rate by a few dollars an hour, experts say. A good starting point is Medicare's Home Healthcare Compare tool (medicare.gov/homehealthcompare), which allows you to search for local agencies and see their quality of patient care.
To get a better deal, consider hiring caregivers on your own, rather than through an agency, which usually runs about 25% more, experts say.
You might get lucky and find a caregiver through word-of-mouth from a friend also caring for elderly loved ones. Otherwise, you probably will need to place ads online or in newspapers.
Alternative Options
Other types of care often are overlooked, but can relieve family burdens and financial stress.
"Adult-day services," for example, provide health, social and therapeutic activities in a group setting for people with functional and cognitive problems. Some are free-standing; others are housed within nursing homes, assisted-living facilities or hospitals. Some offer a high level of medical care, and charge an average daily rate of $79. The services work well for patients who can sleep through the night at home, experts say.
Another option: Many assisted-living facilities offer "respite-care" programs, through which older adults who are cared for at home can check in for a weekend or longer when a family caregiver needs to leave town. It is an option that can help a family delay having to use a more expensive assisted-living facility, says Rona Loshak, a long-term-care insurance broker in Roslyn, N.Y.
Many families also can tap hospice care, generally meant for patients in the last stages of a serious illness, earlier than they might realize, and often with Medicare's backing.
Linda Fodrini-Johnson, a geriatric-care manager near San Francisco, recently moved her mother, who qualified for Medicare-backed hospice care, from a skilled-nursing facility costing more than $10,000 a month to a small residential-care facility with six private rooms -- at about half the price.
(Source: The Wall Street Journal, 10/29/12)
