Exposed: The Low-Down on Senior Living Referers
If you are reading this, you probably have an elderly parent who has reached the point where they need assistance for everyday living. You probably don’t have a lot of experience with this decision and you are looking for some helpful advice. If you Google “assisted living” you are bombarded with advertisements for assisted living referral services. It’s as simple as calling a 1-800 number to get all of your questions answered and be matched with the perfect facility for your aging parent. And, best of all, it’s FREE.
Courtesy: Flickr's chrismaverick
Sounds a little too good to be true doesn’t it? It is. Most referral sites are thinly veiled platforms for middlemen to sell your contact information to the highest bidder. It isn’t altruism that drives people to sit by the phone waiting for your call. They are getting paid handsomely by the assisted living homes that they refer. What if the best assisted living facility doesn’t pay for referrals? They “conveniently” aren’t recommended.
The result: referring companies will direct you to large national chains and away from smaller more local homes. Referral companies will insist that fees don’t influence their recommendations, but that is laughable. How could they not? Someone wise once said, “It’s very hard to convince a man of something if his job depends on him not believing it.” If you need some unbiased advice, the last place you should look is an unknown company with someone else’s financial interests at heart.
Of course, all referrers aren’t evil. Sometimes it is nice to talk with an expert in the field, and experts have to earn a living. To find a good referral service, you should look for a local company that has a reputation at stake. Local referral companies are likely to have actual first-hand experience with the companies they refer. National referers, on the other hand, can’t possibly know anything unique about individual homes. There are just too many. In the United States alone, there are nearly 40,000 assisted living facilities.
While local referrals can be helpful, your best bet is talking with people who have gone through the process themselves. Ask a neighbor, colleague, or acquaintance from church. Post to our forum to see if anyone from your area has any suggestions. Check out reviews left by others. Making an informed decision isn’t as easy as a simple phone call, but it’s worth the work.
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