Life Care Communities versus Continuing Care Communities

All life care communities are continuing care communities, but not all continuing care communities are life care communities.

Sounds like a riddle – but actually, if you’re looking for the best retirement living model for the long term – life care is the solution. It combines all the lifestyle advantages and amenities of resort-style, independent retirement living with the assurance of a complete range of continuing care – including assisted living and skilled nursing care.

What’s the real distinction between continuing care retirement communities and life care retirement communities such as ACTS communities?

It comes down to the kind of contract that secures the scope of continuing care services provided by a retirement community. The AARP website (www.AARP.org) notes three general kinds of continuing care contracts for people of retirement age:

• Fee-for-service (or rental) contracts, which charge a lower monthly service fee than with other types of contracts, but require residents to pay full daily rates for assisted living and skilled nursing care services.
• Modified contracts, which include a discounted rate for a specified period of assisted living or skilled nursing care. Beyond that specified period, residents are charged a full daily rate for their care.
• Extensive contracts, which include unlimited, lifetime access to assisted living and skilled nursing care at little or no increase in the monthly fee.

For example, your monthly fee will never increase as a result of the need for a higher level of care at any one of our ACTS communities.

And, because ACTS has the largest network of independently owned and managed continuing care retirement communities in the United States, you can visit – or even relocate – to another ACTS community, and enjoy all the benefits and conveniences associated with being an ACTS resident – from meal plans to health care.