By this point you have toured enough that the buildings have merged. These are the questions that still separate them.
Short answer
The questions that break a tie once the tours all start blurring together.
What to do, in order
- Compare the all-in numbers, not the base rents. Ask each community for the total monthly cost at your parent's assessed care level, in writing.
- Compare the rate increase histories. Three years of actual increases from each.
- Compare overnight staffing, not daytime. Daytime ratios look similar everywhere. Overnight is where they diverge.
- Pull both state inspection records. Read the surveyor narratives rather than counting citations.
- Ask the Medicaid waiver question of both. If private funds might run out, a community that does not hold a waiver provider agreement is a future forced move.
- Go back unannounced. Same building, evening on a weekday.