CCRC: What is a Continuing Care Retirement Community?

Over the past decade Colorado has seen an increase in Continuing Care Retirement Communities commonly referred to as CCRC’s. A CCRC in its simplest definitation is a retirement community offering Independent, Assisted Living, Nursing Home and possibly a secure Alzheimer’s care unit. Individuals moving into a Continuing Care Retirement Community move into a setting where in essence they may live in some level of care at the community in which they live for the remainder of their lives. 

CCRC’s are generally run either by for profit companies or by private not-for profit institutions. Moving into a continuing care retirement community is more of a business proposition than simply signing a lease such as what is done when moving into a traditional retirement community. Due to the potential life long relationship between the resident and the continuing care community legal contracts are used to specify what type of healthcare, housing and other services tailored to meet the needs of the residents as they age and potentially pass through the communities’ increasing levels of care.

When a resident moves in to a CCRC an entrance fee is paid. A certain percentage of the entrance fee is refundable either to the resident if they move out or to their estate and this fee is used to help fund care costs for those residents who move in and progress to higher levels of care. Each month the resident pays the community a rental charge which covers basic services applicable to maintaining the apartment, housekeeping, basic meal service, utilities, etc. The benefit of moving into a CCRC is that regardless of level of care required, a resident can progress through the various levels of care and, having paid the entrance fee, can remain living in the community and pay a monthly fee which covers the needed care. Also to be considered is that in general, once a resident is accepted into a CCRC, their entrance fee in effect assures them that they can not outlive their resources and ability to remain in the community. Financial planning is made easier for the resident as the cost of care is made more predictable. This is made possible as the community can more easily plan financially for the cost of sheltering and caring for its residents and can therefore more readily provide a reasonable range of costs associated with each level of care.

More and more, this concept of continuing care retirement communities is gaining acceptance with those individuals who have the financial means to pay the entrance fee which can run from $80.000 up to $300.000 depending on the community and the services and amenities offered. Those who choose this lifestyle feel a measure of comfort that what ever health care issue they may run into, the continuing care community can care for their needs and thereby eliminate the concern of needing to locate a different provider of health care and residential services at a time when attending to one’s health care issues can be of primary concern.