Funded Nursing Care

[Tombero]

My father is a self funder in a nursing home.

My mother has now been told that he is eligible for FNC and that this will be paid directly to the nursing home.

we had been assuming that if he got this it would reduce the amount he has to pay personally, I.e come off his bill as a credit. But the social worker said no, the amount he pays won’t change.

To me that seems strange as his care needs haven’t changed (he’s been waiting for this assessment since he was admitted).

A quick look on google suggests this is a grey area. I’d be grateful to hear what experience others in the same position had had with this?

Same as you. Nursing home assume FNC and charge accordingly while waiting for assessment. Ours says that if you don’t get FNC, they will no longer do nursing care and hand you back to the District Nurses. So if you get it on assessment, no change, if you don’t, then loss of services.

We applied for CHC and got FNC which is paid directly to the home. MIL's behaviour required monitoring and she can be erratic so they wanted the extra funds to care for her. Her needs have changed in the few months she's been in there.

FNC is to pay for additional nursing care which your relative has been assessed as needing. It is not paid to reduce the amount that self funders pay.

If the home has already been providing the nursing care it may have been funded out of their own resources although FNC would usually be backdated to the date of assessment.

Thank you all, that’s really helpful.

My Mum received FNC which was paid directly to the home & it was shown as a weekly credit on her monthly bill. The amount she had to pay each month was reduced by these credits.

When we looked at nursing homes, some reduced the bill by FNC (fees usually started higher) and some assumed FNC would be paid on top of self-funding (and local authority funding).

Do you have a copy of the self-funding contract?

It was clear in there for us which approach each nursing home took.

My mum has just been assessed and found eligible for FNC. She is self funding. The care contract where she is states that this will be credited to her account. It is back dated as well. In her case backdated to February 2024. So a large whack will come off the bill when it comes through.
I did check with the care home manger that I would be seeing this on her bill.

Thanks all, my mum has found a copy of the contract online which states that any FNC will be paid to the home in addition to fees.

it sounds like the approach varies between homes though.