How we are paid

Families pay us nothing. There is no fee to talk to an advisor, no fee for a care recommendation, and no fee for the work we do helping you compare options.

Communities pay us when a family we advise moves in. If we introduce you to an assisted living community, a memory care community, or a similar provider and you choose to move there, that provider pays us a referral fee. This is the largest part of how the practice earns.

Some other referrals can pay us, and only where the law allows it. We also refer families to in-home care agencies and to professionals such as elder law attorneys, VA benefits specialists, financial planners and move managers. Some of those arrangements may carry a fee to us and many cannot, either because the law forbids it or because that profession’s own rules do. We do not take one where it is not permitted.

We accept no fee on Medicaid-funded care. If the care is paid for by Medicaid, we take nothing. That is absolute rather than case by case, and it is the reason we draw a hard line between non-medical help at home, which families usually pay for privately, and home health, which Medicare or Medicaid usually pays for. We will still help you either way, and we will point you to the right Louisiana Department of Health channels without a fee attached.

If a referral we make pays us, we tell you at the time. Not in a footnote, and not if you happen to ask. You should be able to weigh a recommendation knowing whether we have anything riding on it.

Why we lead with this

A pay model shapes advice whether anyone admits it or not. Ours creates one obvious question: if communities pay you, are you steering me toward a community? Here is our answer.

Adding a second way to earn makes that question sharper rather than softer, so here is the plain version: a referral that pays us is not a better referral, and the disclosure above exists so you can hold us to that rather than take it on faith.

Community referral is one outcome, not the goal. A large share of the families we advise do not move anyone anywhere. The answer is often in-home care, a different schedule of family support, a respite stay to get through a hard stretch, or a conversation with an elder law attorney or a VA benefits specialist. We treat those outcomes as equal work, and we say so out loud precisely because our fee does not reward them.

We recommend. Your family decides. That is the shape of an advisory practice, and the shape of a small firm accountable to families it will meet again.

The Louisiana rules behind this

Louisiana law is specific about remuneration in healthcare referrals. Our posture is built to sit comfortably inside it rather than at its edge.

Relevant statutes: La. R.S. 46:438.2 · 14:70.5 · 37:1745. In plain terms, these govern Medicaid anti-kickback, commercial bribery, and anti-remuneration in healthcare. The Medicaid rule is the reason our no-fee-on-Medicaid line is absolute rather than case by case.

What you should ask any advisor

If you talk to another advisory service or placement agency, these are worth asking, and you should expect a direct answer:

Who pays you, and when? Do you get paid differently depending on which community I choose? Do you work with every licensed community in my parish, or only the ones that pay you? What happens if the right answer for my family is staying home? And when you send me to an agency or a professional, are you paid for that too, and will you say so?