The Commons Of Hilltop

Charlotte C

Nov. 17, 2022

I have had a high opinion about the Commons until this situation and now I am concerned for future residents. As far as reviews go I never take time to leave them...However in this case I feel it is detrimental for the community to be aware of the following facts. I am so extremely disappointed and I believe other people looking to care for their loved ones deserve to know the truth. Grandma (#2) needs a place to call home that she can be independent and still have some help doing minor things. Since my other grandma (#1) is currently in their care and has had a (somewhat) positive experience we decided to try to get gma #2 in also. We toured the room they have open and love that my gma's could live on the first floor down the hall from each other. Perfect! Well, since gma #2 has no income and no ability to work she is on Medicare and Medicaid. We were told they require private pay at $4,715/mo x 3 years before they will even accept Medicaid to pay for the resident. That is a grand total of $169,740 over the course of three years. For a studio apartment! That doesn't include the additional $100-$2,000/mo for care needed and additional $100-$600/mo required for med managment. So basically you have to empty your pockets to care for your loved ones before they will even consider accepting state benefits. I personally believe they did not want to try accommodating gma #2 because they would lose out on the money they could receive from a paying and "qualified" potential resident. Their rule is 3 years and they weren't even willing to waive it due to my gma #1 being in there currently and paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars thus far, stating "it's not fair to other residents who have dwindled their funds down while waiting for Medicaid" per our tour guide. It's despicable in my opinion. We considered having them share a room but those charges are also astronomical at $5,980 for a two bedroom + $920 extra person fee (no included "care needed" charges or "med managment" fees). They will not accept other caregivers to come in their facility to give care to the residents but require you to pay them directly and do all care in house. The people and staff we encountered were amazing, the facility is great, and the location is ideal. However I'm writing this review based on the fact they denied my gma #2 due to financial reasons and would require us to use them instead of a company that could be covered by Medicare for her other needs. Therefore incurring a $7,000+ monthly expense for our family. Furthermore, they would require her to come off of Medicaid/Medicare so we would also have to pay out of pocket expenses for all of her medications which cost around $4k/mo but are currently covered by the state. I am sure elder care is costly to provide but $7,500/mo as a median cost? It's unfortunate that because they can get away with charging extremely high prices they do. In the grand junction area the salaries don't even support this cost of care. If someone needs to live in a home to take stress off the family it will literally be a minimum of $54k/yr for bare bones living arrangements. A cost of $7,500/mo (living+ some care + med mgmt) will require an additional income of $90k/yr. Who makes that kind of money in the grand valley? It is stressful enough dealing with loved ones at the end of their life who need to have quality care, but to add an additional family covered expense such as this on top is even more stressful. My overall experience through this is that they are a money hungry independent living facility that is only interested in draining old folks' pockets before they die. I personally believe their tenancy decisions are based on financially discriminatory practices that allow them to keep their facility a "premier facility"...Despite the need for care or quality of life. Who wants their loved ones in a nursing home? If you are looking to spend from $4,500-$10,000 per month per resident feel free to call them. If not...I would recommend saving time and looking elsewhere.