Your parent cannot be alone. You cannot cover the first few days at home. A facility offers a short respite stay.

Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.

That may solve the immediate supervision problem. It does not tell you what the stay will cost.

Start with one question: What exactly are we buying?

Respite can mean help in the home, time at an adult day program, or a temporary stay in a facility. The National Institute on Aging and MedlinePlus both describe respite as short-term relief that can happen in several settings. Those settings do not use one price structure or provide the same care. (National Institute on Aging, What Is Respite Care; MedlinePlus, Caregivers.)

Day 0, while your parent is still in the bed

Ask the hospital case manager to write down the tasks your parent needs another person to handle. Use actions, not labels.

Can your parent get out of bed? Use the toilet? Walk to meals? Remember instructions? Take each medication from the correct container? Call for help and wait safely?

Ask what must happen during the night. Ask whether any task requires a nurse or another trained worker. Ask whether the facility must receive orders, medication records, test results, or equipment instructions before admission.

This list controls the price. A basic room quote may assume that your parent can manage tasks that the hospital says require help.

Do not ask only whether the facility provides respite. Ask whether it can accept your parent with the needs on this list. Missouri law limits whom residential care and assisted living facilities may admit or retain. The rules turn in part on whether the person needs hospitalization or skilled nursing care and whether the facility can meet the person's needs. (Missouri Revised Statutes, Section 198.073.)

A hospital case manager may help identify services and community resources for the transition. Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital describes this as part of the case manager's discharge work. That help is useful, but you still need the facility's written price and admission decision. (Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital St. Louis, Clinical Team.)

Get the whole quote on one page

Ask the facility to put these items in writing:

The stay: The arrival day and time. The planned departure day and time. The minimum number of nights. The charge for arriving early, leaving late, or staying longer.

The room: Private or shared. Furniture included. Deposit required. Any community, admission, assessment, or reservation charge.

Personal help: Assistance with getting up, dressing, toileting, bathing, eating, walking, transfers, and reminders. Ask whether each task is included, limited, or billed separately.

Medication work: What staff will do. What the base price includes. Whether there is a separate charge for medication setup, administration, delivery, packaging, or changes after admission.

Night coverage: How your parent asks for help. Who responds. Whether scheduled checks cost more. A staffed building does not necessarily mean one worker stays with your parent.

Meals and special items: Meals, snacks, room delivery, texture changes, disposable supplies, laundry, linens, and equipment.

Transport: Who gets your parent from the hospital to the facility. Who pays. Whether someone from the facility meets the vehicle and helps your parent reach the room.

The exit: Checkout time. Extension terms. Refund rules. The charge if your parent leaves sooner than planned. The charge if the home plan is not ready.

Then ask for the total under three versions: the planned stay, one extra night, and the longest stay you could reasonably need. You are testing the part of the bill most likely to move.

Separate private respite from Medicare hospice respite

Do not assume Medicare pays because a facility uses the word respite.

Ordinary supervision or a private temporary stay is not automatically a Medicare benefit. Medicare does cover inpatient respite under the hospice benefit when the eligible patient has elected hospice and the hospice team arranges the stay in an approved facility. The federal rule limits that level of care to a short period at a time. Medicare states that the patient may owe part of the approved respite amount. (Medicare, Hospice Care Coverage; CMS, Hospice Levels of Care; Code of Federal Regulations, Title 42, Section 418.108.)

If your parent is enrolled in hospice, call the hospice before accepting a bed. Ask:

Is this stay being arranged as covered inpatient hospice respite? Which facility is approved? Which days fall under that benefit? What coinsurance may be due? Who pays for transport? What happens if the stay continues after the covered respite period?

Get the answers from the hospice, not only from the receiving facility. Medicare warns that care not arranged through the hospice team may leave the patient responsible for the cost. (Medicare, Hospice Care Coverage.)

If your parent is not enrolled in hospice, do not treat hospice respite as a way to finance a temporary bed. Hospice has separate eligibility and election requirements. It is not a general discharge lodging benefit. MedlinePlus describes hospice as care for a person approaching the end of life, with support for the family included in that care. (MedlinePlus, Hospice Care.)

Ask about help that may lower the private-pay amount

Ask the hospital social worker or case manager whether your parent may qualify for Missouri home and community-based services, an Area Agency on Aging program, or another respite program.

What it costs: The Missouri median for non-medical in-home care is $33 an hour, per the CareScout (Genworth) Cost of Care Survey 2025 state data tables, released March 2026. New Plan Care's standard rate is $34 an hour with a four-hour minimum, so a visit starts at $136 (newplancare.com/services).

Missouri DHSS lists respite among its home and community-based services. Eligibility, assessment, authorization, provider rules, and service limits apply. A referral made from the hospital is not the same as approved help ready at the discharge hour. (Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Home and Community-Based Services.)

The Family Caregiver Alliance notes that Area Agencies on Aging may have caregiver support or respite funding. Availability and eligibility vary. Treat this as a lead to check, not money already committed to the stay. (Family Caregiver Alliance, Hiring In-Home Help.)

You can use Local Help After a Discharge to find the right starting office. Ask how long assessment takes, what setting is allowed, whether the provider must be approved, and whether help can begin before the proposed discharge.

Day 1, when the car pulls in

Bring the written quote, task list, medication list, discharge instructions, and facility contact name.

Before your parent leaves the vehicle, confirm that the facility has accepted the admission and received the required records. Ask whether any new charge appeared after the facility reviewed those records.

Walk through the first evening. Who helps your parent reach the toilet? Who handles the next medication time? Who receives a call if your parent needs something the facility cannot provide?

Write down the name of the person who can approve an added service or extra night. Do not rely on a shift worker to interpret the contract.

Day 2 to Day 3, compare the bill with the work

Ask for a current account statement. Match each charge to something the contract names.

If staff say your parent now needs a higher care level, ask what task changed, when the new rate starts, and whether you must approve it. Ask whether the change is temporary or continues through checkout.

Keep notes on supplies brought from the hospital or purchased by the family. You do not want to pay a facility supply charge for an item you provided unless the agreement clearly allows it.

Day 3 to Day 7, price the exit before adding time

A respite stay can become expensive when the return plan slips one day at a time.

Before extending, ask for the new total through a specific checkout time. Confirm whether another minimum-stay period, assessment charge, transport charge, or medication charge begins.

At the same time, test the next setting. If your parent is going home, name the person covering every period when your parent cannot be alone. If another facility is next, confirm that it has accepted your parent and received the records.

Use the Day 0 to Day 14 After Discharge desk to work through the next tasks in order.

The number you need

Do not leave with only a nightly rate.

Leave with a written total that identifies the room, care level, medication work, supplies, transport, minimum stay, extension rate, and checkout rule. Mark which amount insurance or a public program has actually approved. Treat everything else as private pay until you receive confirmation.

The lowest room rate is not the lowest total if the necessary help sits outside it. The useful comparison is the cost of the whole stay your parent can actually use.

Source notes for this guide are collected on the Sources page.

A Short Respite Stay Can Bridge the First Week. Price the Bed, Care, and Exit Before Discharge