Questions families ask about senior placement in Arizona

Yes, free to your family, in full. We are paid by the assisted living facility or home your family member moves into, once the placement happens, typically 50 to 100 percent of the first month’s rent and care charges. You are never billed for our time, and the fee does not change what you pay the facility. We take no fee at all on ALTCS, VA, other government-funded or skilled nursing placements.

No. We only recommend facilities that pay a referral fee for placements they accept, but that is nearly every licensed assisted living community and home in the Valley — the referral-fee model is standard practice across the industry, not a narrow list. We are not going to steer your family toward a worse fit because a fee is a few dollars different. Our reputation depends on placements that actually work for the resident.

Stephanie Acosta, our senior placement advisor, holds an ownership interest in an Arizona assisted living home. We do not refer clients to it. If that ever changes, we will tell you in writing, with the fee arrangement, before any referral or tour, as A.R.S. § 36-446.14 requires. See our disclosures page for the full statutory language.

The greater Phoenix metro area, including the East Valley, West Valley, and central Phoenix — see our service area page for specific cities.

It depends on the situation, but urgent placements — a hospital discharge date that moved up, a home health situation that has broken down — are something we work with regularly. Call (307) 200-5270 and tell us the timeline; we will tell you honestly what is realistic.

We stay reachable. If something is not working — a fit issue, a care-level change, a concern about the home — call us. Placement is not something we disappear after; a bad fit reflects on us too.

In Arizona licensing terms, a home serves 10 or fewer residents and a centre serves 11 or more. Homes tend to feel domestic and offer a more consistent caregiving team; centres tend to offer more amenities and larger common spaces. Neither is automatically better — the right one depends on the person. Read more about adult care homes.

These are Arizona’s three assisted living licence levels. Supervisory care means general oversight with no hands-on assistance. Personal care adds help with daily activities like bathing, dressing, and mobility. Directed care is for residents who cannot direct their own care — including most people who need memory care. A facility’s licence has to match what a resident actually needs, which is part of why the right fit can change over time.

Use AZ Care Check, the Arizona Department of Health Services’ free public lookup tool, at azcarecheck.azdhs.gov. It shows current licence status, inspection reports, complaints, and any enforcement actions for a specific facility. Check it before every tour, not just before signing anything.

Ask about staffing ratios at night as well as during the day, how care-level changes and cost increases are handled, what a typical day looks like, how medication is managed, and what happens if a resident’s needs increase beyond what the licence allows. Ask to see the current AZ Care Check record together, in person. And trust what you notice on the visit — smell, noise level, how staff talk to residents — as much as what you are told.

Common signals include wandering or exit-seeking behaviour, sundowning, a safety incident at home, or a caregiver who is no longer able to manage things safely alone. There is no single trigger — it is a judgement call, usually made easier with an outside perspective. That is a conversation we can help you think through by phone.

Not automatically, but a licensed 10-bed home often offers more consistent staff and a quieter, more personal environment, and frequently at a comparable or lower cost than a large community for a similar level of care. It comes down to the individual home’s quality, not its size alone — which is why we recommend actual tours and an AZ Care Check look, every time.

No. Medicare pays for short-term, skilled nursing care after a qualifying hospital stay — up to 100 days, with cost-sharing after day 20. It does not pay for long-term assisted living or memory care, regardless of how long a stay continues. This is the most common and costly misunderstanding families run into.

ALTCS is the Arizona Long Term Care System, the state’s Medicaid programme for long-term care. Once approved, ALTCS generally pays for the care services provided in an assisted living setting. It generally does not cover room and board in assisted living — that portion typically still comes from the resident’s own income. See our full ALTCS guide for how eligibility and the application actually work.

Sometimes, yes — some homes will accept a resident on an ALTCS-pending basis while the application, which commonly takes in the neighbourhood of 90 days, works through the system. Not every facility will, since reimbursement and timing are less certain for them. This is exactly the kind of placement we work with regularly rather than turn away.

Call us anyway. We take low-income and ALTCS-pending placements that other agencies decline. The earlier you call, the more options are still on the table — waiting until an account is fully exhausted narrows what is available.

Stephanie Acosta holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing, is clinically trained and has experience running a licensed care home. She also has a background in medical billing and coding. Heaven Sent Senior Placement is a placement and referral service, not a healthcare provider, and does not deliver nursing or medical care.

Arizona does not issue a specific occupational licence for senior placement or referral agencies the way it licenses assisted living homes themselves. What Arizona does regulate is disclosure: under A.R.S. §36-446.14, agencies like ours must give families written notice, in 14-point type, of any referral fee and any common ownership with a recommended facility, and get written acknowledgement of it, before or at the time of referral. We are compliant with A.R.S. § 36-446.14 on every placement. See our disclosures page.

Stephanie has worked in placement since TODO: founding year. Hospitals and rehab facilities across the Valley refer families to her, and that comes from doing the work carefully, one family at a time.