FAQ

Families find us in all kinds of ways. There’s the toll-free number on our commercials, professionals refer their patients or clients to us, families who previously used our service refer friends & family members to us, and over a million families a year find us online.

Most families begin their senior living search online, typing terms such as “your town Assisted Living” into a search engine like Google. The family then visits one of our websites and fills out a contact form with their name, contact information and desired location. Within a minute (which is not an exaggeration!), our contact center calls the person to confirm that they are looking for senior living.

When our contact center reaches a family, we invite them to talk to an A Place for Mom Senior Living Advisor (SLA) right away and transfer the call immediately to a SLA that can assist them. The SLA spends 20-30 minutes collecting information about the parent or loved one’s care needs, budget, and “must-haves.” The SLA chooses, on average, five partner communities that meet the senior’s needs and refers them to those partners. The SLA will also help “pre-sell” the family on your brand, services, and fantastic amenities.

After completing the phone call with the family the SLA prepares a referral alert for the communities they referred with all of the information they learned during the call about the prospective resident. At the same time the SLA sends you the referral alert they also send an email to the family with all of the information about the communities they referred; including the name of the community, address, phone number, your name, and any relevant information about scheduled tours. There is also a link to your APFM webpage so that the family can learn more about your community and see pictures to help them get even more excited about touring! To edit or create your webpage* log-in to Partner Central and click on the Community Profiles Tab.

*Some companies have a corporate marketing team that manages their APFM webpages. If you are unsure about your company’s internal policies please check with your regional manager or corporate marketing team for additional information.

• Basic information about the prospective resident
• Information about the unique needs or wants of the prospective resident
• Family’s contact information
• Family budget and location preferences
• Any additional information that the advisor feels will be helpful

We start with their geographic location, because this determines which Senior Living Advisor (SLA) works with the family. The SLA is then able to narrow down the geographic location further but discussing neighborhoods, preferred hospitals, and the location of other family members. The SLA also asks specific questions about the seniors care needs, health concerns, and desired services.

The SLA also asks questions about the senior’s budget interests, hobbies, and desired amenities, so they can determine which communities will really feel like home.

When you consider each step in the qualification process, you can see that the SLA has a pretty clear picture of which communities will be a potential match for the senior. Our SLAs get to know each family and care about helping them find the right community for their loved one. The decision on how many communities to refer is determined by the number of communities that match the needs of the family and the senior as well referring those communities that will provide prompt, professional and caring service.

Most information that is used to pre-qualify a family for your community is pulled from your APFM Profile including starting rates, services, and amenities. Keeping your APFM Profile up-to-date helps ensure we refer families that you can help.

We always refer families to more than one community. We believe that giving families several options is vital to their success at finding the right senior living solution for their loved one. This is a very personal decision for a family and we don’t want to limit the family’s choices when it comes to finding their loved one a new home.

We have also found that families want options! Their search for senior housing is very similar to what you may have experienced when you rented an apartment or purchased a new house. Chances are you didn’t just look at one. At the same time, it’s very much a “Goldilocks” situation: Too many options and the family is overwhelmed; too few and the search often stalls because they believe what they want isn’t out there.

This does mean that you’re “competing” with other communities to be the first to begin the relationship with the family, but on average APFM only refers 5 communities per family. The speed, warmth, and effectiveness of your response to the family are critical. Historically, communities that respond to a new inquiry within two hours can expect a 10-15% larger share of A Place for Mom move-ins. Speed & Persistence

After completing the phone call with the family the SLA prepares a referral alert for the communities they referred with all of the information they learned during the call about the prospective resident.

At the same time the SLA sends you the referral alert they also send an email to the family with all of the information about the communities they referred; including the name of the community, address, phone number, your name, and any relevant information about scheduled tours. If for some reason there is a delay in you giving a family a call and the family is eager to get started they may call you before you even have the opportunity to reach out to them.

Our Senior Living Advisors (SLAs) should be seen as an extension of your marketing team. They continue to follow up with you and the family, staying in contact during milestones such as the tour, in-person assessment, and move-in. The SLA offers encouragement, answers questions, and guides the family through their next step to move-in.

SLAs are also your source for ongoing honest feedback from the families. Families often feel more comfortable sharing candid feedback with our SLAs than with the community, since our SLAs do not work for the communities.

Communicate frequently! Be sure to call the SLA while planning a tour, after the tour happens, when the SLA leaves you a message, and anytime you want to discuss strategy for moving the family forward.

Our Senior Living Advisors understand that every family’s situation is unique. We take the time to listen to their story and empower them with the knowledge and confidence to find the best fit for their situation. Many families feel alone in their search until they talk with a SLA. They find comfort in knowing that other families have experienced similar situations and having someone to talk to that understands their fears and concerns.

Senior Living Advisors are able to offer support and guidance on subjects such as how to talk with their loved one about moving to senior living, dealing with siblings who do not agree, and finding financial resources to help pay for senior living. In many instances our SLAs refer families to local professionals like financial planners, VA Benefits specialists, physicians, eldercare attorneys, movers, and real estate professionals. We also offer support and guidance through online resources like our Articles & Resources such as our Caregiver Toolkit.

APFM provides ongoing support and tools to every family we work with. Our SLAs and call center reach out to families over the phone every day to offer additional support and gather feedback on how their search is going.

Families receive a monthly newsletter with helpful articles designed to help families as they progress through their journey and we offer support and guidance through online resources like our Articles & Resources such as our Caregiver Toolkit. In addition every family has a personalized webpage called MySearch to help them track and organize their search.

It’s a sad truth, but working with seniors means that health emergencies happen. When a family inquires via online form, which many of our families do, they do not provide any information about their current situation. We can’t tell when a family needs help immediately, or when they are doing research. We err on the side of caution and call them back immediately to make sure that we always help families that need us right away.
Over and over again, we hear from families that they appreciate the fact that we were available right when they needed help most. We find that partners who are also committed to being prompt and responsive and make themselves available to families are very successful with us. Speed is king, and if you make speed a priority more families will choose your community.

We believe that speed gives us and our partners an edge when it comes to making connections with new families. It’s our Senior Living Advisors and fantastic partners who provide the caring touch that helps our families trust that we will guide them through the process to find the right senior living solution for them. Speed & Persistence.

Tours are never a waste of time! It’s important for your overall marketing efforts to provide a great tour experience for anyone who shows interest in your community. The more exposure you get, the more likely that someone who has seen your community will talk about you favorably to others. Word of mouth is extremely important!

You also hold public events to generate more traffic, not because you think someone who attends is ready to move in tomorrow, but because you think that someone they know may be ready to move in someday. Not every person who tours your community will move in, but a family will never move in if they haven’t toured your community.

A Place for Mom is your partner when working with families and expanding your marketing reach. We partner with the best options for families and we want to help spread the word that your community is a great place to call “home,” no matter who hears us!

You can learn more about families that did not choose your community by logging into Partner Central and running the “Lost Move-ins” Report under the “Reports” Tab.

We understand that one of the biggest hurdles you face is getting people in the door to tour. Our Senior Living Advisors (SLAs) pre-sell your community when we are on the phone with the family to build excitement about touring and stress the importance of seeing the community in person instead of in pictures. We want to get a firm commitment (date and time) from a family to take some of the pressure off you and allow you to focus on the fun part of your job – getting to know them and determining if you can provide what they need. We have found that families who set up a tour through APFM are 2-4 times more likely to move in than a family that does not.

Approach those “scheduled tours” as a starting point – if it doesn’t fit into your schedule, use that as a reason to connect with the family and work out a better time. If the date and time does work with your schedule it is very important that you call and email the family to confirm. That confirmation call helps ensure the family stays committed to touring your community.

One of our goals is to save you time! Scheduling tours is the ultimate service we can provide so you can focus on connecting with the family and giving them a great tour experience.

If a tour is not scheduled during the initial phone call families can request to tour your community online through their personalized APFM MySearch webpage. These requests look very similar to a referral alert but indicate the family requested the tour date and time. Be sure to contact these families right away to confirm the tour date and time.

That’s a great question, and you’re not alone in asking it! It’s helpful to put yourself in the family’s shoes when addressing the budget you see on a referral alert. As professionals working in senior living, we often see ourselves in more of an advisory role. We’re helping families and seniors find what they need when it comes to health and well-being. From a family’s perspective, they are making a large financial commitment, and they want to understand the value of your community before they begin writing checks and reveal their entire financial budget. This is where sales and advisement meet.

Our Senior Living Advisors (SLA) do their best to provide an accurate budget and educate the family on the true cost of senior living so we can send our partners only the most qualified families. In a recent study we found that 38% of the time families who moved to assisted living paid on average $987/month over the upper limit of their budget range. Learn more about the study here.

A Place for Mom often meets families when they are fairly early in their journey – they know that something needs to change in the senior’s life, but they don’t have anything pushing them to make the decision now. It’s actually a great place to be as a family member – you have plenty of time to weigh your options and make an informed decision instead of reacting to an emergency. It’s also a great time for you to get introduced to the family. It means when a hospitalization occurs the family will let the discharge planner know they have already selected a community!

We also find that with decreasing level of care comes increased time from inquiry to move-in, because of the more elective nature of an independent senior looking for a lifestyle change instead of a needs-based change. These seniors also tend to stay in their chosen community longer because they tend to be in better health. As you can see from the chart, the time from inquiry to move-in varies, but that doesn’t mean the senior won’t move. They just might need more time to make the decision.

For our current senior living partners, APFM conducts an annual licensing review and violations audit process. If a current senior living partner loses its license or if we determine that there are recorded safety/endangerment violations by the state or province which raise significant issues regarding the safety and well-being of residents, APFM may suspend or terminate the partner’s contractual relationship.

We also collect feedback from families, positive and negative, on the communities in our network through our Advisors, the MySearch tool and our ratings and review site www.senioradvisor.com.
For more information on assisted living licensing and audits, please see our directory of state licensing websites.

Once a family referred by APFM moves their loved one into your community you are responsible for notifying the Senior Living Advisor (SLA) within 24 hours that the move-in occurred and provide the SLA with the rent and care charges the family will be paying. A family is considered “moved-in” when the lease agreement begins or when the resident physically moves into your community, whichever comes first.

The move-in fees are based on normal and recurring rent and care charges irrespective of any discounts offered to the family. The only exception is when a long-term concession of 12 or more months is offered to the family. Billing & Payment

Additional contract terms apply to your contract. For additional questions, or to request a copy of your contract please contact our dedicated Customer Experience Team at (866) 333-8435.

Signing up is easy. Simply visit the Partner Central Home Page and click Sign Up Now. Enter your email address and an invitation will be emailed to you with instructions on how to get started.

To recover a forgotten password simply click the Forgot Password button at the top of the page.
If you are having troubles signing up or if the system cannot locate your email address, call our dedicated Customer Experience Team at 866-333-8435 or email partners@aplaceformom.com for assistance.

Call our dedicated Customer Experience Team at 866-333-8435 or email partners@aplaceformom.com for assistance.

Reports can be filtered and sorted many different ways. Saving your favorite reports can help you save time and allow you to easily access the reports again later. This is especially helpful for partners with corporate or regional access to multiple communities. To save a report go to the ‘Reports’ tab, select a report, select your desired filters and click ‘Add to My Saved Reports.

Reports can easily be exported into excel files that allow you to sort and manipulate the data to meet your business needs. If you prefer they can also be exported with the click of a button into a PDF or print friendly version for easy sharing with other team members. To export a report run the report and then choose the export method you prefer at the top of the report.

Call our dedicated Customer Experience Team at 866-333-8435 or email partners@aplaceformom.com for assistance.

Email our dedicated Customer Experience Team at partners@aplaceformom.com for assistance.

Images may be up to 10 MB in size and we recommend that they are all of similar orientation and aspect ratio to ensure that the images are displayed correctly on your page. We accept .jpg, .png, or .gif file formats. Our dedicated Customer Experience Team is more than happy to help you resize and upload your photos. For assistance please email the photos to partners@aplaceformom.com with the name of your community, address, and phone number.

Changes must be reviewed by our Customer Experience Team prior to them showing up on the live website. Please allow up to 5 business days for the changes to be approved and live on the site.

You can add a new employee to Partner Central by clicking on the Community Profiles Tab and then the Personnel Tab in the middle of the page. Once you are on the Personnel Tab you will see the full list of employees that we have in our system for your community. To add someone click the green Add Employee button on the left side of the page.

Note: Some larger organizations do not allow changes to referral alert recipients via Partner Central to be made at the community level. If you have questions or need assistance please call our dedicated Customer Experience Team at 866-333-8435 or email partners@aplaceformom.com for assistance.

These changes can be made in Partner Central by clicking on the Community Profiles Tab and then the Personnel Tab in the middle of the page. Once you are on the Personnel Tab you will see the full list of employees that we have in our system for your community. Hover over the icons to the right (ie. the pencil) and find the right icon for the change you would like to make. Clicking the icon will open up a pop-up that will allow you to make the desired changes.

Note: Some larger organizations do not allow changes to referral alert recipients via Partner Central to be made at the community level. If you have questions or need assistance please call our dedicated Customer Experience Team at 866-333-8435 or email partners@aplaceformom.com for assistance.

Once a family referred by APFM moves their loved one into your community you are responsible for notifying the Senior Living Advisor (SLA) within 24 hours that the move-in occurred and provide the SLA with the rent and care charges the family will be paying. A family is considered “moved-in” when the lease agreement begins or when the resident physically moves into your community, whichever comes first.

The move-in fees are based on normal and recurring rent and care charges irrespective of any discounts offered to the family. The only exception is when a long-term concession of 12 or more months is offered to the family.

Invoices are net 10 or 30 days, depending on your agreement. Invoices are normally sent within 24 hours of the move-in date. For companies whose terms include a second invoice, the second invoice will be sent 30 days after the move-In date. Past due accounts are considered delinquent and accrue late fees according to the terms of their agreement. Delinquent communities may also have accounts suspended, not allowing them to receive new referrals until their account is current.

Past due accounts are considered delinquent and accrue late fees according to the terms of their agreement. Delinquent communities may also have accounts suspended, not allowing them to receive new referrals until their account is current.

If a family moves out within first 30 days for any reason, the move-In fee will be prorated to the number of days in the resident’s stay. In the event of an early move-out please notify our accounting team as soon as possible at 206-802-1500 (option 3) to request a revised invoice.

SLAs do their best to ensure that no federally funded family is referred to your community but sometimes financial situations change between the time of referral and move-in. If an APFM referred resident becomes a federally funded consumer in the first month of the resident stay, the fee will be refunded. To request a refund please contact our accounting team at 206-802-1500 (option 3) or email ar@aplaceformom.com.

Most referrals from APFM are new incremental leads to your community, but occasionally we are unaware that you are already working with that family and send a referral. You are not obligated to work with APFM on a lead that you already have an established relationship with but per your contract* you must notify the Senior Living Advisor if you are already working with the family. This communication ensures you are not invoiced for a move-in for a family that you are already working with.

If you received the referral from the other agency after the referral from APFM we encourage you to review your contract with that agency. Be sure to communicate with them up front that you already are working with the family. Failure to communicate could result in you being billed by both agencies.

*Please reference your contract for specific requirements around notification of duplicate referrals.

Most referrals from APFM are new incremental leads to your community but occasionally we are unaware that you are already working with that family and send a referral. You are not obligated to work with APFM on a lead that you already have an established relationship with, but per your contract you must notify the Senior Living Advisor within 5 business days* of receiving the referral if you are already working with the family. This communication ensures you are not invoiced for a move-in for a family that you are already working with.

Many communities choose to work with APFM on leads they already have in their database. Sometimes these are families they have been unable to reach, families they thought were moving in but did not, or leads that have grown cold. The choice is yours but if we do assist, you will be billed for the move under the terms or the agreement.

*Please reference your contract for specific requirements around notification of duplicate referrals.

Yes. APFM does a lot on your behalf to get a family interested in your community. In fact, at the same time we send you the referral alert we send the family all of your information including phone number, address, a map to your location, and a link to view your APFM webpage. This can even result in the family reaching out to you before you have the opportunity to contact the family. We also continue to follow-up with that family throughout the process.
To help ensure that all leads get entered into your database and worked as soon as they are referred, APFM offers a free program that transmits the information automatically to many industry CRMs. Learn more about Partner Web Services here.

We greatly value our partnership with your community and make every attempt possible to ensure that invoices are accurate. If an invoice needs to be revised or you need to change your billing address please contact our accounts receivable department at 206-802-1500 or ar@aplaceformom.com.

When an account becomes significantly past due APFM temporarily suspends new referrals to the community until the past due balance is resolved. We greatly value our partnership with your community, and are eager to continue to refer great families in need of senior living services. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our accounts receivable department at 206-802-1500 or email ar@aplaceformom.com.

Depending on your community a “respite” could be called many things. A Place for Mom considers a “respite” move-in is a pre-planned short term stay that does not exceed a cumulative of 60 days.

If a resident later moves-in as permanent or long-term, then both the respite fee and additional move-in fee are due. However, if the long-term move-in occurs within 6 months of the commencement of the initial pre-planned respite stay, APFM shall issue a credit of the respite fee previously paid and/or due.

Please email AR@aplaceformom.com or call 1-866-333-0960.

Over payment credits can be applied towards any open or future invoice. Please contact an Analyst in our Accounts Receivable Team by emailing AR@aplaceformom.com or calling 1-866-333-0960 when you would like to apply and allocate the funds towards an invoice.

Open credits on the account can be applied towards any open invoice. Please contact an Analyst in our Accounts Receivable Team by emailing AR@aplaceformom.com or calling 1-866-333-0960 when you would like to apply and allocate the funds towards an invoice.

ePay is A Place for Mom’s online bill presentment and payment portal offering 24/7 access to your invoices and the ease of submitting payment online. You can access ePay by clicking the Invoices tab on Partner Central.

Partner Central users with the ‘Invoices’ role are able to access the online payment portal for their respective communities. Please reach out to your Partner Central administrator to verify access. You may also email our Partner Central support team at partners@aplaceformom.com for assistance.

We would love to get the correct individual setup with access. Please contact our Partner Central support team at partners@aplaceformom.com so that we may assist. Alternatively, if you are your Partner Central administrator you may simply assign the ‘Invoices’ role to the correct user.

You may contact the Partner Central administrator for your organization or our Partner Central support team at partners@aplaceformom.com.

A Wallet Entry references a form of payment saved on file (example: Checking Account for eCheck/ACH payment.)

Please go to the top left hand corner of the page – Your Account > click on “Wallet”. You may edit, delete, or add a new wallet entry.

At this time, ePay is only available for US partners.

ePay is currently not available for Canada. If you need a copy of an invoice for a Canada property, please email AR@aplaceformom.com or call 1-866-333-0960.

An eCheck payment is a form of ACH payment; which is the secure process of moving funds electronically between bank accounts.

There are many online resources that provide information on the security and standards surrounding ACH payments as opposed to paper checks.

Select outstanding invoices for payment

Once logged in to the secure payment portal you will be taken to the ‘Outstanding Invoices’ page where you can select invoices for payment by checking the appropriate checkboxes in the ‘Pay in full’ column. If you have access to multiple properties with multiple invoices, clicking the ‘View Details’ link will display each outstanding invoice associated with the account.

As invoices are selected, ePay provides a summary of selected transactions towards the bottom of the page.

Create a wallet entry

Clicking the ‘Pay’ button at the bottom of the ‘Outstanding Invoices’ page will allow for the entry of a form of payment known as a ‘Wallet Entry.’ Multiple wallet entries may be added in the event there is the need to split payment across different accounts.

Clicking ‘Add New Entry’ will allow for account input and verification.

Submit payment

With the successful addition of a payment method, a wallet entry will be added to your account and can be used to apply payment. For additional security, you may be required to enter the three digit security code on the back of the card into the wallet details section of the window.

Once payment information has been reviewed, click ‘Submit’ to complete payment.

Click on the ‘Recurring Payment’ option in the blue ribbon at the top of the page and select ‘New AutoPay Contract.’

From the blue ribbon at the top of the page select – Your Account > Invoices > Outstanding Invoices.

On ePay is there a way for me to see all accounts and invoices for my organization in a single view?

Yes. If your account is set up with a parent account, Partner Central will display a link for your organization. If the link is not present, please email AR@aplaceformom.com so a team member can determine if the option is available for your organization.

Yes. For phone payments please call 1-866-333-0960 option 4

If I pay using ePay will I receive a receipt or payment confirmation for my online payment?

Payment confirmations should be emailed automatically to the email address we have on file. If you need a copy of a payment confirmation, please contact our Accounts Receivable Team at AR@aplaceformom.com.

Click on any invoice number and the invoice will open (Transaction#).

Most referrals from APFM are new incremental leads to your community, but occasionally we are unaware that you are already working with that family and send a referral. You are not obligated to work with APFM on a lead that you already have an established relationship with, but per your contract* you must notify the Senior Living Advisor of receiving the referral if you are already working with the family. This communication ensures you are not invoiced for a move-in for a family that you are already working with.

If you received the referral from the other agency after the referral from APFM we encourage you to review your contract with that agency. Be sure to communicate with them up front that you already are working with the family. Failure to communicate could result in you being billed by both agencies.

*Please reference your contract for specific requirements around notification of duplicate referrals.

Most referrals from APFM are new incremental leads to your community, but occasionally we are unaware that you are already working with that family and send a referral. You are not obligated to work with APFM on a lead that you already have an established relationship with, but per your contract* you must notify the Senior Living Advisor of receiving the referral if you are already working with the family. This communication ensures you are not invoiced for a move-in for a family that you are already working with.

Many communities choose to work with APFM on leads they already have in their database. Sometimes these are families they have been unable to reach, families they thought were moving in but did not, or leads that have grown cold. The choice is yours but if we do assist, you will be billed for the move under the terms or the agreement.

*Please reference your contract for specific requirements around notification of duplicate referrals.

Yes. APFM does a lot on your behalf to get a family interested in your community. In fact, at the same time we send you the referral alert we send the family all of your information including phone number, address, a map to your location, and a link to view your APFM webpage. This can even result in the family reaching out to you before you have the opportunity to contact the family. We also continue to follow-up with that family throughout the process.

To help ensure that all leads get entered into your database and worked as soon as they are referred, APFM offers a free program that transmits the information automatically to many industry CRMs. Learn more about Partner Web Services here.

If you have a community in your organization who you feel would be a better fit for a family, please coordinate with your APFM Senior Living Advisor to provide an additional referral to that community and the family. Our contract terms prohibit a community from transferring lead information to another senior living community, even in the same organization. If you do transfer information to a sister property and the family decides to move-in, APFM will invoice the initially referred community within the organization.

Family move-ins’ are the rewards of our combined efforts. As part of our program requirements, please let us know within 24 hours that a move-in has occurred and provide the resident’s rent and care charges. This is a requirement as part of our partner contract agreement.

We define a “Move-in” date as the earlier of (a) the date when the residence or lease agreement starts, or (b) the date when the resident physically moves in.

Move-in fees are based on normal and recurring monthly rent and care charges irrespective of any discounts offered to the family. The only exception is when a long-term concession of 12 or months is offered to the family. If this is the case, your community would be invoiced based on the long-term rate that is being charged to the resident.

If a family moves out within first 30 days for any reason, the move-In fee will be prorated to the number of days in the resident’s stay. In the event of an early move-out, please notify our accounting team as soon as possible at 206-802-1500 (option 3) to request a revised invoice.

• We require that our partners notify us if there has been a change in their licensing status impacting their ability to admit residents.
• We expect our partners will charge the APFM referred consumer the same as all other consumers, including those not referred by APFM.
• Our partners will not charge APFM referred consumers an additional amount as a way to recover on the referral fee.
• We encourage our partners to sign-up for and use Partner Web Services, this is a free benefit as part of our partnerships.

• We value our relationships and partners. If you are not satisfied with the program and wish to terminate you may do so, but require that you provide A Place for Mom 30 days notice.
• In the event that one of our previously referred leads Moves-in after the termination of our contract, a referral fee will still be due to APFM as long as the referral was provided during the dates of our partnership.