Assisting Hands Home Care

What is In-Home Care?

In-home care services for seniors generally consist of non-medical assistance and caregiving to help aging adults with a variety of tasks. The extent of care and nature of services are usually tailored to the senior’s needs to ensure that they can comfortably live at home. This way, you can rest well, knowing that your loved one is getting the right and appropriate care and assistance.

For companion care, a home aide will help out with instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). This is ideal for seniors who are still living independently and doing things on their own, but may need assistance with home maintenance, chores, and reminders. The home aide may also act as a companion, hence the term companion care, to spend time with the elder and keep them busy. Companion care may also be suitable for seniors who are experiencing some memory impairment.

Personal care services, on the other hand, are more extensive and personalized. They include assistance for activities of daily living (ADLs), thus being suitable for seniors who need additional help with daily tasks like toileting, eating, and help getting around. Caregivers can keep your loved one safe and comfortable, but like companion care aides, they are not licensed to administer medicine and can only help with managing this.

Paying for In-Home Care

The hourly rate for a health aide can range from anywhere between $20 to $40 per hour, with $26 being the median in 2023. This pay structure is common for most agencies and is ideal for seniors who are generally still living independently and just need their caretaker a few hours per day or week. Home care agencies may sometimes designate a minimum number of hours per day, usually two to four, so make sure to look into this before hiring anyone.

Unfortunately, Medicare does not cover the costs of caregivers who assist with IADLs and ADLs if this is the only care service you need. If it comes as part of in-home medical care due to a hospitalization or other qualifying medical care treatment then some part of it may be covered if it is provided by the Home Health agency and deemed necesssary for healing.

Most Long-term care insurance poicies will cover in-home care.If your loved one has a long-term insurance policy in place, you can check to see if it covers in-home care.

What is Home Health?

Home health care is a program that provides care for adults that are completely or mostly homebound and are not able to receive medical care from outside of the home due to surgery or injury. It is within a patient's rights to choose a home health care provider so if a doctor or hospitalist orders Home Health the patient indicate which provider they prefer.

Home health care includes medical care to rehabilitate seniors that have fallen ill due to a chronic condition, are recovering from a hospital stay, or need care for an injury. This type of care may involve occupational, physical, and speech therapy services, depending on the senior’s circumstance.

While senior home health care focuses on medical care, some service providers will also help the patient with cleaning or bathing, dressing, eating and other activities of daily living (ADLs) if the senior patient is not well enough to perform these tasks without assistance.

Paying for Home Health Care

Home Health is covered by almost all medical insurance providers and is also covered by Medicare and Medicaid. Services must be ordered by a medical professional, and providers must be Medicare/Medicaid certified. If you choose a home health care agency that is not certified by either Medicare or Medicaid, you will have to pay for home care services out of your pocket.

Home Health is only provided for a short term in order to recover from an injury or illness. A nurse will establish goals at the onset of care and will end care once the goals have been reached.

What is Hospice?

Hospice care is a holistic approach intended for patients with terminal or advanced illnesses that can no longer be treated or controlled. It involves providing comfort and compassion to people approaching the end of life to help them live as fully as possible during their final moments. Generally, patients will be qualified for hospice care if their physician declares that they are terminally ill and only have six months or less time left to live.

Hospice home care includes many services that allow patients to be cared for from the comforts of their homes like coordination of services, family counseling, medical assistance, nutritional planning, medical equipment needs and pain medication for comfort.

Paying for Hospice

Hospice is covered by almost all medical insurance providers and is also covered by Medicare and Medicaid. The physician will place an order for Hospice if they feel the patient has 6 months or less to live. However, a patient can also be suffereing from a long-term condition which could result in death within 6 months.

Patients often stay on hospice longer than 6 months so the patient must be recertified by the physician every six months to keep retaining hospice services.