In the event that one gets a long term sickness or an injury that will require long term care, the majority of people opt to get long term care at home. The reasons for this are many, but chief among them are that being at home allows a person to continue with their normal life routine and gives them additional security since the things they love are close to them. With that being said, long term home care can be taken to mean the provision of medical and home care services to individuals that need it without the need to relocate the individuals to a long term care facility. Home care services are available to anyone who can afford them and it does not matter their illness or disability, if any. Here is an overview of home care so you can evaluate what will work best for your loved ones.

Overview of Home Care

Services Covered in Home Care

Home care covers so many services that it would be hard to enumerate all of them in this article. For purposes of clarity, we will mention just a few. To start with, the services can cover individuals who just need companionship and home making. In this case, the person paying for the home care services is be able to do most things on their own. The services then extend to meal preparation, transportation, medication reminders and personal care. When it comes to personal care, the services cover normal activities such as grooming, dressing and bathing. In general, home care services are designed to help the person paying for the services go through life as normally as possible. Paying for home care with a form of insurance is one of the most popular ways to pay for the services.

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Who provides the home care?

In this overview of home care, we will explain the most common three sources that one can use to get home care services:

• The first source is from organizations, such as home care agencies, that deal with the provision of home care services. These organizations are the best place for one to find home caregivers because they take a lot of time to make sure that the caregivers they hire are the best. In other words, the agency is responsible for the hiring, training, insuring and checking the background of every person that is employed by them. This means that you will end up getting the best professional for the job.
• The second source is from an individual home care professional. There are so many people that have trained for this line of work and you can easily find them online. If you are looking for home caregivers in MN, all you have to do is search for them in your area and you will be able to find a few. Hiring a caregiver off the Internet is very risky especially from internet sites that don’t perform background checks, as there is no way for you to verify their authenticity. You may end up hiring a caregiver who is not well trained or qualified to offer you the services you need. Your best option is to hire a caregiver through a qualified agency that deals with caregivers. This way, if anything should happen, the agency is responsible instead of you.
• The third and last source of home caregivers happens to be hospitals. There are hospitals that have their own home caregivers and they will at times insist that the person uses their home care. Please be aware that you have a choice in the agency you choose. Be sure that you research that the agency will be able to handle the level of care you need, especially if it is medical.

How does one pay for home care services?

There are various ways that one pays for home care services depending on the ability and cost of the services. Some payment options are described below.

Self-pay or Private Pay

A person in need of the home care can undertake payment of services themselves, be that by their own funds or help from family. In this method of payment, the person controls the frequency of services provide to them.

Paying for home care with insurance

There are people that take insurance policies and later on use the insurance firm to pay for the care they need. This is a very popular way to pay for home care. Make sure that the agency you choose takes your insurance provider. It is important to make sure that you are aware of your insurance company’s home care policies to make sure that specific services you want are covered.

Third party payment plans

Third party payment plans are many and varied and most of them have their own qualifications that have to be met before they agree to pay for the home care costs. Two third party payments are described below:

Medicare

This is a payment program that is designed for people who are above the age of 65 years and need the care of skilled medical personnel. In some cases, the care may also demand the provision or availability of medical equipment. In addition, the care may have prescribed therapies and this means that the person giving the home care must be well trained. In addition to the above qualifications, the below must also be met:

• You must be permanently placed at home due to the illness or injury.
• Your need for home Medicare must be decided and planned for by your doctor.
• The homecare services must entail physical therapy, intermittent nursing, or nurse language therapy.
• The health care agency must be in the Medicare list of approved homecare agencies.

Medicaid

People who qualify to receive help from Medicaid are those that are categorized as needy and in most cases, they also receive other financial assistance from the state. It is a state program and you will find that every state has its own set of eligibility requirements.

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We hope this overview of home care was helpful. Please browse our Home Care Tips Blog and the other pages on our website for additional information.