A Homecare Advantage

Maybe you haven’t noticed… but, over the past few years there has been an explosion of homecare agencies in America.  Basically, there are two kinds…medical and non-medical. 

The medical homecare agency is commonly used when a patien is discharged from a hospital or rehabilitation center…but medical intervention is still needed, like nursing, physical therapy or occupational therapy, in the home setting.  In this scenario, the home care is typically paid for as part of the in-patient insurance coverage. 

The non-medical homecare agency is most often used to assist people with non-medical needs.  It might be as little as offering supportive companionship for a few hours a week…or as much as assisting with getting in and out of the bath-tub/shower, meal prep, and other assistance and interaction while family members are at work.  Non-medical homecare is usually not covered by health insurances.

The fast proliferation of home care spawned hundreds of very small operations that had little to no experience, no insurance coverage, and often promised good care while delivering poor or unreliable service.   The medical homecare is under increasing pressure and regulation from Medicare, and non-medical home care has been the subject of statewide licensing regulation and employee training requirements.  This new regulatory environment has allowed many of the larger companies to gobble up the small ones…and the result is that the bigger companies provide better managed care.

The advantage to the consumer is that they are getting a better trained caregiver, and a better run company, at a price point that is typically only a dollar or two less than the non-trained, non-insured caregiver.  Like any other business,
training for the professional caregiver yields a better quality caregiver…which
means Mom, Dad, Grandma or Auntie get a better return on their healthcare/homecare dollar.

Keep Moving!

Mike