Whats Home Health Care?

Home health care is a wide range of health care services that can be given in your home for an illness or injury. Home health care is usually less expensive, more convenient, and just as effective as care you get in a hospital or skilled nursing facility (SNF).Examples of skilled home health services include:Wound care for pressure sores or a surgical woundPatient and caregiver educationIntravenous or nutrition therapyInjectionsMonitoring serious illness and unstable health statusThe goal of home health care is to treat an illness or injury. Home health care helps you get better, regain your independence, and become as self-sufficient as possible.If you get your Medicare benefits through a Medicare health plan, check with your plan to find out how it gives your Medicare-covered home health benefits.If you have a Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap) policy or other health insurance coverage, tell your doctor or other health care provider so your bills get paid correctly.

If your doctor or referring health care provider decides you need home health care, they should give you a list of agencies that serve your area. They must tell you whether their organization has a financial interest in any agency listed.What should I expect from my home health care?Doctors orders are needed to start care. Once your doctor refers you for home health services, the home health agency will schedule an appointment and come to your home to talk to you about your needs and ask you some questions about your health.The home health agency staff will also talk to your doctor about your care and keep your doctor updated about your progress.Its important that home health staff see you as often as the doctor ordered.

Examples of what the home health staff should do:Check what youre eating and drinking.Check your blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, and breathing.Check that youre taking your prescription and other drugs and any treatments correctly.

Ask if youre having pain.

Check your safety in the home.

Teach you about your care so you can take care of yourself.Coordinate your care. This means they must communicate regularly with you, your doctor, and anyone else who gives you care.source: html.

·RELATED QUESTION

Paying for nursing home care: What is the relationship between Medicare and owned property?

This is really a question for an elder law attorney but roughly-speaking, what that means is:Americans who cannot private-pay for their care can receive government-funded care in a nursing home. The government will start making payments only after the senior has exhausted their own assets, including cash assets (bank accounts, stocks, bonds, etc), real assets (houses) and other large assets (cars, boats, etc). The senior can't just say "I wish to leave my house to my children therefore the taxpayers will pay for my nursing home". And there is typically a 5-year lookback period to ensure the senior doesn't shift assets to their children as soon as they need to go to a nursing home.One exception is the primary home, where there are two scenarios. Scenario one, when one spouse goes to a nursing home but the other spouse does not, the government will let the other spouse remain in the couple's shared home, and furthermore will let that spouse keep half the assets so a couple doesn't end up spending all of their savings on whomever gets sick first and leave the other spouse destitute. Scenario two, if a senior is temporarily disabled (as determined by social services and medical professionals) and "plans" to return to their home, the government will not force them to sell their primary home to pay for this temporary care so the senior is not homeless after their temporary hospital and/or rehab stay.Now, the terms "desires to return to their home" and "plans to return to their home" are a bit of an industry euphemism. Nobody ever chooses a nursing home over their own home as a matter of preference. There exist some very upscale assisted livings (that are more like a fancy cruise ship than a senior home) and sometimes wealthy seniors choose to live in them as a matter of preference but literally nobody ever in the history of humankind had chosen to live in a nursing home. Children or social services have to drag their elderly parents into a nursing home (metaphorically) kicking and screaming after all other options (home care, physical and occupational therapy, in-home disability modifications) have been exhausted. The euphemism exists because those who work in the senior care industry, and the social services industry in general, try to be respectful of their clients even if these clients are poor and elderly. In your specific case, since there are multiple properties including secondary residence(s), I would recommend contacting an elder law attorney specializing in your area (your state and your county).(My bona fides: I own a company specializing in eldercare placements.)