What is Home Care?
Home care includes any professional support services that allow a person to live safely in their home. In-home care services can help someone who is aging and needs assistance to live independently; is managing chronic health issues; is recovering from a medical setback; or has special needs or a disability. Professional caregivers such as nurses, aides, and therapists provide short-term or long-term care in the home, depending on a person's needs.
The care you need in the place you love
Home care can be the key to achieving the highest quality of life possible. It can enable safety, security, and increased independence; it can ease management of an ongoing medical condition; it can help avoid unnecessary hospitalization; it can aid with recovery after an illness, injury, or hospital stay—all through care given in the comfort and familiarity of home. Home care can include:
- Help with daily activities such as dressing and bathing
- Assistance with safely managing tasks around the house
- Companionship
- Therapy and rehabilitative services
- Short- or long-term nursing care for an illness, disease, or disability—including tracheostomy and ventilator care
Types of home care
Not all home care providers offer all the different types of home care services. This short guide will provide an overview of the different types of home care. Care is customized to your individual needs and may include services from one or more of the types described. Contacting a provider to discuss your needs can help determine what care is best for you.
While the multiple types of home care may serve different needs, they share a common goal: to enable happier, more independent living for the people receiving care, and to provide support and peace of mind for their families.
Personal Care and Companionship
➞ Help with everyday activities like bathing and dressing, meal preparation, and household tasks to enable independence and safety
Also known as...
Non-medical care, home health aide services, senior care, homemaker care, assistive care, or companion care
Private Duty
Nursing Care
➞ Long-term, hourly nursing care at home for adults with a chronic illness, injury, or disability
Also known as...
Home-based skilled nursing, long-term nursing care, catastrophic care, tracheostomy care, ventilator care, nursing care, shift nursing, hourly nursing, or adult nursing
Home
Health Care
➞ Short-term, physician-directed care designed to help a patient prevent or recover from an illness, injury, or hospital stay
Also known as...
Medicare-certified home health care, intermittent skilled care, or visiting nurse services
Examples of Care Services
Personal Care and Companionship services may include:
- Assistance with self-care, such as grooming, bathing, dressing, and using the toilet
- Enabling safety at home by assisting with ambulation, transfer (eg, from bed to wheelchair, wheelchair to toilet), and fall prevention
- Assistance with meal planning and preparation, light housekeeping, laundry, errands, medication reminders, and escorting to appointments
- Companionship and engaging in hobbies and activities
- Supervision for someone with dementia or Alzheimer's disease
Private Duty Nursing Care services may include:
- Care for diseases and conditions such as Traumatic brain injury (TBI), Spinal cord injury (SCI), ALS, MS
- Ventilator care
- Tracheostomy care
- Monitoring vital signs
- Administering medications
- Ostomy/gastrostomy care
- Feeding tube care
- Catheter care
Home Health Care services may include:
- Short-term nursing services
- Physical therapy
- Occupational therapy
- Speech language pathology
- Medical social work
- Home health aide services
How is it paid?
Personal care and companionship services are usually paid directly by the person receiving care (private pay), or through long-term care insurance or Medicaid. Other funding sources may be:
- Private pay
- Long-term care insurance
- Health insurance
- Veterans benefits
- Workers’ compensation
Private duty nursing care can be paid through a variety of sources, including:
- Private pay
- Health insurance
- Veterans benefits
- Workers’ compensation
- Medicaid (with qualifications)
- Direct payment by person receiving care (private pay)
When specific qualifications are met (generally, when services are ordered by a physician and a clinical assessment deems them necessary), Home Health services are typically paid for by:
- Medicare
- Private insurance
How is care provided?
Personal care and companionship does not need to be prescribed by a doctor. Care provided on an ongoing basis on a schedule that meets a client’s needs, up to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including possible live-in care.
Private duty nursing care needs to be prescribed by a doctor. Care is provided primarily in shifts, up to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Home health care needs to be prescribed by a doctor. Care is provided through visits from specialized clinicians that last up to an hour, on a short-term basis until individual goals are met.