What is home care?

In-home care provides seniors with one-to-one assistance in the comfort of their own home, which enables them to live independently. Home Care Assistance helps seniors maintain their quality of life, and the personal attention they receive vastly improves their safety, health, and happiness. Home care includes assistance with activities of daily living such as meal preparation, bathing, transportation, laundry, medication reminders, light housekeeping, and companionship.

My parents are reluctant to accept home care. Now what?

Convincing older adults that they need help at home can be challenging. While they balk at the thought of losing independence, the opposite is actually true. By having a little help, they are much more likely to retain independence because they remain in control of decisions affecting their lifestyle. Once a crisis occurs (a fall, dehydration, a severe UTI), decisions about their care will be in the hands of others. With professional home care, families can enjoy peace of mind knowing their loved ones are in safe and caring hands.

We have a couple of ideas:

Ask your parents to try home care, at least temporarily. Once they meet their caregiver and see how nice it is to have an extra set of hands, “temporary” almost always becomes permanent. Come up with another name for “caregiver.” Some of our clients are more receptive to having a personal assistant or a housekeeper/chef. Ask your parents to do this for you …agree to a meeting with our owner. Once your parents meet our owner and understand that our company shares their goal of remaining at home, it’s a less threatening proposition.

Who pays for home care?

The services offered by home care companies like ours are not covered by the government. The government typically only covers a limited number of visits by a nurse, physical therapist, or occupational therapist after a hospital stay or for homebound clients who have high medical needs. However, if you have a long-term care insurance policy, your policy benefits can help pay for your home care. We can help you better understand your policy benefits and provide assistance in submitting all ongoing claims. See the next question for more information. Q: Do you accept my Long-Term Care Insurance? A: Home Care Assistance accepts Long-Term Care Insurance. If you are unsure about whether or not your insurance policy covers our services, we can help you. Our partner company, FHS SeniorCare Payment Solutions®, can verify your benefits upfront and shoulder all of the time-consuming work of submitting claims, following up with the insurance company, and monitoring the reimbursements by taking the Assignment of Benefits. “FHS” and Home Care Assistance are your advocates in case your claims are denied, delayed or appealed. With 30 years’ experience helping families with Long-Term Care Insurance, you can rely on us to handle it all: Explain exactly what your policy covers Ensure you receive all the benefits you’re entitled to Weekly claims filing and follow-up Faster approvals and reimbursements Support for denials, delays, and appeals plus ongoing advocacy