What Is The Difference Between In-Home Care and Home Health Care?

Imagine your dad living alone, barely getting out of bed when he complains of pain and you discover bed sores. You google and buy supplies, doing your best to take care of him but the sores just aren’t going away. This is a true experience of one of our families. They had no idea what home health was and that it could help their dad. In this post, we will be talking about the difference between in home care and home health care.

So where do your parents call home? Are they living in their actual home or a stand alone retirement community? At either location they might find they want or need a little extra help in order to remain safe.

So let’s start with in home care.In home care services include the following:
Bathing
Dressing
Meal preparation
Laundry
Housecleaning
Yard work
Shopping
Money management

…and really just about anything. We’ve had clients who were blind and hired someone to read to them, others have had the caregiver take care of their garden and even play cards.

We’ve worked with couples where one spouse has memory loss and isn’t safe to be alone. So the wife hired in home care to stay with her husband so she could have a much needed break.

The cost of these services vary. We’ve seen 24 dollars per hour up to 45 dollars per hour and many companies have a minimum number of hours per day in order to help manage staffing. These services are completely customizable and can even be provided 24 hours a day. Although at that point families are looking for the more affordable option of Assisted living, memory care or adult family home.

So what’s home health care? Well, it’s actually pretty simple. Home health care services a medical need, which can include the following:

Wound care
Injections
Infusion therapy
Pain management
Psychiatric services
Nursing care
Medication management
Nutrition
Social services
Physical therapy
Occupational therapy
Speech therapy

These medically necessary services must be ordered by a Dr. and the benefit is being able to stay home as opposed to staying in a skilled nursing facility. This setting of course is more clinical setting and not as comfortable as home.

It’s also important to note that there could be some limitations with this type of care. We worked with a family who really wanted their mom to get stronger through daily physical therapy. They were hoping this could be provided through home health care at home but the companies were not able to staff for this and generally are limited to a max of 3 days per week. In this case the only way to guarantee 5 days of physical therapy was in a skilled nursing facility,providing a Dr. will order it.

It is possible that both of these services could be covered or partially covered by Medicare but not every in-home care company accepts Medicare and there are certain qualifications that need to be met so you’d want to check with your particular insurance.

Both of these options will require an assessment done by the company and both will include a personalized care plan that is updated daily.

So whether you need a break with non medical care or you need a medical service, it is possible to receive care and stay home or in stay in that retirement living community safely a little longer. It’s important to know your options in order to make the best decision for your loved one!

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