When it comes to paying for home health care serivces there are options

Part of making the right decision for home care is having all the facts on how to best pay for the services. Any agency usually accepts payment from a variety of sources. The most common are:

Long term insurance: be sure to ask if home care services have a deductible, or if you have a maximum out-of-pocket expense on your long term care insurance policy. Also be sure to ask if there is an annual or lifetime limit to the amount that they will pay. When inquiring as to what home care services will be paid for by long term care insurance, be sure that you specify the exact nature of the services that you are requesting.

Medicaid and Other Payment Options: many agencies accept Medicaid and workers’ compensation insurance. There may be other payment options that you are not aware of. The best thing for you is to check and discuss with the agency you would like to work with.

Cost of In-Home Care Services

Home care services are generally available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and can be paid for directly by the client or through a variety of public and private funding sources such as Medicare and/or Medicaid.

Since about 90% of all home health agency care is paid for by Medicare or Medicaid, the cost of care is not such a big burden. But some families do pay for this service out of their own pockets. Costs will vary from area to area. A nurse, therapist or social worker may cost $70.00 to $100.00 an hour. An aide to take care of daily living needs, so called activities of daily living, may cost $10.00 to $25.00 an hour.

Are there any programs that offer financial help?

As a general rule government programs will pay only in case there is a medical care need. Still, government programs can pay for home care that is non-medical under certain conditions. The care-recipient must be low income and have virtually no assets.

This care is typically provided free of charge by informal caregivers who are family or friends. But increasingly, Medicaid is also paying for these home services for those who are Medicaid qualified. In order to receive Medicaid home care a person must qualify for Medicaid and spend at least 90 days in a nursing home. Medicaid qualification requires an income insufficient to pay for care and assets less than $2,000.00.

In-home care senior activities & amenities

Caregivers provide a broad range of services, from companionship to personal care. They can accompany the individual in activities such as: cooking and light housekeeping, laundry and change of bed linens, grocery and shopping, other errand types of services like picking up prescriptions or going to the post office, helping in hobbies or crafts, reading aloud any type of texts or writing letters, transportation to medical appointments or accompanying in walks, assistance in taking medicine and reminders.

Also, more complex, personal care tasks could be offered by the care provider, such as: bathing or showering, hair care and shaving, skin care, transfers like chair-to-bed or chair-to-toilet, mouth and denture care, special assistance to patients that suffer from diseases like Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Diabetes or other geriatric conditions, special therapies and treatments such as occupational, physical or speech therapy.

There are two types of caregivers: the primary caregiver provides care for 4-5 days a week, and the back-up caregiver takes over for the remainder of the week.

The cost of independent living has a low, mid and high end range.

Because Independent Living options for seniors vary so widely, and given the ongoing market fluctuations in real estate throughout the U.S., there is no way to predict what your particular Independent Living situation might cost. However, there are some guidelines that correlate with the Independent Living options.

Low End

The lowest cost Independent Living facilities are those that are subsidized by public or private charities, or through HUD. The cost of the subsidized housing is a percentage of the senior resident’s income. Note that Medicare and Medicaid will not cover any portion of your housing payment since they are forms of health insurance, and no healthcare is provided in an Independent Living arrangement.

Mid-range

The next level of Independent Living for seniors is rental facilities. Rental fees are indexed to the cost of luxury housing in your geographic area. In addition to rent, you’ll also incur a monthly charge for services. Depending upon the services used, the monthly fee can be anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars.

High End

The highest cost Independent Living facilities are planned retirement communities that require buying a home or living unit. The cost of a home is indexed to the cost of other luxury housing in your geographic area. In addition, the shared amenities of the retirement community are figured into a monthly fee of $1000 to $2000. This fee covers taxes, common utilities, and community services.

Coffee to have a reverse on Alzheimer’s

A study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease by University of South Florida found that drinking five cups of coffee a day could reverse memory problems associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Caffeine also hurt the production of protein plaques that characterize the disease.

http://www.mcknights.com/Five-cups-of-coffee-a-day-may-reverse-Alzheimers-symptoms-study-finds/article/139607/

3hdi7r95se

Independent Living is ideal for seniors who: are healthy and able to care for themselves; want to live independently; desire the security to be found in a seniors-only community; no longer want to maintain a house; prefer to live among their peers; can communicate with doctors and caregivers by themselves, or with the help of family or friends, but without the help of trained, onsite staff; have enough money to pay for the kind of home they are looking for, or else can be satisfied with subsidized housing.

If a senior needs occasional personal or medical care, they will be able to bring in health care providers from outside the community or call for assisted living services from within the community, where available.

Health care or supportive care provided in the patient's home.

In-home care is a type of health care or supportive care provided in the patient’s home by other individuals. Usually family members or friends offer the first hand in home care, which is followed by a nurse or in-home care agency.

The purpose of In-Home Assisted Living is to allow a person to remain in their current living situation, in their own home, and a familiar environment by providing all the necessary assistance.

A person can benefit from the advantages of In-Home Care Services either through a licensed agency (that will arrange and manage all the services that the resident requires), or by directly finding a private duty caretaker. In-Home Care Providers are willing to serve both the short-term and long-term needs of individuals.

Some families prefer to hire a live-in caregiver to help with the activities of daily living, while others prefer an agency to offer part-time help with showers and cooking.

In-Home Care can often be confused with other care services like assisted living or residential care homes. But in-home care, home care, or home health care

What type of residents can benefit most from in-home care services?

In the in-home care cases, the services are provided to individuals in their homes. These individuals do not need to be hospitalized. They are essentially homebound and not able to get services on an outpatient basis.

Who regulates in-home care agencies?

The regulation of in-home care agencies is made by the state that imposes some federal care guidelines that must be followed by all the agencies. All the agencies must obtain a license from the Department of Public Health by meeting supervision and training standards.

Skilled medical care includes services of trained professionals that are needed for a limited period of time following an injury or illness and Custodial or personal care includes assistance with what are known as the activities of daily living, such as: dressing, bathing, eating, toileting, etc.

What type of residents benefits most from skilled nursing facilities?
About 91% of the 1,650,000 US nursing home residents are over the age of 65. Most are in care because of physical needs that require help from the nurses, aides or physical therapists on a nursing home staff. These residents may suffer from a wide array of physical or mental disorders or they may simply be feeble and unable to move about, bath themselves or provide their own meals.

Many of these nursing home residents are considered long-term care patients – they will never recover or stabilize to the point where they can take care of themselves and go back home. These people will either die in a nursing home or be discharged to a hospital where they will die or return to a nursing home or hospice to die. For every 100 elderly patients in a nursing home in a given year, 35 will die and another 37 will be admitted to a hospital where they may die, recover or return. The average stay for elderly patients who die in a nursing home is just shy of 2 years.

Supported payment options can depend of the type of facility.

Aging parents are often faced with tough decisions on care options, how much they can afford and how they’re going to pay for the services.

Supported payment options often depends on the type of facility offering the services. Be sure to ask about payment options the facility you’re interested in care form. Aging parents can oftern cover the cost of assisted living by a combination of the following:

• Personal or family money – assets like stocks and savings, plus income from a job or investments.
• Pensions and Social Security retirement benefits — the primary income source for many seniors that can cover rent or mortgage payments.
• Supplemental Security Income (SSI) – monthly public assistance checks for seniors and the disabled who have very limited income and assets.
• Reverse mortgage – can be an income source to pay for services to keep a senior in their own home, or to pay for nursing home care of a very ill spouse, or even pay for long-term care insurance.
• Long-term-care insurance – sometimes pays only for nursing home care, but some policies cover an array of services in a private home or in an assisted living type of facility.
• Medicaid (called Medical in California) – for people who have very limited assets and income, this coverage acts as health insurance for costs of hospitalization, rehab and medicine; also covers some custodial care and long-term care in a nursing home.

Cost of assisted living is often a more affordable option among residential assisted living

In most cases residents pay a regular monthly rent to include meals and housekeeping and the care services are added as extra cost as needed.

In smaller facilities the entire cost includes room and board as well as care services. Some facilities provide levels of care based on need and charges are uniform for each level. For instance a level or grade 1 care might cost an additional $400.00 a month. A second level or grade 2 might cost $800.00 a month and so on depending on the level of care the resident may require.

For elderly who do not need skilled nursing or high levels of care, residential assisted living homes are a great alternative. The cost at times can be as much as half of a nursing home in the range of $2,200 t0 $3,500 whereas skilled nursing tends to be in the $3,500 to $4,500 range or more. Again, it really depends on the levels of care a resident may require and many facilities prefer to know all of the details before quoting a price.