Learn About the Excellent, Comprehensive Services Available Now
When an elderly person returns from the hospital after surgery or an illness and requires care to ensure they can remain as comfortable and healthy as possible, that’s where the healing truly begins.
Why? While hospitals are committed to ensuring that your surgery goes well, that your illness is manageable, and you are well on your way to recovery, home is the place that comforts us most.
Home can be a healing place – and it is often preferable over moving to a new facility for the duration of an illness, surgery, or injury. However, not everyone can experience the healing power of being home on their own.
Mobility issues, cognitive decline, injury, or other impairments can prevent you from taking care of yourself by yourself. That doesn’t mean that you’re not able, but there are times in life when everyone needs a helping hand to recover.
To harness the healing power of home, home health care services are there for us when we need them. These services offer benefits that other forms of care can’t quite provide.
It is now possible to recover from surgery or illness – or even maintain a good quality of life despite chronic illnesses – at home. There, you can receive treatment and care from a network of professional home health providers.
How Do Home Health Care Services Work?
It is important to understand what home health care services offer. Essentially, home health care is a service that brings medical appointments and medical care to your door. Your physician will prescribe home health services for you and explain a plan for your recovery. A comprehensive medical team, managed by an RN case manager, creates a schedule while you get all of the visits you need to recover or cope with an ongoing medical challenge.
Here’s what your home health services process could look like:
- Your doctor prescribes home health care services.
- With the help of your doctor, you can determine whether Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance will cover your home health care services. Typically, they will, if the circumstances warrant this kind of care.
- You select a leading home health care services agency to provide care. This agency can further help you with your insurance questions, too.
- Your case will be assigned to an RN who will begin coordination based on the physician’s orders.
- You will receive coordinated care, depending on your needs. This could include physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, assistance with medical devices like catheters or IVs, medication management, social work, and even assistance with daily-life activities like basic hygiene.
- Some agencies also offer meal preparation and housework, but you will have to confirm these additional services with the agency you choose.
More about Medicare and Eligibility for Home Health Care Services
To receive professional healthcare at home, there are typically a set of criteria that agencies must follow to begin providing professional services:
- The services that we’ve described above are often referred to as “intermittent,” meaning you don’t need full-time care at home. Instead, you require visits from medical professionals. All of your medical care visits are brought right to your door, instead of you heading out of the house to receive them.
- You typically need to be considered “homebound,” meaning that you are not able to get out of the house for your appointment without assistance (this even includes supports like a wheelchair, crutches, and walkers). You are also considered homebound if a doctor considers it unwise for you to leave home based on your diagnosis.
Once you and your physician have established the level of care you need and whether you are considered a homebound patient, you are likely to receive home health services that are covered by Medicare.
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How to Choose an Agency that Delivers Home Health Care
When considering a home health care agency in your area, you want to ensure that they are connected to an extensive list of care providers. This way you’ll know you are getting the best professional care for your particular needs.
It is also important that the agency you choose has developed a culture of respect and compassion among its coordinators, caregivers, and the rest of its team. We’ve all had experiences with healthcare that were less than desirable. At this point in your life’s journey, you deserve extraordinary support, so look for an agency that seeks to provide this kind of care while you recover at home.
Lastly, look for comprehensive services. While you may need to tap only a small number of home health care services, seek out an agency that offers a wide range, including specialty care, home health aide services, physical therapy, and more.
You’ll know that this agency understands the many paths that illness and injury can take and that they’ve taken great pains to include as many medical offerings as possible. This, too, will tell you something about the agency you are working with. You’ll know they are thorough and have the experience and ability to offer far more than most other agencies.
After all, you want to heal fast, get well, and feel comfortable in your own home, and you don’t want to leave that job to just anyone.