By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2011-06-20 12:51:24 | Word Count: 664
To complicate this field even more, different home care helpers with the same title may not perform the same services, whereas helpers with different titles may perform many of the same services!
Over 10,000 home health-care agencies throughout the US are Medicare certified, which means that they’re authorized to provide services for Medicare eligible elderly. Health care agencies usually advertise the fact that they’re certified in their ads and on their websites, but not all agencies are certified or licensed.
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Medicare will probably pay for some of the care if your elderly senior requires skilled nursing services. Your senior in need must be Medicare eligible, be under the physician’s care and require medically necessary skilled nursing care, therapeutic interventions or hospice services. They must be homebound, meaning they can’t leave the home for medical reasons only and for occasional special events such as a family reunion, funeral or graduation. The agency bills Medicare directly for the services in the same way that doctors bill Medicare.
If you elderly senior requires only non-skilled home care services, you’ll probably have to hire an aide from an agency or registry, or find someone on your own and pay for it yourself. You can sort out the array of potential helpers by those who mainly do household tasks, those who primarily perform personal care, and finally those who carry out skilled health and medical duties. As a quick primer, these definitions should be helpful:
Home Care Helpers â€" Homecare Companion Services. Usually these services are provided by a Home Health Care Agency, and provide non-medical services for an elderly individual. Homecare helper or companion services often involve but are not limited to, companionship, errands, light housework, possible grocery shopping and/or home meal preparation.
Home Nursing Care â€" Homecare Nurse. These are in-home medical services provided by an in-home nurse, which are at a much less intensive level of care than the medical services provided in a skilled nursing facility. Often the caregiver is a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) or a Certified Home Health Aide (CHHA), which have their education and skill level below a Registered Nurse. In addition to companion helper services, they may provide help with the scheduling and administration of drugs, bathing, emergency assistance and more.
When medical expenses are tax deductible, the cost of in home care is deductible only to the extent of nursing care, not companion or helper services care. Therefore, when one person delivers both nursing care and companion or helper services, only the hours spent on nursing care are deductible. It’s best to ask your tax accountant or tax preparer how to handle this deduction properly.
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