What you Need to Know About Home Health Care

Although varying by state, most states have waiver programs which help pay for transportation and ADL's to include companion care and errands. Also, nurses never cure, merely manage care and therefore would never have a "cure" care plan in home care. Litlle know is the fact that children also qualify for home care, often times paid for by Medicaid. This segment (trach dependent, vent dependent, etc.) do receive long-term care in the home and fortunately there is a percentage of these patients who do have improved outcomes, although we don't refer to them as "cured". That is to say, a child may be receiving health care in the home because of status/post tracheostomy and with a well-coordinated care plan, in say five-ten years, the trach may be removed and the patient may go on to lead a perfectly normal life. I would also say that advocacy end education are very important. Care/case managers will often steer patients to home health agencies of their choosing, although the practice is discouraged and surely unethical. Patients and their families must do their own research to find a suitable home care provider. If a care manager states that a patient must go with the home care provider selected by the care manager, the patient should insist on talking to an administrator. A great resource for understanding home health service access is through http://www.Mayhac.com. They're advocacy based and can give background information on most home health agencies. They also credential providers.

Most people overestimate the cost of a good long-term care policy. A healthy, married couple in their mid-fifties, can share a policy that starts off with over a half million in benefits for about $100 per month per spouse.

There’s a new type of government-approved long-term care policy that can protect your assets from Medicaid even if the policy runs out of benefits.

Here’s an explanation of how these policies work:

http://bit.ly/How-Partnership-Policies-Protect-Assets

Scott

It is very important to know that Medicare is limited to medically-necessary part-time or intermittent skilled nursing care, or physical therapy, speech-language pathology, or a continuing need for occupational therapy. A doctor must order your care, and a Medicare-certified home health agency must provide it. Skilled care is care that is administered by someone who has a license, a nurse, a therapist, a doctor. Skilled care has recovery as its goal. This confusion might explain why 54% of Baby Boomers believe Medicare pays for an extended care event or long term care, which typically starts at home after being in a skilled rehab facility. Medicare/Health Insurance is acute skilled care, care that is supposed to make you better. With Long-Term care, most of the time there is no recovery and is primarily custodial care or focusing on “Caring” not curing.
The financial consequences of needing care can be significant and again, arguably the single biggest financial risk most of us face, especially for women because we live longer. It's important to have a plan in place to ensure you remain independent, protect your assets and not burden your children.
Allison Payne
Long Term Care Specialist
LTC Financial Partners