Home Health Care Agencies Your home care resource

Bills in the Maine legislature would increase reimbursement rates for thousands of home care workers to ensure they are being paid more than the state's minimum wage. But elder care advocates say the demand for home care far outweighs supply. "I worry there are folks going without care and folks whose conditions are declining because they are not getting the care they need," Stair says. Most of his jobs pay between $13 and $15 an hour, about what McDonald's restaurants in Maine advertise for entry-level workers. Robyn Stone, a co-author of that report and senior vice president of Leading Age, says many of the worker shortage problems identified in 2001 have only worsened.

A house call doctor, or house call physician, is simply a doctor who performs medical visits in the patient's place of residence. House call doctors may be employed by an agency, or they may have their own practice. Family members are encouraged to be active participants in the planning process to help set and meet goals, working with home health care professionals for the benefit of the patient.

A home health care aide will assist with medications, dosage, and health monitoring. Home health care is equally as effective as the care you would receive in a hospital or skilled nursing facility but is usually less expensive and more convenient. Medicare doesn’t cover for home aides that help with meal preparations, housework, bathing, and dressing. Also, Medicare doesn’t cover long-term care often required for people with Alzheimer’s, cancer, and many other conditions. However, there are programs available that assist with long-term care costs. This type of care is provided by a licensed healthcare provider and is different than simple ‘home care’, which is more like daily living assistance than medical.

However, the elderly care at home may also include skilled, non-medical care such as assistance with day-to-day activities such as eating, dressing, bathing, transportation, or grocery shopping. "It's back-breaking work," says Kathleen McAuliffe, a home care worker in Biddeford, Maine, who formerly worked as a Navy medic and served in the Peace Corps. She provides homemaker services for a state-funded program run by Catholic Charities. She usually visits two clients a day to help them with chores like cleaning and scrubbing floors, wiping down bathrooms, vacuuming, preparing meals, food shopping, organizing medicines and getting them to the doctor.

And to us, service means getting to know our patients on a personal level. A nurse, therapist, or social worker usually cost $70.00 to $100.00 per hour. Medicare and Medicaid will pay 90% home health care of your cost for home health agencies services. The papers also need to include the plan of care that notifies Medicare and home care agencies of the services and equipment you’ll need.