Senior Residences and Residential Home Healthcare

What Is Residential/Home Health Care?
Home health care helps seniors live independently for as long as possible, given the limits of their medical condition. Home health care covers a wide range of services and can often delay the need for long-term nursing home care. This type of care can be a good solution for healthy, independent individuals when the focus is on social networks and leisure activities. Or, this type of care can provide multiple levels of treatment and service, from senior residences to nursing home settings.

More specifically, home health care may include occupational and physical therapy, speech therapy, and even skilled nursing. It may involve helping the elderly with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, and eating. Or it may include assistance with cooking, cleaning, other housekeeping jobs, and monitoring one's daily regimen of prescription and over-the-counter medications.

How Can I Pay For Residential/Home Health Care?
The cost of home health care varies across states and within states. In addition, costs will fluctuate depending on the type of healthcare professional required. Home care services can be paid for directly by the patient and his or her family members, or through a variety of public and private sources. Sources for home health care funding include Medicare, Medicaid, the Older Americans Act, the Veterans' Administration, and private insurance.

Medicare is the largest single payer of home care services. The Medicare program will pay for home health care if all of the following conditions are met:

• The patient must be homebound and under a doctor's care
• The patient must need skilled nursing care or occupational, physical, or speech therapy on at least an intermittent basis (that is, at least regularly even if not continuously)
• The services provided must be under a doctor's supervision and performed as part of a home health care plan written specifically for that patient
• The patient must be eligible for the Medicare program and the services ordered must be medically reasonable and necessary
• The home health care agency providing the services must be certified by the Medicare program

You can get more information about senior residences and residential home health care and other care options by completing our quick three step process — to begin, simply fill out the form above. You will not be contacted without your consent and there is no obligation and no pressure.