The best time to learn about home healthcare is before you need it. Home healthcare — or home health — refers to skilled medical services provided at your home for a short time. These services address specific medical needs and require an order from a physician or a qualified advanced practice provider (for example, a physician assistant or a nurse practitioner). Here’s what you need to know about these specialized services.

Benefits of Home Healthcare

Receiving skilled care at home offers a convenient way to get the medical treatments you need in the comfort of your own place of residence. There are many reasons your provider may recommend home healthcare services, including:

• A recent hospitalization due to illness
• An injury that prevents you from going to outpatient therapy sessions
• One or more recent falls in your home
• Wound care for a diabetic ulcer showing signs of infection

“In most cases, home health treatments are as effective as treatments provided in a hospital or a skilled nursing facility,” says Michelle Luther, clinical director of Alliance Health Services for Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare. “Home-based care is often less expensive than inpatient care, too.”

Goals of Home Healthcare

Specific home healthcare goals vary from person to person. Still, some goals apply to nearly all people receiving home-based skilled care, including:

• Decreasing the need for hospitalization or long-term, inpatient care
• Improving quality of life
• Increasing independence and safety as much as possible
• Maintaining or returning to your previous level of ability
• Preventing or slowing down medical decline
• Recovering from illness or injury

Depending on your specific medical conditions and needs, other goals of home healthcare may include:

• Getting counseling to address emotional or social issues that may prevent you from reaching your other health goals
• Improving your balance, coordination, endurance or strength
• Increasing safety and preventing injury
• Teaching a family member how to safely assist you with everyday tasks
• Training you on how to use home medical equipment
  
  

Who Is Eligible for Home Healthcare?

You must meet specific criteria to receive home health services covered by Medicare. First, your doctor or another qualified provider must certify that you need at least one of the following:

• Occupational therapy
• Physical therapy
• Skilled nursing care
• Speech therapy

To be certified to receive home healthcare services, you should have an in-person appointment with your provider within three months before home health starts or within one month of starting services.

If you need nursing services, the provider must also certify that you need only intermittent nursing services — skilled nursing care less than seven days a week or daily for fewer than eight hours a day for 21 days or less.

Additionally, your provider must certify that you are homebound. To qualify as homebound, you must meet two requirements:

1. Your provider advises you to stay home due to your illness or injury, or you need to use an assistive device, such as crutches, a walker or wheelchair, to leave your home.
2. You find it difficult to leave your home, and it requires a significant amount of effort to do so.

“Being homebound doesn't mean you can never leave your house,” Luther says. “You’re allowed to leave home for medical appointments, infrequent errands or an important family event, such as a graduation or wedding. Still, you cannot leave your home frequently while receiving home healthcare. If you do, you may need to be discharged or you may need to pay for the services out of pocket.”

Your Home Healthcare Team

Your home healthcare team may include only one or two specialists, or it may include several, depending on your goals, medical needs and provider’s orders and recommendations.

A home healthcare team may include:

• A nurse
• An occupational therapist
• A physical therapist
• A social worker
• A speech therapist, also called a speech-language pathologist

You may also qualify to have home health aides assist with personal care and other unskilled services while receiving home healthcare.

Home Healthcare Visits

At the start of your home healthcare services, a nurse or therapist will get your medical history, take your vital signs and perform an assessment called the Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS). There are no right or wrong answers to the assessment. It simply gives the care team a good look at your current health and level of abilities. It also helps them develop care plans with your needs in mind.

If you receive multiple home health services, each provider will visit you separately. They will work with you to develop an individualized care plan specific to that service. Each plan will include how often they will visit, how long each session will last and what goals you’ll work on during sessions. They may also perform additional assessments or evaluations to gather more information about your condition and progress.

“The OASIS helps your care team track your progress and address any new areas of concern,” Luther says. “Data from the OASIS is also used to ensure home healthcare agencies are providing the consistent, high-quality care patients deserve.”

Choosing and Paying for Home Healthcare

When choosing a home healthcare agency, look for one certified by Medicare that has properly trained and licensed team members. It can also be helpful to pay attention to how you're treated by agency staff from your first moments of contact and how responsive they are to your questions and concerns.

If you meet all eligibility requirements for home healthcare and receive the services through a Medicare-approved agency, Medicare will cover the total cost of home-based nursing care, rehabilitation services and some medical social services. If any will not be covered, the home healthcare agency is required to let you know.

Medicaid and private insurance coverage for home healthcare services vary. Your provider, the home healthcare agency or a representative from your insurance company can help you determine which services are covered.

Get the Home Healthcare You and Your Loved Ones Deserve

If you’re interested in finding out more about Methodist Home Care services near you, call 901-516-1800.