As your needs change, the length and types of home care may vary. For example, at first you may just need a few hours per week for house cleaning and grocery shopping, but later, recovering from surgery, you may need help with meal preparation and nursing care for a couple of months. Someone who is living with a difficult chronic medical condition like macular degeneration (an often incurable disease that impairs vision) or Alzheimer’s disease may require services long into the future. Your doctor, family members, home care provider, and other concerned people in your life can all help you determine how much care, what kind of care, and the frequency of care that is needed.

1) Private insurance or long-term care insurance that aid in paying for services. Some policies cover certain types of home care for specified periods of time. It’s important to find out exactly what your insurance covers before you arrange for home care.

2) Medicare. Medicare may partially cover home care expenses for a short period of time, up to 2 to 3 weeks, but only for skilled nursing care as related to an acute medical situation or physical or speech therapy that is prescribed by a physician nurse practitioner or physician assistant.

Unfortunately, Preferred Home Health Solutions is not a Medicare provider.

3) Medicaid. State Medicaid programs may provide personal and home health care services for persons with very low assets and limited incomes. If you currently receive Medicaid, talk with your health care provider about receiving home care services through Medicaid. To apply for Medicaid, you must file an application withyour local Medicaid office or call your local Health and Human Service Department for assistance.  You can also complete the application and obtain more information by visiting Wisconsin’s Medicaid website or benefits.gov.

4) Private Pay, also known as “out-of-pocket.” If your private insurance or Medicare or Medicaid does not cover the cost of your home care services, you will have to pay privately. Most licensed home care agencies in Wisconsin charge by the hour for a home attendant to help with personal care services, and often these agencies require the aide be hired for a minimum of 1 – 3 hours per day.

If Medicare and/or Medicaid pay for home care services, then the home care services must be provided by a Certified Home Health Agency.  If you are paying through a private insurance company, you will need to find out how to handle costs with your insurance company. If you are paying “out-of-pocket,” you will have all of the following options:

Private Individuals. You may prefer to hire help through friends or family recommendations or through answering an ad in the newspaper. Although the cost for private individuals is often significantly less than what is charged by an agency, the worker may have little or no training in the home care field and require on the- job training. In addition, you will have to call references and do the background checks to make sure the person does not have a prior criminal record, and you have to make arrangements for back-up coverage should the worker be late or unavailable due to illness, personal reasons, or vacations.

Home Care Agency. A home care agency should be certified or licensed and ensure that workers will be trained and supervised according to State regulations. Many home care agencies require a four-hour minimum for each visit to the home. The agency should be responsible if a worker is tardy or absent from work or if a worker needs to be replaced for any reason. Employees of Preferred Home Health Solutions are screened thoroughly by extensive reference checks, criminal background checks, driving history checks, pre-employment and random drug screens including on-going training.

What specific work you want the person to do every day?

What hours and days you want the person to work for you?

The salary you will be paying (if the person is not from an agency), how you will pay the person (cash or check), and what day of the week is payday.

Your expectations regarding promptness, attitude, and behavior.

How your money will be handled. Develop safety measures to protect yourself from financial abuse. For example, if the home care worker will be grocery shopping, set up an account at the grocery store with a periodic statement of purchases or devise a system of cash and receipts for monitoring spending.

How does the candidate present her/himself?

Is the person clean and neatly dressed?

Did the person come on time for the interview?

Did the person act respectfully towards you?

Did you feel comfortable being with this person?

Get the candidate’s name, address and phone number.

Information on the best time to reach the candidate.

If the candidate is not coming to you through an agency, get the following:

Driver’s license number (if the person will be driving).

Names and phone numbers of 2-3 references (at least one person should be a work reference).

Contact the references and ask how long they have known the candidate, the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as attitude, trustworthiness, and work habits.

If you do the interviewing alone, discuss your impressions with someone you trust after the interview, if possible.