What is Home Care?
Home care is a service to recovering, disabled, or chronically ill people who need medical treatment and/or assistance with the activities of daily living. Generally, home care is appropriate when a person requires care, and family and friends cannot easily or effectively provide it on their own. The National Association for Home Care estimates that more than 8 million Americans currently receive home care for both acute and long-term needs. This figure increases every day as greater numbers of people are able to leave institutions or, thanks to advancing technology, avoid ever having to enter them. State-of-the-art medical equipment for use in the home can now provide treatments and services that once were available only in the hospital.
How was home care started?
Home care has been an American tradition for more than a century. Starting in the 1880s, public health nurses traveled to patients’ homes, caring for the sick, teaching family members how to provide care in their absence, suggesting ways to improve health, and comforting the dying. As the nurse’s role in saving lives became more apparent, insurance companies started to offer visiting nurse services to their working- and middle-class policyholders faced with illness. By 1916, these services were available to more than 10 million policyholders in the United States, creating the first nationwide system of insurance payment for home-based care.
Who provides home care?
Home care services usually are provided by home care organizations, but may also be obtained from registries and independent providers. Home care organizations include home health agencies, hospices, homemaker and home care aide (HCA) agencies, staffing and private-duty agencies, and companies specializing in medical equipment and supplies, pharmaceuticals, and drug infusion therapy. These organizations hire or contract with physicians; registered, licensed practical nurses; physical, occupational, and respiratory therapists and assistants; HCAs; dietitians; laboratory technologists; dentists and dental hygienists; pharmacists; medical social workers; and speech pathologists.
Who pays for home care?
Home care is paid for directly by the patient and his or her family members, or through a variety of private and public sources. Hospices generally provide care regardless of the patient’s and family’s ability to pay. Private insurance programs typically cover some services for acute needs, but benefits for long-term services vary from plan to plan. Public third-party payers include Medicare, Medicaid, the Older Americans Act, the Veterans Affairs, Social Services Block Grant programs, and community organizations.
What are the advantages of home care?
• Home care improves our society’s quality of life by enabling individuals to stay in the comfort and security of their own homes during times of illness, disability, and recuperation.
• Home care maintains the patient’s dignity and independence — qualities that commonly are lost in institutional settings.
• Home care is less expensive than other forms of health care delivery. In 1997, the average Medicare charges per day in a hospital and skilled nursing facility were estimated at $2,121 and $454, respectively. The average Medicare charge per home care visit during this time was an estimated $88.
• Home care offers a wide range of specialized services tailored to meet the needs of every individual on a personal provider-to-patient basis.
• Home care reinforces and supplements informal care by educating the patient’s family members and friends about the caregiving process.
What is the future of home care?
By 2030, one in every five U.S. citizens will be elderly. As this segment of the nation’s population continues to grow faster than any other segment, and as medical technology enables more and more health care to be performed in the home, home care is sure to remain a vital part of the American health care delivery system. The unparalleled growth in the nation’s older population will raise the demand for professional home care services to an all-time high.
For more information about home care services in the Atlanta area, call Jackie Walker, Director, Walker
Home Care at (404) 555-2222.
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