How To Choose a Homecare Provider

Now that you and your loved one have realized the need for some level of assistance, and the loved one wants to remain in his or her home, you are faced with the daunting proposition of choosing a homecare provider. It is our wish to help guide you through this process by providing some things to consider.

First of all, please understand that Medicare and Medi-Cal DO NOT cover the cost of homecare, assisted living, independent living or nursing homes. There are some Medi-Cal reimbursements for nursing homes for a limited time when one is discharged from a medical facility, but that is beyond the scope of this web page. We can help you find the proper information upon request. So the only way to cover the cost of this homecare is through your own funds or from Long Term Care Insurance. Thus, the choice of a homecare provider becomes a balance between needs and affordability.

Let’s define the various providers of care as follows:

• Family members or close friends
• Independent providers obtained from newspaper ads, bulletin boards, recommendations
• Referral or employment agencies
• Full-Service Homecare companies

Now let’s look at some of the issues that you need to be aware of when hiring a caregiver:

• Background: do they have criminal or driving violations?
• Liability: do they have liability insurance and are they covered by Workmen’s Compensation, Medicare taxes, disability taxes, payroll taxes, etc.?
• Training: do they have prior experience and training to meet your needs and are they keeping up on the latest caregiving techniques?
• Dependability: if a caregiver gets sick or is otherwise unable to be there, is there adequate ability to have a substitute?

Hiring a family member or close friend will, many times, seem like the ideal solution and, for many people, it very well may be. The family will probably know of their backgrounds and often they will provide their services at little or no cost. The rest of the concerns regarding liability, training, and dependability still remain. In addition. there is another concern to be aware of, especially with family members, and that is the stress of being a caregiver and how it can affect the family relationship. Even if a family member is chosen to do the caregiving, it is crucial that they be given respite opportunities, and Seniority Lifecare professional caregivers can help.

Independent caregivers, whether obtained from ads, grocery store bulletin boards, word of mouth or even referral agencies are just that — independent. It is up to you to check their references and backgrounds; a task that is usually beyond the average person when it comes to the diligence needed to protect the wellbeing of a loved one. Aside from the time involved, it is an expensive process and most people don’t have the time available to do it properly. The stories of elder abuse and elder fraud are not fiction; they are real and all too common.

A referral agency does simply that: only refers names from a master list, without any guarantee of quality or experience. Such individuals are not employed nor supervised by these agencies, nor do they collect the taxes or cover liability. They don’t perform background checks or offer any training.

In most cases, people do not realize that hiring an in-home caregiver is not something as casual as the common practice of hiring a neighborhood teenager for babysitting. By hiring an individual to come into the home and personally take care of an elder parent or relative, one is effectively entering into an “employer-employee” agreement, thereby becoming liable for employee taxes and expenses such as Social Security, Medicare, federal and state unemployment and payroll taxes, and Workers’ Compensation. Many of us are under the mistaken notion that in-home care workers are covered by our homeowner’s insurance. However, many insurance companies specifically exclude in-home worker’s liability, meaning you or a family member would be responsible for all costs in the case of a debilitating accident or injury to a caregiver.

Training is another open-ended issue since the only way you can be sure the caregiver you hire has adequate training is to hire them and see. By the time you find out they lack training, it may be too late and you or your loved one may have suffered.

Caregivers get sick, cars won’t start, accidents will happen. Caregivers need to go on vacation, to a wedding, to a graduation. With enough notice, it is not difficult to handle a substitution, but in the case of a last minute problem, it is usually up to the family or loved one to find an alternative. This is stressful and unsafe but it happens all the time. In addition, your lives may require flexibility in caregiving; you’re going on vacation, relatives are coming from out of town, etc. You have to work this out with your independent caregiver.

There are many excellent, dedicated, honest, compassionate, experienced caregivers out there. There are also many of the wrong kind. The only way to absolutely insure that you and your loved one are getting the best of the best is to use a Full-Service Homecare company like Seniority Lifecare at Home.

• We do full, extensive background checks on all our caregiver applicants.
• We provide orientation and training before they begin their caregiving assignments.
• We provide mandatory continuous education.
• Our caregivers are our employees and they are bonded, insured, and taxes are paid.
• Our staff, available 24/7, schedules caregivers and provides substitutes with no need for your involvement and they handle changes with a smile. Of course we always notify you if a substitution is necessary.
• Our comprehensive assessments insure that the level of care is appropriate in terms of both needs and cost restraints.
• Our quality control system is based on periodic spot checks and reassessments to make sure changing needs are addressed.

Whatever your ultimate needs may be or whatever your care decisions will be, you owe it to yourselves and your loved ones to talk to us first.

209-532-4500.