How do I find a home health care aide for my dad? He has amazing insurance.

[Anonymous]

The hospital dismissed him without giving my mom a plan. He fell last week - finally went to the hospital this week where they suspected a broken hip - it's not. He's in a ton of pain. My mom can't manage this on her own. I'm here for the next 5 days but we need to get home health care. Stupid hospital should have sent him to a rehab - now it's a huge problem because they didn't. Where do you start looking?

[Anonymous]

Call his insurance and have them send a list of home health agencies. Get a prescription from his doctor for home health, then start calling some agencies.

[Anonymous]

His insurance will likely pay for home PT/OT etc. But if you need someone to help him bathe and those type of things that is usually out of pocket. But you can still go through the agency to find the aide to help.

[Anonymous]

If he stayed in the hospital for three nights or more, you have a month after discharge to get the referral to a rehab. You would call the hospital social worker and the primary care doc.

Also, if the situation is currently unsafe at home, you can take him back to the hospital. If you tell them there is no one to care for him they have to discharge him to rehab or skilled nursing, which is covered by Medicare for at least 100 days. But you have to have a hospital stay to access this care (which sucks).

Alternatively, if he wants to be home and can afford it, you could hire help to come in and care for him on a daily basis. This would be about $32 an hour and you would ideally get a friend to refer you to a good agency, but this can be set up very quickly. It is NOT covered by insurance.

You would layer in the Home Health people (covered by Medicare) which would be a nurse once a week and PT/OT up to twice a week. In my experience, not super effective but better than nothing.

The real question here is what is your dad's injury and does he have a reasonable chance at a recovery to independence again. If it's a short term fixable thing, try for in patient rehab for the best PT, but if he wants to be in his home and recovery is unclear/dicey, set up the home care for now. You can start it and stop it pretty quickly so if it's not working well, you are not committed.

Good luck OP! This stuff is so confusing and difficult but I'm sure you are going to figure it out and get your parents into a better situation.

[Anonymous]

Paragon

[Anonymous]

So he just went to the ER, and they said it wasn't a broken hip? He probably wasn't even admitted then, right?

[Anonymous]

Starting with an agency is by far the easiest option. Eventually you might want to poach individuals or find them by word of mouth but start with an agency.

[Anonymous]

We are dealing with this also. My dad started falling. Turns out he has heart issue. I got him admitted to the hospital and after he gets a pacemaker he'll be sent to rehab. Meanwhile I'm calling assisted living places and home health aids just trying to get information and get things set up for what's to come.

So the question I have for you OP is why did your dad fall? Was it a random trip and fall situation or did something go wrong with his body that caused him to fall?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If he stayed in the hospital for three nights or more, you have a month after discharge to get the referral to a rehab. You would call the hospital social worker and the primary care doc.

Also, if the situation is currently unsafe at home, you can take him back to the hospital. If you tell them there is no one to care for him they have to discharge him to rehab or skilled nursing, which is covered by Medicare for at least 100 days. But you have to have a hospital stay to access this care (which sucks).

Alternatively, if he wants to be home and can afford it, you could hire help to come in and care for him on a daily basis. This would be about $32 an hour and you would ideally get a friend to refer you to a good agency, but this can be set up very quickly. It is NOT covered by insurance.

You would layer in the Home Health people (covered by Medicare) which would be a nurse once a week and PT/OT up to twice a week. In my experience, not super effective but better than nothing.

The real question here is what is your dad's injury and does he have a reasonable chance at a recovery to independence again. If it's a short term fixable thing, try for in patient rehab for the best PT, but if he wants to be in his home and recovery is unclear/dicey, set up the home care for now. You can start it and stop it pretty quickly so if it's not working well, you are not committed.

Good luck OP! This stuff is so confusing and difficult but I'm sure you are going to figure it out and get your parents into a better situation.

I would do this, unless your parents are very wealthy. The hospital never should have discharged him. It's hard to find home health care even if you can afford it due to the shortage of workers.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like he went to ER but didn’t get admitted?

The next step is usually to see his PCP for follow up.

But you can try to get a referral from the ER doctor for whatever it is that you think he needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If he stayed in the hospital for three nights or more, you have a month after discharge to get the referral to a rehab. You would call the hospital social worker and the primary care doc.

Also, if the situation is currently unsafe at home, you can take him back to the hospital. If you tell them there is no one to care for him they have to discharge him to rehab or skilled nursing, which is covered by Medicare for at least 100 days. But you have to have a hospital stay to access this care (which sucks).

Alternatively, if he wants to be home and can afford it, you could hire help to come in and care for him on a daily basis. This would be about $32 an hour and you would ideally get a friend to refer you to a good agency, but this can be set up very quickly. It is NOT covered by insurance.

You would layer in the Home Health people (covered by Medicare) which would be a nurse once a week and PT/OT up to twice a week. In my experience, not super effective but better than nothing.

The real question here is what is your dad's injury and does he have a reasonable chance at a recovery to independence again. If it's a short term fixable thing, try for in patient rehab for the best PT, but if he wants to be in his home and recovery is unclear/dicey, set up the home care for now. You can start it and stop it pretty quickly so if it's not working well, you are not committed.

Good luck OP! This stuff is so confusing and difficult but I'm sure you are going to figure it out and get your parents into a better situation.

NP not OP, but this was a very kind and helpful post.

[Anonymous]

https://eldercare.acl.gov/public/resources/factsheets/home_health_care.aspx

Sorry to hear about your dad, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If he stayed in the hospital for three nights or more, you have a month after discharge to get the referral to a rehab. You would call the hospital social worker and the primary care doc.

Also, if the situation is currently unsafe at home, you can take him back to the hospital. If you tell them there is no one to care for him they have to discharge him to rehab or skilled nursing, which is covered by Medicare for at least 100 days. But you have to have a hospital stay to access this care (which sucks).

Alternatively, if he wants to be home and can afford it, you could hire help to come in and care for him on a daily basis. This would be about $32 an hour and you would ideally get a friend to refer you to a good agency, but this can be set up very quickly. It is NOT covered by insurance.

You would layer in the Home Health people (covered by Medicare) which would be a nurse once a week and PT/OT up to twice a week. In my experience, not super effective but better than nothing.

The real question here is what is your dad's injury and does he have a reasonable chance at a recovery to independence again. If it's a short term fixable thing, try for in patient rehab for the best PT, but if he wants to be in his home and recovery is unclear/dicey, set up the home care for now. You can start it and stop it pretty quickly so if it's not working well, you are not committed.

Good luck OP! This stuff is so confusing and difficult but I'm sure you are going to figure it out and get your parents into a better situation.

I would do this, unless your parents are very wealthy. The hospital never should have discharged him. It's hard to find home health care even if you can afford it due to the shortage of workers.

The ER is technically outpatient status, not inpatient. It's like a clinic in that sense. If it was ER only, then there was no inpatient stay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Starting with an agency is by far the easiest option. Eventually you might want to poach individuals or find them by word of mouth but start with an agency.

This. Look for home health care agencies. It isn’t cheap but they are used to situations like this. My mom fell and will be having surgery soon. She’ll be discharged home and we have a 24 hour home health aid set up. All of this was arranged within a week.

And you can’t poach employees from them. The contract has a clause that you can’t hire any employees within a year they can sue you.