How Medicare Covers In-Home Care

Dear Savvy Senior, How does Medicare cover home health care? Because of my illness, my doctor suggested I get home health care, but I want to find out how it's covered before I proceed. -- Need Some Help Dear Need, Medicare covers a wide variety of intermittent in-home health care services (usually up to 28 hours per week) to beneficiaries if you meet their specific requirements. Here's how it works. In order for you to secure coverage for home health care, Medicare first requires that you be homebound. This means that it must be extremely difficult for you to leave your home, and you need help from a device (like a wheelchair or walker) or a person in doing so. You will then need your doctor to approve a "plan of care" confirming that you need skilled-nursing care or skilled-therapy services from a physical or speech therapist on a part-time basis. Your doctor can also request the services of an occupational therapist and a home health aide to assist with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing and using the bathroom. Your doctor must renew the "plan of care" once every 60 days. You will also need to use a home health agency that is certified by Medicare. If you meet all of the requirements, Medicare should pay for your in-home care. But, be aware that Medicare will not pay for home health aide services (such as bathing, dressing or using the bathroom) alone if you do not need skilled-nursing or skilled-therapy services too. Homemaker services, such...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news