Home Health is a Medicare covered service and often times is also covered under private insurance. During this episode of Conversations with Your Nurse Advocates, we go into the details on what it is and how you can get these services.
Home Health is a “skilled” service. This means that if you just need bathing, light housekeeping, errands ran for you or some meal preparation you would not qualify for Home Health. We will address these types of non-skilled services in an upcoming episode to explain how you can obtain these types of personal cares in your home.
Home Health can be a great transition from being at the hospital or in a nursing home and then going back home. It is called “Skilled” care because you have to have the need for an R.N. or a Physical Therapist to see you and provide cares for you in your home. Your home can also be an Assisted Living Facility or a Group Home.
Some of the things home health can do is following joint surgery or say a hip fracture, therapy can come into your home, address any safety concerns such as bathing, getting to and from the bathroom, dealing with stairs, dressing, feeding yourself, etc. The therapist can work on a home exercise program to improve your strength and mobility.
The skill of a nurse can also come in different flavors. A nurse can teach and provide wound care, home infusion of IV therapy such as antibiotics, and teach you how to manage your diabetes or congestive heart failure. Home Health is designed to complete the treatment and education after you leave the hospital or nursing home but you are not quite back to normal yet. Home Health may need to be a bridge to getting you strong enough for you to participate in outpatient therapy.
During this episode we discuss how you can qualify for home health. One of the major factors is the Face-to-Face Visit or as we call it F2F. This means that you need to see your doctor up to 90 days before you start home health and no more than 30 days after you start. One or the other must be completed to qualify for the home health benefit. You doctor continues to drive your care and must “order” or “prescribe” home health in order for you to receive these services. If you think you or a loved one could benefit from Home Health please don’t hesitate to ask your doctor. At Your Nurse Advocates Consulting, this is one area we can help you with to determine if home health would be right for you and then help you obtain those services.
Thank you for stopping by and spending a few of your precious minutes with us. Feel free to comment on the post and ask questions regarding Home Health or another health related topic. We will certainly answer each one.
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Talk to you soon,
Pam and Linda
