Last week I came across an amazing “home care” company. But before I go there, let me take a step back and define how we, at Independa, define “home health” and “home care”, two distinct markets both addressing the care needs of a person, often an elderly person, in their homes.
“Home health” is insurance driven, with nurses providing clinical benefits – typically for a very specific condition, following very specific protocols, for a very specific length of time, and submitting very specific codes for payment. This is a code-based, time- and activity-bound system with tight parameters. Home health companies engage their nurses typically upon hospital discharge or during the recovery period of a “medical event”, where someone may need clinical care for faster and better healing.
“Home care”, on the other hand, is primarily private pay, focused on providing custodial care management services over a long period of time. So while a clinical nurse might be engaged for a period of time to provide insurance-supported clinical services following a patient’s discharge to their home, a home care caregiver could be providing in-home custodial services such as assistance with bathing, shopping and even social engagement. If your Mom needs on-going caregiving help to maintain her independence, you might hire a home care company with a geriatric care manager to coordinate her long term care requirements at home, but you likely won’t call a home health company to send nurses over to help with her shopping or bill payments.
So, now back to the amazing “home care” company. The reason I have “home care” in parenthesis is that this organization is the very first I’ve come across that offers home care custodial services, as well as home health clinical services. It was like a purple unicorn sighting!
The reason this is special is that our traditional lines between home health and home care are entirely based on business models resulting from differing payment methods and activity requirements, and NOT based on a person-centric approach to provided needed care at home. This is a US-centric phenomenon. In many other countries, it’s not a rarity to see an organization providing clinical, insurance-based – private or public – services, alongside custodial, private pay ones. That doesn’t mean a nurse is driving Mom to go shopping, nor that the person with training on geriatric care management is administrating physical therapy for improved recovery from a hip replacement surgery. What is DOES mean is that efficiencies are created, better outcomes are enabled, simpler interactions are enjoyed between the family members and a single organization, and overall, the individual is taken care of much more holistically, and society and their families are better off for this, financially and practically.
What do you think? Would you agree it’s high time for person-centric home care, not just organizations formed across payment methods? How about an organization that provides “holistic home care”, spanning home health and home care? Is this a growing trend along the lines of the innovative organization I came across, the positive breath of fresh air our “home care” industry needs? Any examples of these types of home care companies? Would love to get your thoughts.
