We’re once again proud to sponsor the Tucson Classics Car Show. Come out and join us October 21st, 10am-4pm, Gregory School Parking lot.
Chuck Zimmerman sent us this beautiful gift of appreciation!
Chuck Zimmerman is a local fiduciary in Tucson, AZ and Arista Home Health and Hospice has had the privilege of taking care of some of his clients over the past few years.
From the staff at Arista Healthcare,
Thank you, Chuck Zimmerman for the Edible Arrangement!
Private Caregivers
You may hear the term “Private Caregivers” thrown around quite a bit when Home Health Care is mentioned. By all rights, you should. SO.. what are private caregivers,what is their main function, what do they cost and are they right for for my loved one?
What is a Private Caregiver?
By definition, a private caregiver (home) is a person, or sometimes a nurse that tends to someone, generally the elderly who have now reached a point where daily functionality has become an task they cannot complete, and they need assistance to handle the day to days, such as:
- Personal care – bathing / dressing, hygiene, transfers, and ambulation
- Homemakering
- Meal prep and cleaning
- Medication reminders
- Possibly transportation needs
Private caregivers can generally be found through a local Home Health Care Service and can sometimes be covered by full coverage medical insurance or possibly if planned for, a medicare supplement insurance plan which covers home care needs in the plan.
It’s important to always find your private home caregiver from a reputable service. these caregivers have been properly trained and vetted for you and your loved ones protection. As technology has increased, it has been easy for independent caregivers, to advertise themselves to those in need. Sometimes at fairly deep discounted rates. This is a usual practice to prey on those who may not have coverage or cannot afford the current rates. Be cautious if you were to go this route, crime and theft among the aging is rampant. Mainly because the victim has no idea it’s even happening, secondly it’s due to lack of follow up by loved ones. Checking bank accounts, phone bills and grocery receipts on a regular basis is a great first step in protecting your loved one from any criminal activity in the first place, but using a fully licensed service with vetted staff reduces these possibilities greatly.
In-home senior care is an alternative to care in a nursing home. However, hiring a caregiver, especially if a full-time caregiver is needed, can be expensive, so paying for In Home Health Care in Arizona can be difficult. Medical insurance often does not provide for non-medical caregiver assistance. In the state of Arizona, it costs an average of $19/hr. to hire a non-medical caregiver and $22/hr. to hire a medical caregiver. This ranks Arizona as the 32nd most affordable state, adjusted for per capita median income.
State-Sponsored Programs Providing In-Home Care Assistance
Arizona Non-Medical, Home and Community-Based Services (NMHCBS) is a state-funded program intended to assist with the cost of providing non-medical services to seniors. The major criterion for eligibility is that the senior needs assistance with several aspects of daily living, such as bathing, grooming, eating, dressing, using the bathroom or mobility (like walking or getting from a wheelchair to a bed). Seniors with Alzheimer’s or severe physical disabilities often qualify for this program. The program is intended to enable seniors to receive in-home care rather than entering a nursing home.
Although there are no income or asset restrictions per se for eligibility for NMHCBS, recipients cannot be qualified to receive Medicaid services.
For more information in the Tucson area, call the helpline at the Pima Council on Aging.
Home-Delivered Meals
If you’re a home-bound older person or you live with a disability, you may be eligible to receive meals. PCOA and its dedicated community partners will perform an in-home evaluation. For more information, visit the Pima Council on Aging, call 520-790-7262, or email help@pcoa.org.
Federal Medicaid-Related Program Options
Many states have Medicaid “diversion programs” to use Medicaid funds to provide eligible seniors the option of in-home care rather than entering a nursing home. Since federal Medicaid money is used for such programs, recipients are generally required to meet federal Medicaid eligibility requirements.
The AHCCCS, Arizona’s Medicaid administration unit, offers a Medicaid waiver program entitled “Arizona Long-Term Care System,” or ALTCS. The requirements are that the recipient be age 65 or older, have a disability, and require nursing home-level care. The program offers Medicaid-funded assistance to pay for in-home senior care as an alternative to a nursing home.
Paying for In Home Health Care in Arizona
There are many factors to consider when choosing in-home care for a senior. A major issue is cost, and to make the decision, it is important to know what state and federal funding help is available. Another important decision is whether in-home care or nursing home care is the best option for a given person. To discuss your home health care needs in the greater Tucson area, call our office at (520) 333-0333.
Needing Home Health Care is more common than ever. Seniors coping with a variety of health conditions use home health care. Seniors that suffer from a chronic disease that limits their ability to manage their health on their own or requires medical treatments that only a nurse can provide. Seniors that are recovering from an injury or sudden illness may also need home health care services to help them heal properly and recover some of the abilities they lost due to an injury or illness. The goal of home healthcare is to provide seniors with the immediate medical care they need while helping them gain the ability to care for themselves.
Needing Home Health Care
After a hospitalization, it is common for a senior to need a fair amount of assistance to fully recover. Seniors do not heal as fast as younger people do, and they are more susceptible to serious injuries from minor falls and accidents. They are also more prone to suffer from acute medical problems such as a stroke that can severely limit their physical abilities. In some cases, seniors may not be able to return to their home right away, but may need to stay in a rehabilitation center or nursing home during recovery to receive more intense medical care and treatments. Those seniors that are well enough to return to their home may still face significant challenges that require significant skilled nursing services or therapies.
Once a senior is well enough to return to their home a home health care agency should meet with them to fully evaluate what needs they have and recommend the services that will help them achieve as much independence as possible. This evaluation will also be based on the expected results of full recovery. A home healthcare agency will review a senior’s medical records and speak with the senior’s physician to help determine the types of services the senior can benefit from and what the realistic expectations and abilities the senior can work to regain.
Occupational Therapy for Seniors
One of the most helpful therapies seniors can receive from a home health care agency is occupational therapy. The name occupational therapy can seem a little misplaced when discussing a senior that has been retired for quite a long time, but it is really therapies to help a senior regain an ability to perform their tasks of daily living. Occupational therapists work to help seniors perform tasks like dressing, grooming, bathing, and using the toilet on their own again. There may need to be changes to a senior’s home to enable them to perform these tasks without the risk of injuring themselves. Occupational therapists also teach seniors to use assistive devices properly when necessary to compensate for lost abilities. Equipment such as walkers, adjustable toilet seats, and hospital beds may be necessary to help a senior perform daily tasks, but with the help of occupational therapists, seniors can often adapt to the needed changes.
Home health care is typically provided to seniors on a short-term basis. Medicare covers many of the home healthcare seniors often require, but there are restriction on the length of treatment by a home healthcare agency. Home healthcare agencies that participate with Medicare are well aware of the restrictions Medicare puts in place and will design their care plan with the financial aspect of the treatment in mind.
One way for you to plan ahead for an older loved one’s health support is to shop around for the right long term care insurance plan. While private health insurance plans, Medicaid and Medicare may cover some related costs, these typically do not offer comprehensive coverage. Long-term care insurance supplements those programs so when you need to use it, you pay less out of pocket. AARP explains that long-term care is not considered a medical expense, which leads to coverage gaps or commonly called the doughnut hole.
Some of these additional insurance plans can also be quite pricey, however. There are many financial institutes across the country that offer these kind of programs – you should take time to research several companies and the kind of plans they offer to ensure you can comfortably pay the monthly premiums while still getting the coverage you want your loved one to have.
It’s also important to note that prices on these policies tend to increase as a person ages. If you want to invest in long-term health insurance, you shouldn’t wait until your loved one ages for several more years or develops a serious health concern. The younger and healthier someone is, the lower those premiums will be.
Shop Around
Theres absolutely no shortage of long term care insurers available to us. Starting with the earlier mentioned AARP, to lesser known insurers around the globe. After checking with the AALTCI, we found some interesting stats:
The average applicant for long term care insurance is 55-64, as stated before, the earlier the better.
Daily Benefit amounts range, but $99-$200 per day seems to be the average.
The highest percent claimant age group, is 80 yrs old and above.
Though these stats will vary, it still shows the importance of additional care in this age of healthier longer life. In future articles, Arista will be sharing what you should look for in home health care and hospice care.
Home Health Care cost, or long term care, can be one of the most expensive endeavors you or a loved one must manage.
While most seniors have a plan in place to handle such needs for themselves through retirement, be it through retirement or pension programs, 401(k)’s or even a personal savings account, the costs of long-term care are usually unaccounted for or not even thought of. As a result, many seniors who end up needing this specialized care don’t have the money to fund a long term plan.
If our seniors don’t have enough to cover such debt, their family and loved ones usually end up having to cover the cost. These cost can range from $1,400.00 to $7,500.00 per month depending on many different factors, such as: is it home healthcare, or private facility care.
Statistically speaking, nearly 70% of all seniors will need some sort of at home, or extended stay care once past the age of 65.
Rather than taking that risk, adults and their family’s should start to save money for these needs before the time comes. Home health care cost should never dictate quality of care, but unfortunately, it is a large factor.
Generally though, family’s don’t start thinking about these options until it’s too late or they start and there’s never enough. There are long term care insurance plans that can be purchased later in life which can cover some of theses needs. Like most insurances though, the sooner you start, the lower the premium, most premiums are for life, so don’t wait. Over the course of the year, Arista will will be adding several tips to follow to not only choose a provider but to also tackle how to prepare for it.
“Long-term care is not considered a medical expense.” See our next article for some answers to this long term dilemma.
A patient is someone who intently needs more extra attention and gentle care than before. There are numerous types of care, like speech pathology, that are needed regularly.The methods and techniques we use to comfort and support our patients would actually measure the period of recovery for a patient. So in other words, recovery depends on how you treat and look after your fellow patient who needs that extra attention. As long term patients are mostly seniors citizens, most of their family care takers are actually unable to provide that 24 hour attentions and support these patients seek. It is indeed an unfortunate draw back for these patients but what could be done as everyone has to work hard and move forward for a better tomorrow. Due to this busy life of the family members and lack of time they have actually puts these patients into a situation of breaking their illness into a worse stage scenario. In order to prevent these unfortunate incidents we are lucky enough to have home health care providers who actually are there to send in caretakers for these patients and look after them through speech pathology and other necessary treatments.
Most of the patients prone to face this lonely situation at home are all at the age category of 50 and above. Indeed it’s a generous age which naturally intends to seek more attention, love and care. Which is the main reason for health care providers to train their staff with speech therapies and other indirect techniques to treat these patients with much happiness and a hope for tomorrow. People over 50 years and above have to maintain a continuous practice of speech in order to keep the functions of the brain activated with vocabulary, grammar, expressions and pronunciation. These four functions of language would tent to die if not practiced for a long period of time. Health care providers how train their staff to provide these necessary practice for language and speech development. This treatment is generally essential for all elderly patients seeking for recovery.
There are also some other functions provided by home health care providers which are practiced with patients. Motor speech, swallowing, spoken language comprehension, memory and also spoken language expressions which can provide a major help for these patients. A continuous practice of communication by specialized speech pathologist could ideally provide a great and exceptional service to the patient’s ultimate requirement.
We are fortunate enough to have a range of home health care providing services in the present. Many private organisations conduct this mean of service and promise to deliver a great mean of service in order to wish speedy recovery for needy patients. These private or public home health care service is now available world wide providing a great service for patients around the world. This mean if of service is also a major benefit for family members as they could count on the assurance promised by these health care services. Indeed it a genuine technique to provide a better and happier recovery for all elderly patients who seek that extra care.