FAQs

Helping You Understand and Prepare

Healthcare can be overwhelming! The more you understand, the more prepared you will be if your loved one needs help. Our Intake Nurse is available to answer all of your home care questions. Here, we’ve compiled some common home care questions and answers.

• Mom is 68. She fell and broke her hip. After surgery to repair the hip, she’s being discharged home and will need additional physical therapy. What do I need to know?

  Remember when you are in the hospital, you absolutely have the right to choose your Medicare home health provider ( you do not have to choose the hospital’s own home care company, or even the one your doctor recommends). Because many clients have needs for more than one type of service (Medicare and Private Services in this scenario) you should consider if your provider can meet both needs, or if you’ll have to use two different companies-a less desirable option.

• Dad is 73 and his balance and walking have declined recently. I am very concerned he will fall and injure himself. Is there anything I can do?

  Dad’s physician can determine what is causing his decline. He or she can also prescribe Medicare home health care to evaluate him for physical therapy visits in his home to improve his balance, strength, and coordination, effectively minimizing his fall risk. While you may know Medicare helps your aging parent after a hospital stay, you may not know that Medicare is also a proactive intervention to prevent a more serious injury and to improve life quality. As one Medicare home health qualifier is that you must be under a physician’s care; your physician is the one who will prescribe Medicare home health if appropriate.

• My spouse is showing some warning signs that she needs home care help (medication compliance, supervision needed, falls, decline in health, hospitalization, missing meals or appointments, incontinence, new diagnosis, won’t leave home, poor hygiene, concerns about safety). What should I do?

  Her physician can assess her new health care needs and can also prescribe Medicare home health care if her needs require short-term nursing, therapies (PT, OT, speech), social worker and/or home health aide (bathing only) assistance. If she needs ongoing assistance and supervision in addition to, or instead of, short-term Medicare home health care, consider Private Services. Private Services are customized to one’s specific needs. They can include two-hour mini-visits up to 24-hour care; examples include help getting up, showered and dressed for the day, meal prep and/or assistance going to bed at end of day. Other tasks include household chores like laundry and medication assistance through a combination of a nurse to pack medication and caregiver(s) for medication reminders.

• Dad, 82, has congestive heart failure and has been in and out of the hospital frequently. Is there anything I can do to reduce his re-hospitalizations?

  When his doctor prescribes Medicare home health through Cooperative Home Care, your dad has access to our proactive home health monitoring system. This system measures one’s weight, blood pressure, heart rate and pulse-ox for early detection of symptoms that need nursing intervention to prevent another hospitalization. This is very important for people with diseases that put them at risk for frequent hospitalizations, and it is not available through all home care companies.

• Help! I don’t even know where to start.

  Our Nurse will answer your home care questions and schedule your free in-home assessment. During your free assessment, Cooperative Home Care creates your individualized care plan, incorporating our popular mini-visits, 12 and 24-hour shift rates and Value Packages to meet your home care needs and save you money.