Medicare Home Health Care Benefits

Home Health Care is actually a skilled nursing care and certain other health care services that people can get in their home for the treatment of a disease or injury. The actual Medicare Plan usually pays 80% of the approved quantity for certain pieces of medical apparatus. People may have to pay 20% of the approved quantity for durable medicinal equipment. To get proper Medicare home health care the doctor must decide that they need medical care in their home, and make a plan for their care at home.

People must need at least one of the intermittent skilled home nursing cares, or physical therapy or speech language pathology services; and also people must be homebound. This means that people are normally unable to leave home. Being homebound actually means that leaving home is a major effort. When people leave their home, it must be infrequent, for a short period of time, or to get medical care, attend adult day care, religious services; and of course the home health agency caring for them must be approved by the Medicare program. It is most important to remember that Medicare treatment only pays for home health services that are given by a home health agency that meets Medicare's quality standards and is approved by Medicare. Medicare treatment service regularly inspects home health agencies to make sure that these standards are met. People can find a Medicare-approved home health agency by asking their doctor or hospital discharge planner using a senior community recommendation service, or other community agencies that help them with their health care.

It is very important to remember that if people belong to a Medicare Advantage plan, the choice of home health agencies may be limited to those agencies that contract with or agree to accept the Medicare Advantage plan. People can call their plan if they have questions about the plan's home health care rules. If they get home health care services from a doctor or a home health care agency that does not work with the plan, neither the plan nor Medicare will pay the bill. Hospice is a special way of Medicare caring for people who are terminally ill, and for their family. This type of health care includes physical care and counseling. Hospice care is given by a various public agency or private company approved by Medicare. This service is for all age groups, including adults, children, and the elderly during their final stages of life. The goal of hospice health care service is to care for a person and his or her family, not to cure the illness.

In most of the cases, a person and his or her family can stay together in the comfort of their home. Depending on the condition, people may have hospice care in a hospice facility, hospital, or nursing home. Hospice home health care is covered under Medicare Part A or hospital insurance. People are eligible for Medicare hospice health care benefits when they are eligible for Medicare Part A (hospital insurance); and their doctor and the hospice medical director certify that they are terminally ill and probably have less than six months to live; and they sign a statement choosing hospice care instead of routine Medicare covered benefits for their terminal illness; and they receive care from a Medicare-approved hospice program.

• Juliana Breckinridge
• 17/01/2009, 2:59 PM
• 0 Comments