Home Health Care is a term that is widely used to describe Elder Care, Senior Care, Nursing Homes, Assisted Living facilities and sometimes is used to describe Health Care in general for seniors. This term is used widely in the Orlando area and throughout Florida. The actuality is that Home Health Care is simply terminology that applies to only certain parts of the population not only in the Orlando area, but throughout the state of Florida. While there are companies that are actually termed Home Health Care companies, the term applies to companies that send out assistance to senior individuals either at home or at facilities. However the health care industry is very segmented so Home Health Companies can only provide care within the guidelines that they are licensed for and at the same time they cannot cover every single avenue of health care that a loved one might need.

Home Health Care companies are licensed by the state of Florida to perform skilled and unskilled care for individuals, but different Home Health Care Companies cover different avenues. Some cover for assistance in the home such as bathing, cooking, and light house keeping, but others might provide more advanced care involving wound care, therapy, injections, and medicine. To find out, you have to speak to individual Home Health Care companies and ask what services they provide. Many have lists of tasks or duties that they can perform. Its always recommended that you ask for one of these lists and most Elder care and Home Health Companies should be able to provide them for you.

Another confusing factor for consumers when looking for Home Health Care companies is that most people assume that if a Home Health Care company is performing a service, that it is automatically covered by Medicare, Medicaid, or government assistance. This is far from true. Having the designation of a Home Health Company in Florida and the Orlando area only means that the company entitled to work with and bill Medicare, Medicaid, or other government assistance programs in order to provide care for their patients. However the patient has to qualify for these programs and even if they do qualify for Medicare or Medicaid, that does not mean that Medicare or Medicaid will cover for everything. To find out what a company can provide, it helps to speak to Home Health Companies directly to find out what services are covered and paid for by government programs and which ones are not. For example, a patient may qualify for Medicare to cover for weekly bath visits and there are Home Health Care companies that provide those services. However if that same patient wants other services like assistance with laundry, doctor visits, and help getting around the house, those services generally have to be paid for privately, even if a licensed Home Health Care company is providing the service and not all of them do. You have to check with companies individually.

If your loved one needs assistance in the home such as assistance with bathing, cooking, laundry, toileting, light house keeping, driving to appointments and events, along with assistance in their daily lives, it is most likely that government assistance will not be able to cover for those tasks, especially if it takes place in a person’s own home. Many times these activities are paid for privately or through long-term care insurance. It is for this reason that companies like Florida Home Companion, located in the Maitland, Winter Park, and Orlando area exist. Florida Home Companion is a licensed nurse registry with the state of Florida and our license allows us to perform elder care services such as bathing, cooking, laundry, toileting, light house keeping, driving to appointments and events, and any type of service that assists your loved one in an every day capacity. At Florida Home Companion there is no confusion with medicare, medicaid, or Home Health Care because these services as a combined service generally are not covered for by government assistance. Because our services are not subsidized or covered by government insurance, we try and offer our services for as cheap as we can to enable as many customers as possible to use our service. Our focus is helping seniors in their every day lifestyle and its something we do really well. If you have any questions on what type of tasks we perform, you can check out our website at www.floridahomecompanion.com or call us at 407-478-5469.