What types of services can a Home Health Aide or Certified Nursing Assistant provide in my home?
Home Health Aides (HHA) or Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA) are trained in personal care and body mechanics. They can provide assistance with bathing, dressing, walking, transfering, range of motion exercises, toileting assistance and incontinence care, and a number of related personal care services. They can also provide general household tasks such as meal preparation, laundry, changing bed linens, light housekeeping, running errands and taking a client to the doctor or on other outings.
How long has Western Home Healthcare been in business?
Western has been providing private duty home health services for 9 years.
How do I reach someone after hours or on weekends if I need to change my care or if I have questions?
Western is unique in that we do not use an answering service like many other companies. Western staff or "real, live human beings" answers the phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition, Donnie Griffin, Western's Home Healthcare's Administrator, and Angie Stone, RN, Western's Director of Nursing, carry cell phones so that we can be reached in the event that a question is beyond the expertise of the staff member answering the phone.
Do I need to contact my doctor if I want to use Western Home Health for home health services?
It is not necessary for you to contact your doctor about services. If you contact our office, we will have one of our Registered Nursing contact the doctor on your behalf, receive verbal orders for care and provide documentation to the doctor about the services which we provide.
What do I need to do if I have a private Home Health or Long Term Care Insurance Policy?
Clients with private Home Health or Long Term Care Policies simply need to contact us and provide us with information about your insurance company. Western Home Health will contact your insurance company and verify the coverage that is available. Western will then bill the insurance company on the client behalf on a weekly basis. While we are not directly related to the insurance company, and we cannot guarantee what coverage they will provide, we submit invoicing on a weekly basis as a courtesy to our clients.
Does Western accept Medicare or Medicaid?
Western does not accept Medicare, but we do accept Medicaid part A&B. We do bill private insurance companies on the clients behalf and bill client privately for services which are provided.
What's the difference between Medicare services and the services provided by Western Home Health?
Medicare is typically provided for clients who are returning home from the hospital or from a rehabilitation center.
It is designed to help in the transition to home. Generally, Medicare will provide visits of a 1 hour duration or less and generally they will be scheduled on a decreasing schedule.
For example, the first week a client may receive 5 visits, the second week they may receive 4 visits, the third week they may receive 2 visits and on the fourth week they may be discharged.
This is part of the process of transition to home. Obviously patients who have a great need may have care for longer durations.
You should consult your physician or Medicare agency for more specific information of services which you may receive.
Western on the other hand provides care through direct pay from clients, as well as Home Health or Long Term Care Insurance. This care is designed not as a transition but to assist clients during their recovery. The Insurance company may provide a number of hours or a number of dollars which can be used each day by the patient, assuming they have met the requirements of their policy. The care may continue for weeks, months or even years, depending on the terms of the policy.
If you have an insurance policy and you are not sure what it may cover for home care, please contact our office and we would be happy to research it on your behalf. It normally can be done very quickly as we deal with insurance companies on a daily basis.
What companies provide Home Health or Long Term Care Insurance?
Western deals with a large number of insurance companies, which include Penn Treaty, Pioneer Life, National States, Bankers Life, American Fidelity and Liberty, American Pioneer, and many, many others. Please feel free to call our office if you have questions about Home Health or Long Term Care Insurance. While we do not sell Insurance Policies, we can answer general questions about what types of coverage can be provided.
What's the difference between a Home Health Agency and a Companion Service?
They fill different roles in the home health care arena. Home Health Agencies, such as Western Home Health, are licensed by the State of North Carolina, receive indepth annual audits to monitor their performance and provide a range of "hands on care" such as bathing, dressing and transfer assistance. A Companion service does not require the same degree of Licensure and they are not audited annually like a Home Health Agency. They also are not required to have a Registered Nurse to supervise staff. They fill a valuable function in cases where the client needs assistance of a non-personal type, such as cleaning, meal preparation, running errands and other household tasks.
What's the difference between a Home Health Agency and a Nursing Registry?
Again, they fill different roles in the home health care arena. Home Health Agencies, such as Western Home Health, are licensed by the State of North Carolina, receive indepth annual audits to monitor their performance and provide a range of "hands on care" such as bathing, dressing and transfer assistance. A Nursing Registry acts as an intermediary for clients who wish to hire a caregiver. Most Registry provides little supervision and most assume that the individual caregiver maintain their own insurances. The client must be cautious because oftentimes the caregiver may not have suitable insurance. It is also possible that the client may have liability with regard to Unemployment, Workers Compensation and Federal Withholding Taxes. In a Home Health Agency, the Agency is responsible for Western Home Health and Federal requirements for the Employee. With a Nursing Registry that is not necessarily the case. The client may be considered the "employer", and as a result, some of those responsibilities may fall to the client. That is why one should be cautious when using a Nursing Registry.
Western understands that Home Health can appear very complicated. Please feel free to contact us by email or phone with any specific questions that you may have.
Western Home HealthCare l Home Health Care Provider for North Carolina
828-369-0766 or 866-369-0766 (NC), 888-800-9693 (US)
