Home Care, (also referred to as domiciliary care or social care), is health care or supportive care provided in the patient's home by healthcare professionals (often referred to as home health care or formal care; in the United States, it is also known as skilled care) or by family and friends (also known as caregivers, primary caregiver, or voluntary caregivers who give informal care). Often, the term home care is used to distinguish non-medical care or custodial care, which is care that is provided by persons who are not nurses, doctors, or other licensed medical personnel, whereas the term home health care, refers to care that is provided by licensed personnel.

Concept

"Home care", "home health care" and "in-home care" are phrases that are used interchangeably in the United States to mean any type of care given to a person in their own home. Both phrases have been used in the past interchangeably regardless of whether the person requires skilled care or not. More recently, there is a growing movement to distinguish between "home health care" meaning skilled nursing care and "home care" meaning non-medical care. In the United Kingdom, "homecare" and "domiciliary care" are the preferred expressions.

Home care aims to make it possible for people to remain at home rather than use residential, long-term, or institutional-based nursing care. Home care providers render services in the client's own home. These services may include some combination of professional health care services and life assistance services.

Professional home health services could include medical or psychological assessment, wound care, medication teaching, pain management, disease education and management, physical therapy, speech therapy, or occupational therapy.

Life assistance services include help with daily tasks such as meal preparation, medication reminders, laundry, light housekeeping, errands, shopping, transportation, and companionship.

• Activities of daily living (ADL) refers to six activities: (bathing, dressing, transferring, using the toilet, eating, and walking) that reflect the patient's capacity for self-care.

• Instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) refers to six daily tasks: (light housework, preparing meals, taking medications, shopping for groceries or clothes, using the telephone, and managing money) that enables the patient to live independently in the community.

While there are differences in terms used in describing aspects of home care or home health care in the United States and other areas of the world, for the most part the descriptions are very similar.

Estimates for the U.S. indicate that most home care is informal with families and friends providing a substantial amount of care. For formal care, the health care professionals most often involved are nurses followed by physical therapists and home care aides. Other health care providers include respiratory and occupational therapists, medical social workers and mental health workers. Home health care is generally paid for by Medicaid, Medicare,long term insurance, or paid with the patient's own resources.

Aide worker qualifications

It is not a requirement that you have a GED or high school diploma, you will need to check with your local department of health for state requirements. Often aide workers have experience in institutional care facilities prior to a home care agency. Workers can take an examination to become a state tested Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). Other requirements in the U.S.A. often include a background check, drug testing, and general references.

Licensure and providers by state

California California is NOT a licensure state for non medical or custodial care services and therefore there are no barriers to entry, no consumer protection laws, no minimum standards yet and no official state oversight. In California the consumers and their families must adopt a "buyer beware" approach, do their homework and hire caregivers that are bonded and insured. This is why it is important to use a full service agency that has supervision and oversight of staff. Full service agencies also do preemployment background check (criminal), department of motor vehicle checks and reference checks. Staff become the agency's employee not an independent contractor or "under the table" person. Full service agencies also train, monitor and supervise the staff that provide care to clients in their home.

There IS, however, a certification available for home care companies in California. It is administered by CAHSAH, the California Association for Health Services at Home. For more information about this, see www.cahsah.org

Florida Florida is a licensure state which requires different levels of licensing depending upon the services provided. Companion assistance is provided by a home maker companion agency whereas nursing services and assistance with ADL's can be provided by a home health agency or nurse registry. The state licensing authority is the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration.

Payments and Fees

• Home Health Aides Caregivers who work for state licensed agencies are billed^{[clarification needed]} hourly at rate of about $8 to $15 depending on the state for self employed caregiver or caregivers hired directly by family. For caregivers hired though agency, rates are generally 40%-70% higher, since they are employees of the agency.^{[citation needed]}
• Live-in Aides Live-in aides rates cost between $120–$200 per day for services. The rates are 20-30% higher for 2nd care recipient. Live-in aides are available through agencies as well as direct hire.
• Additional Fees Agencies' fees for non-medical home care are traditionally not reimbursed by State, Federal, or private insurance. However, private long-term care insurance will often reimburse policyholders for part of the cost of non-medical home care, depending upon the terms of the policies.

Compensation

• RNs and Skilled Services: In the United States, registered nurses employed in the home care field receive on average around $22.00 to $30.00 per visit. Some as much as $45–$55, and also receive 45 to 58 cents per mile tax free. Payment/reimbursement of other Skilled Services vary according to the specific discipline.
• 'Home Health Aides:' Caregivers working for state-licensed agencies bill at an hourly rate of about $11.00 to $25.00, depending on the state. A Home Health Aid employed by the agency is paid between $7.25 (current US minimum wage) and $10.00 or more per hour, depending on location. Home Health Aid employed by an agency can be paid up to $16-18 per hour.
• Direct Hire Caregivers: Direct hire caregivers are either employed by family or are self employed. A direct hire home care aid is paid between $8.00 and $15.00 per hour depending on location, number of hours, and experience.

Recent Supreme Court case: Coke v. Long Island Home Care

For years, home care work has been selectively classified as a “companionship service” and exempted from federal overtime and minimum wage rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The Supreme Court considered arguments on the companionship exemption, which stems from a case brought by a home care worker represented by counsel provided by SEIU. The original 2003 case, Evelyn Coke v. Long Island Care at Home, Ltd. and Maryann Osborne, argues that agency-employed home caregivers should be covered under overtime and minimum wage regulations.

Evelyn Coke, a home care worker employed by a home care agency that was not paying her overtime, sued the agency in 2003, alleging that the regulation construing the “companionship services” exemption to apply to agency employees and exempt them from the federal minimum wage and overtime law is inconsistent with the law. The case has wound its way through the appeals process, and in January, the Supreme Court decided to hear the case this spring.

In the court decision, the court stated the Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1974 exempted from the minimum wage and maximum hours rules of the FSLA persons "employed in domestic service employment to provide companionship services for individuals . . . unable to care for themselves." 29 U. S. C. §213(a)(15). The court found that the DOL's power to administer a congressionally created program necessarily requires the making of rules to fill any 'gap' left, implicitly or explicitly, by Congress, and when that agency fills that gap reasonably, it is binding. In this case, one of the gaps was whether to include workers paid by third parties in the exemption and the DOL has done that. Since the DOL has followed public notice procedure, and since there was gap left in the legislation, the DOL's regulation stands and home health care workers are not covered by either minimum wage or overtime pay requirements.

2004 Study by NIHS

In February 2004, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) conducted the "National Home and Hospice Study," which was updated in 2005.

The data was collected on about approximately 1.3+ million (1,355,300) persons receiving home care in the USA. Of that total, almost 30% (29.5% or 400,100 persons) were under 65 years of age, while the majority, almost 70%, were over 65 years old (70.5% or 955,200 persons).

The 2005 chart data of estimates based on interviews with non-institutionalized citizens, however, shows a relatively stable number of about 6 to 7 percent of adults age 65 who needed help for personal care (ADLs) - this has remained about the same between 1997 and 2004. (Data has a 95% reliability.) Those aged 85 or older were at least 6 times more likely (20.6%) to need ADL assistance than those of age 65. Between age 65 and 85 years, more women than men needed help.

To review the 2005 Early Release data used, visit the NCHS-NHIS website to see the PDF files. [NOTE: * The 2005 data reflects data, still between 6 to 7%, is only based on interviews conducted between January to June 2005, so it remains to be seen whether the figure remained constant or changed through the end of 2005.] Again, the 1998-2005 data is specific for over 65 or older and does not include any data for adults under 65 years old.

In the 2004 data, just over 30% (30.2% or 385,500) of the total 1.3+million persons lived alone, but the study did not break this down by age groups. A large portion, 1,094,900 or 80.8% had a primary caregiver, and almost 76% (75.9% or 831,100 lived with the primary caregiver, typically the spouse, child or child-in-law, other relative or parent, in that order. (Paid help and the category of neighbor/friend/ or unknown caregiver would be, for the majority, were living with non-family (4.3%) or unknown living arrangement .) Most patients still need external help, even if the primary caregiver is a spouse.

A total of 600,900 persons received personal care.

Payment described in the 2004 study

Page 4 of the study describes the population break-down by type of payment used. Of the 1.3+ million:

710,000 paid by Medicare - Medicare often is the primary billing source, if this is the primary carrier between two types of insurance (like between Medicare and Medicaid). Also, if a patient has Medicare and that patient has a "skilled need" requiring nursing visits, the patient's case is typically billed under Medicare.

277,000 paid by Medicaid - This number seems low for Community Based Services (CBS) or Home Care (HC), especially as a nationwide statistic.

235,000 paid by private insurance, or self/family - Private insurance includes VA (Veterans Administration), some Railroad or Steelworkers health plans or other private insurance. "Self/family" indicates "private pay" status, when the patient or family pays 100% of all home care charges. Home care fees can be quite high; few patients & families can absorb these costs for a long period of time.

133,200 all other payments - including patients unable to pay, or who had no charge for care, or those whose payment "source not yet determined or approved." Sometimes after "opening a case" (the formal paperwork process of admitting a patient to home care services, there can be a short period of time when the office has not yet received approval by one of two or more insurances held by the patient. This is not unusual. There can also be cases where the office must make phone calls to be sure a particular diagnosis is "covered" by the patient's primary insurance. This is not unusual. These delays explain, in part, a couple circumstances where payment source would be listed as "unknown."

In the United Kingdom

Home care providers

Homecare is purchased by the service user directly from independent home care agencies or as part of the statutory responsibility of social services departments of local authorities who either provide care by their own employees or commission services from independent agencies. Care is usually provided once or twice a day with the aim of keeping frail or disabled people healthy and independent though can extend to full-time help by a live-in nurse or carer.

United Kingdom Homecare Association (UKHCA)

Domiciliary care providers in the UK are able to join the United Kingdom Homecare Association, which is the professional association of domiciliary care providers in the independent, voluntary and statutory sectors. The Association represents the views of over 1,600 home care providers, each of which agrees to abide by the UKHCA Code of Practice.

UKHCA is often a point of contact for members of the public who wish to contact agencies in their local area using a searchable list of home care providers in the UK., Their leaflet Choosing care in your Home is a straight-forward explanation of what home care is and how members of the public can select the best provider for their needs.

UKHCA produces Homecarer magazine, a bi-monthly digest of the latest news and analysis of the domiciliary care sector, and a range of publications for homecare providers, many of which are available to the public, such as Accessible Home Health Care

Statutory Regulation

Home care agencies are regulated by statutory bodies in three of the four home nations. The regulator's function is to ensure that home care agencies work within the applicable legislation:

England

• Regulator: The Care Quality Commission (CQC)
• The Care Standards Act 2000
• The Domiciliary Care Agency Regulations 2002

Wales

• Regulator: The Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW)
• The Care Standards Act 2000
• The Domiciliary Care Agencies (Wales) Regulations 2004

Scotland

• Regulator: The Care Commission
• The Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001

Northern Ireland

Legislation covering the homecare sector in Northern Ireland is not yet fully operational (as at December 2007).

Regulator: The Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA)

• The Health and Personal Social Services (Quality, Improvement and Regulation)(Northern Ireland) Order 2003
• Domiciliary Care Agency Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007

• Domiciliary Care Agencies National Minimum Standards (not published as at December 2007)

Research and program accreditation

Lotus Shyu & Lee found that by comparing with nursing home services, home nursing is more suitable for the patients who are not seriously ill and who do not need the services of after-hospital discharging. Modin and Furhoff regard the roles of patient's doctors are more crucial than their nurses and care workers. However from epidemiological view, the risks of some community acquired infections are more higher from home nursing than from nursing home. In regards to financial expenditure, the home nursing is more cost effective than nursing home. The quality aspect of home nursing has been reviewed by Riccio.