Benefits Of Home Health Care Agencies

If you or a relative have health needs that are not easily met at home by you or your family, instead of turning to a nursing home, you might want to consider the services that a home health care provider can offer. It's important to keep in mind that there is a difference between directly hiring an individual to care for your needs and hiring an agency to do so. There are many reasons why people choose to take advantage of home health care agencies. Below are just a few of these.

You Avoid Employer Responsibilities

If you choose to directly hire a nurse or home health care aid, you have to assume the responsibilities of being this individual's employer. As a consequence, you're going to have to pay payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, workers compensation and liability insurance. If this employee is injured while providing care for you or even while traveling to or from your home, you are both financially and legally liable. By hiring an agency, you shift all of these responsibilities onto someone else.

You Can Trust the Caregiver

Unless you pay to have someone perform a criminal background check on all the health caregivers you're considering directly hiring, you will have no way of knowing just what kind of person you're allowing in your home. A home health care agency carries out a complete background check (including both criminal records and credit history) on any employee who will be entering your home.

You Get Security and Backups

If you hire someone directly and this person either steals from you or harms you, you have no recourse other than turning to the police. On the other hand, a home health care agency is legally obligated to follow up any allegations of theft or abuse. In addition, if the health care provider the agency has been sending is injured, sick or has to change jobs, the agency will be able to immediately provide a replacement. If this happened with a direct hire, you would have to start the whole hiring process all over again.

Continuous Supervision and Training

When you hire directly, the responsibility for ensuring that the health care provider is properly supervised and is carrying out continuous training falls on you. By contrast, established home health care agencies have the knowledge, experience, resources and training to guarantee that any of their employees are fully trained in all the tasks they will be required to do.

If you're considering health care at home, keep these benefits in mind as you talk to companies like Carolina East. 

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