Certified Home Health Agency

If you are thinking of hiring a home health aide to assist your loved one, you have two major options. You can hire a private home heath aide that works for themselves. Or, you can hire a certified home health care agency (CHHA). A CHHA can place a home health aide or several home health aides in your elderly loved one’s home. Using a certified home health care agency has its pros and cons. You should consider these before you make any decision.

What is a Certified Home Health Care Agency?

A certified home health care agency is a company that provides health care services. A CHHA can provide or arrange for other entities to provide help to those that need it. Common services that a CHHA can provide include:

• Helping a potential patient determine how much support they need.
• Support services.
• Skilled health care.
• Intermediate health care.
• Part-time health care.
• Long-term nursing services.
• Long-term health aide services.
• Speech therapy.
• Physical therapy.
• Social work services.
• Medical supplies.
• Occupational therapy.
• Nutrition services.
• Medical equipment.

CHAAs seek to offer short term and long-term solutions for those that need help. Currently, this term applies to health care agencies in New York and New Jersey. If you live in southern or western Connecticut, finding a home in one of these states might be a viable option. The Connecticut alternative is a home health care agency.

Special Certified Home Health Care Agencies

There are two types of special needs CHHAs that you might want to consider. The first is a pilot program agency. This serves a specific group of people that are dealing with the same special needs. A pilot program home health agency has to apply for this title. They must show that they meet the special needs of a group of people better than other agencies. If your loved one has a particular issue, a pilot program home health agency might be able to help.

The other special needs CHHA is an agency that provides services for a particular group of people. These people would otherwise be put in a facility. The Office of Mental Health (OMH) might determine this facility. Or, the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD) could determine it. These special needs certified home health agencies help those with mental disabilities and issues.

How Do I Find a Certified Home Health Care Agency?

CHHAs might be introduced to you or your loved one in many ways. You might get a recommendation from a doctor, or someone that has helped discharge your loved one from a hospital could suggest it. You might find a CHHA through individual research. One pro of using a CHHA is that these agencies have their own rules and regulations. They make sure that their staff get trained for the job and get supervised.

Is My Loved One Eligible?

You or your loved one can pay for a CHHA’s services in may ways. You can pay through private payment, Medicare, Medicaid, and even certain health insurers.

If you are considering a CHHA to find help for your loved one, think about the pros and cons. Often, professionals working for a home health care agency have been screened. They have strict rules and regulations to follow. But, the agency might not give you much say in which home health aides that it will send. Your loved one may not develop a good relationship with the staff members that the agency assigns to them. This could make your loved one uncomfortable. Consider these factors before you contact a certified home health care agency.