What is home health care? Our six in-home services

Home health care is part-time, skilled medical care you receive at home under a doctor’s order: skilled nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, medical social services and home health aide care. With Original Medicare, eligible patients pay $0 for covered home health services.

It helps you recover or manage an illness at home. Nurses monitor your health, treat wounds and teach you about your condition; therapists rebuild strength and independence; social workers help with the emotional and practical side of illness; and aides help with personal care while you are receiving skilled care.

Home health is skilled medical care ordered by a doctor or allowed practitioner, delivered in part-time visits, and often covered by Original Medicare. Home care is non-medical help — companionship, housekeeping, errands or round-the-clock caregivers — that is usually paid privately. Medicare does not cover home care when it is the only care you need.

A home health aide gives part-time personal care — help with bathing, grooming, walking and changing linens — while you are also receiving skilled nursing or therapy. Aides follow your plan of care, and a nurse or therapist oversees their work.

Medicare-covered aide visits are part-time and focus on personal care that supports your plan of care. They do not include 24-hour care, meal delivery, or homemaker services such as shopping and cleaning that are unrelated to your care plan, and Medicare does not cover aide care when personal care is the only care you need.

Yes, when you are also receiving skilled nursing or therapy. Medicare covers part-time or intermittent home health aide care as part of the home health benefit, but not personal care on its own.

Common examples include wound care and injections from a nurse, physical therapy to walk safely after surgery or a fall, occupational therapy to relearn bathing and dressing, speech therapy after a stroke, counseling and community resources from a medical social worker, and help with bathing from a home health aide.