FAQs

Home health care provides medical treatment for an illness, injury, or chronic condition with the goal of helping you recover, regain your independence and become as self-sufficient as possible, and is covered by Medicare and many private insurers.

SOUTH BAY Home Health Care, LLC accepts the following:

• Medicare
• Workers’ Compensation
• Private Insurance
• Personal Payment

In order to qualify for home health services:

You must have a doctor prescribe home health care, who establishes and periodically reviews the patient’s plan of care.

You must need either skilled nursing care on an intermittent basis or therapy services (i.e., physical/occupational/speech therapy).

• You must be restricted in your ability to leave home (“homebound”), and your homebound status must be certified by a physician. (This means that you require the help or supervision of another person, or you use a supportive device such as a cane or walker. You can leave the home as often as you need for medical treatment. You are allowed brief and infrequent absences from the home for some non-medical reasons, such as an occasional trip to the barber/beauty shop or a walk around the block).
• All Medicare patients who need home health care services are required to have a documented face-to-face encounter with their physician. This visit must be completed within the 90-day period before or 30 days after the initial visit to home health care services.

Medicare will cover the following types of home health care:

• Skilled Nursing
• Home Health Aide
• Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy
• Medical social services to help you with social and emotional concerns related to your illness. This might include counseling or help in finding resources in your community
• Certain medical supplies, like wound dressings (but not prescription drugs or biologicals)
• Durable medical equipment like a wheelchair or walker

Currently, Medicare will not cover any of the following:

• 24-hour-a-daycare at home
• Meals delivered to your home
• Homemaker services like shopping, cleaning, and laundry
• Personal care is given by home health aides like bathing, dressing, and using the bathroom without skilled nursing or therapy services

A patient’s residence is wherever she makes her home. This may be her house, an apartment, a relative’s home, a home for the aged, or some other type of institution.

Essentially, your condition should be such that there exists a “normal inability to leave home” and doing so would require considerable and taxing effort. Generally speaking, you would be considered homebound if you have a condition due to an illness or injury that restricts your ability to leave home without the aid of an assistive device (such as crutches, canes, walkers, or wheelchairs), without the assistance of another person, or if leaving the home is medically inadvisable.

You can leave the home as often as you need for medical treatment that cannot be provided in the home. Further, you are allowed brief and infrequent absences from the home for some non-medical reasons, such as an occasional trip to the barber/beauty shop, to attend church, or for unique family events (like graduation).

On the first visit, a nurse or therapist will conduct an initial evaluation. At SOUTH BAY Home Health Care, LLC, this thorough interview and evaluation is part of our coordinated approach to managing your overall health status. Our evaluation focuses on educating you in self-care management and partners with your doctor to promote disease prevention and proactive care – which includes the family or caregivers.

This team approach facilitates an easier transition for you from a hospital or nursing facility to your home, and actively engages you and your caregivers in your health care.