Comparing Home Health and Home Care
Natalie Anderson at OT Plus compares features of Home Health vs. Home Care.
View Episode Transcript
*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.
Well, happy Saturday everyone. It is a gorgeous day here in the Emerald City and this is Suzanne Newman here with Natalie Anderson. Let me tell you something about Natalie as she helps us with our healthcare day today. She has a twenty eight year career in Puget Sound as an occupational therapist, but most importantly, she has a firm called OTPlus, and OTPlus is really about helping you and families around their live more effectively in your mobility and making sure that you’re a day today functionality is at its optimal level and Natalie, we’re going to talk a lot about what you do here. So welcome to the program, Natalie. Well, thank you. I am so excited because one of the things that I thought we would talk about today, and of course we would love to have you back next week as well, but I want to talk about people always say, well, what’s the difference? What kind of home care is out there? Because every senior wants to stay at home as long as possible and you’re one of those people, obviously that can help seniors do that in the ultimate level and a lot of times families can get together with you and talk to you about options and so if you would kind of take this time today and talk to us about what kind of services are available to come into a home? Sure, sure. I think there’s a big misconception, and the words are used interchangeably, of what is home health care right and what is home care, and they are two distinct buckets of care. Home health care is provided by Medicare. It’s under your part a benefit got it is covered at a hundred percent, just as if you’re hospitalized, since under Medicare part A. and that kind of care is what we call episodic, right, meaning that it’s a sixty day episode. You have to have a diagnosis that qualifies and a physician has to oversee the plan of care. And the diagnosis can be Alzheimer’s dementia, it can be hip fracture, it can be chronic disease like chronic heart failure or diabetes. It can be any of those diagnoses that have reoccurred or is an acute stage. And right. So a physician monitors that treatment plan and you can have nursing, you can have occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy and a home healthy. So and the difference is, you know, I can go on and on about. Right, is that it’s episodic. The therapists and the nurses, I’d like to say we bomb in and we bomb out right. We we dressed the wound, we do the treatment and we’re out the door. Correct, and it’s paid for by Medicare. Home care, on the other hand, yes, is not episodic and what Medicare says is not skilled. Correct. So that means you need someone to sit with Mom for a couple of hours so you can go to the grocery store and do your own medical appointments. Right, Medicare is not paying for that. You need someone to just check in on mom, do the laundry, make yourself a meal, maybe, supervisor in and out of the shower. That’s home care. Medicare does not pay for that. But so many times we use the words home health and home care interchangeably and people are obviously confused and upset and frustrated because they thought Medicare paid for someone to come and make Mama meals and sweep the floor. Sure, and you know this is very important because they’re both very valuable services for families out there that have parents that live alone and and the differences of course, is if you’re dealing with a home health agency, it is like dealing with a doctor. So obviously, Natalie, I’m sure, you need to have an active power of attorney or be an authorized person, in you know, designated, in order to get information about your parent. Right, right. It’s just like going to the doctor, going to the hospital, only the service providers come to the House whereat. So someone opens the case and there’s all sorts of forms to sign, just like you went to the doctor’s office or you went to the hospital, and there will be consent forms of who can talk to the care providers about the care of their of their love ones. And and one of the things that you said that I think is very important, it is it is actually prescribed by a doctor. So, Mom and Dad, you might take them to the doctor and the doctor might say, you know, they might have a wound on their leg that is, you know, getting infected or whatever that is. Instead of putting them in the hospital, they’re going to send you home and you’re going to be designated to go to a home health provider. In my experience, and this is one of the things that we want to talk about for sure today, is that oftentimes they will just give you a company and all of a sudden you think that’s just the company you’re supposed to work with, but an actuality. We do as as our daughters in our in our family members and of our seniors ourselves. We have a choice who we go with, don’t we? Absolutely you have a choice and there’s there’s some tools that will help you choose. You can get on Medicare.gov and search for home health compare. You can put your zip code in or your city in and you can see the agencies that provide service in that zip code region and they have scores. Yes, exactly, they have scores. That’s amazing. There are ways to search. Usually, what happens, though, is that a crisis occurs, yes, and you’re really at the mercy of the discharge planner from the hospital or something like that, and and you trust your physician and you you trust the hospital or the the discharge planners and you know that you usually go with the person that they have a good relationship with and they feel provides the best service. Sure, but there are ways for you to get some more inform. Absolutely so. We are here talking to Natalie Anderson from OTPlus, but you handled pretty much. What area do you cover? Well, my business is a little bit suffered from home health. I think. I do work for envision home health and that is under, like we said, the Medicare. My business is outside of the Medicare model and I work up and down the Puget Sound region and I do home modification assessments to prevent, prevent to access. I guess it wouldn’t start happening. So so you don’t need home health and and we’re going to be talking about that actually next week on the show, so I make sure that you tune in and we’ll talk about how we prevent accidents in the home. But let’s talk about an occupational therapist. A lot of people don’t know what that is. Right, right, and often what I get is, well, I don’t need a job. And Yeah, exactly. And this is a great time to have me on because I just got back from Philadelphia where we had the American OT Association National Conference and it’s our hundred year anniversary and the name came from where. A hundred years old in our profession, sure, and it was after World War One when the vets were coming back. They needed a way to rehab these vets, to get them back in the work force. Wow, I had no idea. So that is the history of why it’s called occupational therapy, and so it’s morphed. But and we do. There’s lots of OTs that work to get people back to order. Shall off a roof for you, crush your hand and you need to go back to construction. Sure, and absolutely what we do is kind of an intersection of the person, their environment and their occupations and a broader sense of how do you take care of yourself? What do you like to do? And if we can look at the whole person, look at the environment they’re in and what do they need to do to get through the day? My occupations might be I work, I ski, I take care of bets. Someone’s else. Their occupations for the day might be. I need to just get myself dressed. I need to be able to make myself a meal and be able to take a shower. I need to take my meds correctly, I need to walk to the car right I need to get to the bathroom at night. And there’s some of OTs that work pediatrics and the occupation is play. They need to be able to have. So it’s a very broad profession that I may specialize in seniors. Amazing and you know that’s such an amazing work that you do, because being an occupational therapist, I know has to be you have to be the ultimate of patient. I know that when I had my mom, she saw that occupational therapist come in after she was after she broke her pelvis, and she was not happy, it’s like, because she just wanted to curl up in a little ball and, you know, just lock herself up from the world and she didn’t want to try hard at hurt. You know, it was hard work and, bless her heart. You know the people that worked with her that we’re in physical therapy and occupational therapy, teaching her about how to maneuver even her wheelchair, you know, how to make sure that she was going to be able to get around to the bathroom and you know, little things like how to sit and how to stand and these things that we actually take for granted. But if a senior is broken their hip or their pelvis, and my mom’s case, that’s a huge issue. It’s a huge issue and then comes with it some usually precautions and restrictions from the urgent. Sure, you know, can’t move this way, can’t move that way. Sure, and I I think with where you say the patients comes in. I mean I always think that, you know, taking a step away or the professionals or someone that’s not as emotionally tied in. Right, it’s always a little bit easier. Well and awesome, but think about that patient with Alzheimer’s mania. I mean that is a whole other challenge that you have to deal with and I’m sure a lot of families are dealing with today that are, you know, dealing with that whole component. And then the therapy roll shifts just a little bit. The therapy roll shifts when you’re working with patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia, because we might not be able to get the patient to learn anywhere, but we can change the environment so they’re successful and we can educate the family and the loved ones how to communicate and perfect. So there’s a role. They’re also absolutely so how do we reach you? You can reach me by email at Natalie at OTPlus.net. OTPlus.net. I have a website, OTPlus.net, and I have a phone number. Good. Well, why don’t you give us that phone number. It’s (253) 224-3393, and I’d love to hear from you. Thank you so much, Natalie, for being on the program sure it was great to meet you
No post found!
Popular Articles About Washington
Popular Articles About Home Care
Originally published April 08, 2017