How To Make In-Home Care More Affordable
Hiring an in-home caregiver for your elderly loved one can make life easier for everyone. However, many people fear that hiring a caregiver will be too expensive. This keeps them from taking the first step and even looking into caregiver options. However, you might be excited to learn that in-home care can be more affordable than you'd think. Here are some ways to keep costs down.
1. Hire a caregiver part-time.
While hiring a full-time caregiver might give you the most flexibility, if you are on a tight budget, there's no reason to take this all-or-nothing approach. You can instead hire someone to help you part-time. Even if the caregiver just comes in for two hours each afternoon, they can do things like administer medication, change bandages, and assess your loved one's overall health during this time, leaving other tasks to you. It will still be nice for you to have two hours to yourself while someone else takes over the care, and you can hand over the most challenging aspects this way, too.
2. Call your loved one's health insurance company and see what they cover.
For full-time in-home care, you often either need to pay out-of-pocket, or to have held a long-term care policy. However, health insurance companies do sometimes cover part-time in-home care if there is a medical reason this care is needed. For example, if your loved one is a diabetic, their health insurance may cover someone coming in for the purposes of taking their blood sugar, administering insulin, and checking that their meals are being prepared adequately. It's worth a phone call to find out!
3. Go through an agency.
It's almost always cheaper to go through an in home care agency than to hire someone who offers in-home care as a private contractor. The agency is more likely to accept your insurance, and they may even get supplemental funding from another source, allowing them to accept lower-budget clients at a reduced rate. You can call around to a few agencies, explain what type of care you are looking for, get some estimates, and then compare them to see which option is the most affordable.
In-home care can get pricey, but there are also ways to keep it more affordable. The relief you get knowing that someone else will be around to care for your loved one can be priceless, so look into the options above.
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