FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: What is private-duty home care?

A: A private-duty home care­giver comes to your home and assists you or your loved one with per­sonal care needs such as eat­ing, clean­ing and bathing. They also pro­vide com­pan­ion­ship, respite care, and home­mak­ing duties so that stay­ing at home is a safe viable option. Our aides can even assist in phys­i­cal ther­apy exer­cises and trans­porta­tion needs.

Q: Who is qual­i­fied to oper­ate or man­age a private-duty home care agency?

A: In Michi­gan, there are cur­rently no stan­dard require­ments to oper­ate or man­age a home care agency. Any­one may pro­vide ser­vices, which makes it imper­a­tive to research home care agen­cies. You want to select an agency that is bonded, insured, and man­aged by med­ical per­son­nel such as us. Man­age­ment per­sons should have home care expe­ri­ence and pos­sess thor­ough knowl­edge of med­ical and safety standards.

Q: How do I select the appro­pri­ate care­giver for my loved one?

A: One of our nurses will come to your home and pro­vide a free ini­tial assess­ment of the fam­ily and clients’ needs. She will then match the caregiver’s per­son­al­ity AND expe­ri­ence to the client’s needs to sat­isfy both the emo­tional and med­ical wishes of the client. All of our care­givers are bonded, insured, and have an aver­age of 5 years home care expe­ri­ence. Crim­i­nal back­ground checks are per­formed on ALL employees.

Q: What is “con­tin­uum of care”?

A: It is our unique abil­ity to meet a client’s chang­ing needs. A client may ini­tially want com­pan­ion­ship and only lim­ited per­sonal care, but as the phys­i­cal and emo­tional needs of the client change, our expe­ri­enced nurses and care­givers reassess and pro­vide a more com­pre­hen­sive care plan. This means that the client does not have to change home care agen­cies or be forced to choose less desir­able options of mov­ing away from home.

Q: How do I know if my loved one or I can stay safely at home?

A: Our nurse will pro­vide you with an hon­est and thor­ough client care assess­ment. Some­times the nurse will sug­gest alter­na­tive liv­ing arrange­ments, such as assisted liv­ing, if she believes the client would be safer and hap­pier to NOT stay at home. Care Con­nec­tions has MEDICALLY TRAINED employ­ees capa­ble of pro­vid­ing this secu­rity net. Other agen­cies can­not pro­vide this needed service.

Q: What hap­pens if my reg­u­lar care­giver is sick?

A: Our team approach ensures a back-up care­giver is avail­able who is famil­iar with the client. We make every attempt to keep the same caregiver(s) in a client’s home to pro­vide com­fort and safety. Our on-call ser­vice is avail­able 24/7 and is backed by a nurse who knows Care Con­nec­tions’ clients.

Q: Who bears the cost of this service?

A: Clients may have Long-Term Care, Worker’s Com­pen­sa­tion, Auto, Dis­abil­ity, and Pri­vate Insur­ance that will help pay for ser­vices. We help you in every way by work­ing with your insur­ance com­pany to secure pay­ment. We also accept Tri-County-On-Aging, (TCOA) Med­ic­aid waiver patients. Finally, the client, fam­ily, or a trust fund may also pay Care Con­nec­tions directly.

Q: How much does home care cost?

A: The nurse will assess the client’s needs at the free ini­tial home visit. She will then dis­cuss the rate of pay, and answer any ques­tions related to billing and invoice practices.

Q: How many hours of care can be provided?

A: From 2 hours a week to 24 hours a day of con­tin­u­ous care. The time you or your loved one needs may vary, and Care Con­nec­tions will adjust both the level and amount of care accord­ing to your indi­vid­ual needs. We can pro­vide 1 hour to 24 hour daily care as needed.

Q: What makes Care Con­nec­tions dif­fer­ent from other agencies?

A: We are locally owned by a physi­cian and man­aged by a com­pas­sion­ate reg­is­tered nurse with many years of expe­ri­ence in home care, spe­cial­iz­ing in elder care and senior care. She has over 15 years of home care expe­ri­ence in the Lans­ing region, and will pro­vide a list of com­mu­nity programs/support groups that will com­ple­ment any care pro­vided at home. Our team is well qual­i­fied to cre­ate a secure and safe home care plan for you. We adjust to our clients’ chang­ing needs, pro­vide local com­mu­nity resources, and coor­di­nate your indi­vid­u­al­ized ben­e­fits. Finally, because our staff is MEDICALLY TRAINED, we work eas­ily along with Medicare or skilled home care and hos­pice care when needed.