Has your senior loved one been diagnosed with a chronic health condition? Are they still recovering from major surgery or illness? Youre looking at your options between skilled and non-skilled home care services to find the best option for your loved one. In this article we will share the differences between both. What Is Non-Skilled In-Home Health Care?Non-skilled in-home care refers to supportive home care including social care, domiciliary care, and other non-medical services. The term non-skilled is used to differentiate care from home healthcare services that patients may receive from a nurse or nursing assistant. Personal CareWalking and wheelchair assistanceBathing, grooming, and dressing assistanceMedication remindersFall prevention and personal safetyStatus reports to family membersIncontinence and toilet assistance24/7 monitoring after hospitalizationLifestyle SupportHousekeepingHealth and nutrition servicesMeal preparationLaundry and beddingGroceries and errandsTransportationLight exercise and outdoor activityCommunity engagementCompanionshipWhats the Difference Between Skilled and Non-Skilled Care?The difference between skilled and non-skilled care comes down to one factor medical need. Skilled nurses provide medical assistance with medication, wound care, and other recovery and medical needs. Non-skilled, or home care, providers assist with the everyday care and needs of seniors. How Do I Know What Services My Senior Loved One Needs? Home health care, or skilled nursing, services are requested by your health care provider. If your seniors doctor has indicated that they need in-home nursing services, we can work with the doctor and referral services to set up necessary appointments. Often, your loved one will need more than just home medical care, especially if they are recovering from surgery or managing a chronic illness. Our home health care aides can do it all from managing medication injections to meal preparation and everything in between. At Caring Family, we tailor all of your seniors home care and health care services to their needs. What Services Are Covered Through Medicare? Ensuring your loved one receives the care they need means asking one of the most difficult questions how do we afford care? Fortunately, in-home health care is often more affordable than extended hospital stays or nursing homes. Many Medicare plans cover in-home health care, making it the ideal option to help your senior heal and recover their independence. You can learn more about Medicare and home healthcare here and at medicare.gov.Does Medicare Cover Non-Skilled Home Care? Typically, Medicare does not cover home care. However, there are exceptions based on medical need and circumstances. For example, if your loved one needs personal care in addition to home health care services, some of those personal care needs may be covered by Medicare. Be sure to contact your insurance agent for more details. Are You Ready to Build Your Loved Ones Independence? Home care and home health care services help seniors regain and maintain their independence. Contact us today with questions and we will help you set up an appointment with one of our care experts. Call us at 952-345-8770 or our visit us at  www.lifespark.com. 

Joel Theisen, Lifespark CEO  and guest, Anne Tumlinson suggest that we have not embraced the opportunity within value-based care to produce meaningful outcomes the payment model is not the core problem, value-based is not the enemy. We need accountability, leadership, creativity, and commitment to transform health care and Anne and Joel cover a lot of that ground in this podcast.Putting all of that discussion aside, they take a step back and look at who we are really trying to serve. For Lifespark and Annes work with ATI and Daughterhood, thats seniors and their families. Are we morally failing them? Theres good intent by many in health care to try to serve seniors better and lower long-term costs but both and Anne and Joel question if we are doing it the right way and they discuss this in the podcast. Anne looks at this through the lens of both a daughter and a policy maker and believes theres an unbelievable amount of suffering thats happening as a result of the disconnected experience people face. Families are creating their own completely unique and separate system of care delivery on its own, without any help, and managing it. Its ridiculously inefficient, says Anne. And it makes me uncomfortable morally.Joel and Anne get serious in this podcast about what we need to accomplish, specifically, to create better systems of care. Having full actual risk, not just parts of the value-based craze of caring for populations but going at-risk to serve them fully and produce measurable results is the only way to move the needle. Its more than a monthly allocation per plan per member but total global risk for the individual. When you do that, you look at who you serve a little differently you see them as a person beyond their diagnosis or episode to what will help them long-term and use their health plan to give them wellness, not sickness, to keep them thriving.PACE and Medicare Advantage plans have pieces of what people need but they arent accessible by all seniors. Anne and Joel get candid about how there are a lot of pathways today that exist to put together all of these models and funding streams to make it available for every senior not just the rich, poor, healthiest or sickest, but all.  The good news that should perk the ears of health care execs listening there are financial rewards for being human in health care.This podcast was full of interesting nuggets and takeaways. Regardless of what you believe or how you think health care delivery should be solved, the message by Anne and Joel was loud and clear: we have only a few years to figure this out and make the investments we need right now to serve the senior population. And if we dont, we will continue to fail our seniors. Even the biggest organizations like Amazon and CVS will soon find, theres no value in that.Listen to our latest podcast and subscribe to get the latest episode delivered right to your inbox and explore our other podcasts with Steve Gillon and Richard Leider. And if youre ready to get serious on serving seniors, lets partner. Aging Magnificently will take all of us.