Nursing Home Lawyer District Heights MD
What You Need to Know About Providing Health Care at Home
If your loved one has suffered from neglect or abuse in a healthcare facility, a nursing home lawyer District Heights MD families often turn to may suggest you provide health care directly from home. Providing health care from home is no easy feat, so it may be useful to consult a qualified lawyer should you have any questions. At Cohen & Cohen, we can set up a free, no-obligation consultation to help you better understand at-home care. Our attorneys have helped thousands of personal injury and malpractice victims and their families by recovering millions of dollars in financial compensation on their behalf.
Under the right circumstances, home health care can be a viable alternative to a nursing home. The following information may be useful when considering the best health care choice for your loved one. For questions of a legal nature, you may wish to contact a nursing home lawyer in District Heights MD.
Limitations of Long Term Health Care Provided at Hom
About 73 percent of all long term health care provided at home is handled by children or the spouse of the elderly care recipient. Most often, these care providers do so voluntarily and aren’t paid a salary or an hourly wage. Because these individuals rarely have formal training to provide the home health care, they’re often limited in what services they can offer. A nursing home lawyer District Heights MD victims have hired to represent them might caution them about the challenges involved in providing safe and comfortable home health care. They may have to pay a qualified and trained professional caregiver to do what they cannot. Very often family and friends are unable or unwilling to perform the following tasks for their parent, spouse, or friend:
- Bathing
- Dressing
- Lifting
- Toileting
- Diapering
- Assisting with walking
- Coping with dementia
- Coping with depression
- Coping with erratic behavior
Home care may be offered in any of the following locations:
- The elderly family member’s home
- The home of a family member of the elderly patient
- The home of a friend of the elderly patient
- In a group home
- In an independent retirement community (a nursing home lawyer District Heights MD provides might suggest that the family get all arrangements in writing)
Typical Health Care Services Provided at Home
Services that may be offered to an elderly family member by their family or friends include:
- Help using the bathroom and dealing with incontinence
- Assistance with lifting, bathing, personal grooming, and walking
- Providing pain management with medication disbursal
- Making sure the elderly patient does not wander from home
- Protecting the elderly patient from accidental self-harming
- Making professional counseling and physical therapy available and providing transportation
- Making appointments with, and providing transportation to meet with the elder family member’s nursing home lawyer District Heights MD personal injury victims recommended
- Preparing meals
- Shopping for food, clothing, medications, medical supplies, etc.
- Assisting with phone, email, and written communications
- Providing transportation for doctors’ appointments and additional medical needs
- Cleaning the house, doing laundry, washing dishes, etc.
- Managing financial transactions, paying bills, depositing checks
- Performing home repairs, yard work, snow removal
- Maintaining and repairing the elderly family member’s vehicle
Communal Home Health Care
When elderly people and other family members are living in a communal arrangement, many if not all of the basic and intermediate needs can be divided amongst the members. Assignments of tasks are often based on each individual’s ability. Shared apartments or houses can also work if the residents can share responsibilities and work together to address individual health care and other needs.
Shared living residences usually include private bedrooms with a shared kitchen and living space. Very often the residents number between three and ten. In addition to sharing the responsibilities for daily chores, they may also share rent and utility costs. Some shared living residences are sponsored or owned by community organizations and are provided to elder family member as rental units. When the personal care and services are volunteered by the residents and there are no charges for them by the community organization, typically certification or government licensing isn’t required. You may wish to verify this with a nursing home lawyer District Heights MD community members recommend. In some cases, the rent is subsidized by government programs.
Necessary Supplies for Providing Home Health Care
An important consideration for families considering home health care is the out-of-pocket cost for supplies. A nursing home lawyer District Heights MD families turn to for answers might encourage families to make a careful accounting of anticipated costs. Necessary supplies may include any or all of the following:
- Adult diapers
- Wipes, pads, or other personal hygiene items
- Medications not covered by medicare
- Specialty medical equipment such as:
- Hospital bed
- Wheelchair
- Walker
- Scooter
- Air bed
- Stools for access to bed, shower/bathtub, etc.
- Oxygen equipment
- Crutches
Custom modifications to the home may also be necessary. For those families who are unable to make these modifications or specialty equipment installations themselves, the cost might increase due to these accomodations:
- Staircase lift and handrail
- Ramps for access into home
- Doorway widening to accommodate wheelchair access
- Installation of specialty showers, toilets, bathtubs, sinks
Financial Assistance for Providing Home Health Care for Your Loved One
For services, equipment, and other costs that are not considered directly related to medical need, there is no guarantee that they will be covered by Medicare or Medicaid. Qualifications and eligibility for these programs must be met, and there are limitations based on the elder family member’s total assets and income. A nursing home lawyer District Heights MD residents trust to protect their family’s rights might suggest exploring possible out-of-pocket costs. Keeping these costs in mind may be of great benefit when choosing a long term health care solution for your loved one.
When You Need a District Heights MD Nursing Home Lawyer
Deciding on a long term health care arrangement for your loved one can be a difficult process. It may be even more difficult if your loved one has already suffered abuse or neglect in a nursing home. The attorneys of Cohen & Cohen have the qualifications to help pursue legal action against those responsible. A financial settlement may be of benefit when helping your loved one relocate to a safe and comfortable environment. Call us today at Cohen & Cohen for a free case review with a nursing home lawyer District Heights MD is proud to have in its community.
