CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID

For the Baby Boomer children and their Elderly loved ones who may need skilled home health care services after hospitalization, I am sure we can all appreciate the tool on the Medicare website that helps us in our decision making process. This tool is called “Home Health Compare”. It helps families and their loved ones compare quality of care in home health agencies.

This tool is found on the Medicare website, http://www.medicare.gov/homehealthcompare/search.aspx . For those who have accessed the main Medicare website (www.medicare.gov) you do know that there is a mountain of information on the site. I believe I can safely say that people need help sometimes, navigating the site for the precise information they are looking for. Also because of the nature of the information, they also need to be very careful in interpreting some of the information and/or data presented.

The tool, “Home Health Compare” is designed for the elderly and their families, for other consumers, and also for the home health care agencies themselves, to compare the quality of care provided to clients. Experts and professionals within both Medicare/Medicaid program and within the home care industry, have stressed that this tool, Home Health Compare, should not be used as the only determining factor in the decision making or selection process for consumers.

This site: http://www.medicare.gov/homehealthcompare/search.aspx has a compilation of all Medicare certified home health agencies in the U.S. If you are discharged from the hospital with doctors orders for skilled home care such as , skilled nursing care, physical therapy, occupational therapy,Speech therapy, Medical Social Services, and Home Health Aide, this is for you.

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