Choosing and hiring your own personal caregiver

Whether your aging parents or relatives need help with their daily chores, laundry, or errands, selecting the right caregiver is of vital importance. It’s also obvious that you’ll want an experienced and trust-worthy caregiver for them. Fortunately, there are many options you can consider when hiring a caregiver. You can either work with an agency or work independently to find someone to support you. However, it’s certain you’ll be facing some challenges to find the ideal caregiver and you may also get overwhelmed by the choices you come across.

Here’s some good news, the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) helps customers to hire a personal caregiver. This is really beneficial for the elderly. This program which is a Medicaid initiative by New York State upholds the fact that nobody can look after you better than your family or close friends. This is because your health is important to them. They don’t consider it a task. So wouldn’t it be great if one of your family members or close friends can get paid for taking care of you? This is where CDPAP can help you. Just get enrolled and the caregiver Guide you choose will get a payment for looking after you. However, for your caregiver to get paid for their services, you need to use a Fiscal Intermediary like Freedomcareny.com to help you throughout the procedure.

CDPAP, a Medicaid program comes at no extra cost to the beneficiary who is availing home care services. So once you are on Medicaid, you can request for a CDPAP personal assistant. All you need is proof that you need home care. These formalities can be easily taken care of by documentation from your doctor and a visit by a nurse, based on which the MCO grants the permission. So does your CDPAP caregiver need training and certification? The answer is no. You needn’t worry because every personal assistant is trained and can therefore do the same things a registered nurse does during home visits. This includes administering injections and giving oxygen.

In-home care means support to help the elderly with needs live safely within the confines of their own home. With in-home care, the elderly can improve the quality of life and also increase safety, security, and independence. The services offered by in-home caregivers help the aging to manage certain medical conditions. It also helps unnecessary hospitalization and aids in the recovery process after an illness – all in the comfort of one’s home.

With an increase in age, household chores may become an extremely daunting task, more so, if there is poor health involved. It’s at times like these that in-home, non-medical care can play a major role and may seem like a blessing. In fact, in-home care is the key to independence for the older generation. However, good care depends on the caregiver but finding the right caregiver can sometimes be quite a challenge.

When looking for the best in-home care, it’s good to rely on referrals from those who have used in-home care services or from health care professionals. An in-home caregiver can be hired from an agency or you could directly hire the caregiver. Keep it in mind that hiring a freelance caregiver comes with a set of advantages and disadvantages. One of the major benefits is lower cost. If you hire a freelance caregiver as an employer you will need to pay employer taxes and also worker’s compensation and insurance. Not to mention payroll tax reports and tax withholdings.

Moreover, according to the tax and labor laws, freelancers usually don’t qualify as independent contractors. So while you may save costs initially, on the other hand you may put your family at risk by violating labor laws and tax. Caregivers who live in your home may be considered to be a tenant which may make it difficult when and if you need to end this person’s service. So make it a point to consult legal and tax insurance professionals before you decide to hire a freelance caregiver. Additionally, there is the matter of safety. What if the caregiver was convicted of a crime? This makes it essential for you to check your caregiver’s references and work history thoroughly.

In-home caregivers’ responsibilities vary from those of home health caregivers who offer medical services. Though the in-home caregivers may be trained to carry out certain health related tasks, their main focus is usually assistance with daily activities of living. These activities include grooming, preparing meals, dressing, light housekeeping, monitoring of medication and so on.  Medicaid programs only cover medical services and not non-medical in-home services. However, certain long-term insurance policies do cover in-home, non-medical services. It would help to check if your insurance policy covers in-home care too.