Home Health Care For Seniors

As loved ones age the question of care inevitably rises in families. Should the time come when Mom and/or Dad needs care, how will we children manage it? Should they move into our home? Will they need to move at all? What if they stay where they are and are cared for by caregivers right in  their home? And central to all these questions, What do they want to do?

In recent news the following appeared:

Consumer Watchdog: Insurance Company Sued for Denying Elderly Sick Their Home Care Benefits - PR Newswire - sacbee.com: The suit charges that SHIP – which services policies that were originally sold by Conseco, American Travelers Life, Transport Life, United General Life, and Continental Life Insurance Company – is telling policyholders who file claims under their long-term care policies that caregivers who come to their home must be licensed when in fact licensing is not required. According to the suit, the company is also requiring policyholders to produce extensive documentation not required by the policy and requiring policyholders to undergo unnecessary medical examinations by personnel selected by SHIP. Examples of SHIP's abusive documentation practices aimed denying coverage include requiring multiple claim forms requesting duplicate information, forms authorizing SHIP to obtain medical records, proof of caregiver certification, and detailed daily caregiver notes.

Not good to hear. Doubtless care must be taken in signing up for long-term insurance. It is usually wise for the entire family to discuss these issues together.

Home Health Care is a growing industry. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, from 2000 to 2007 Home Health Care Services ranks 41st among the 491 industries that make up the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying businesses in order to collect, analyze and publish statistical data.

During that generally expansionary economic period, Home Health Care ranks higher than breweries, wineries, legal services, insurance carriers, electromedical apparatus manufacturing, and even nitrogenous fertilizer manufacturing. Amazingly, since the beginning of 2008 (inclusive of our deep recession), it has certainly moved up that chart and is likely now in the top 15 — hobnobbing with the likes of information services and petroleum refineries.

The over 65 age group is growing in the United States, primarily because seniors are living longer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides data for the U.S. Check the link for more details.

• Number of U.S. residents age 65 and over: 38.9 million (2008)

Life expectancy

• Men at 65 years: 17.6 years
• Women at 65 years: 20.3 years

Health status

• Percent of noninstitutionalized persons age 65 and over in fair or poor health: 24% (2009)

• Percent of noninstitutionalized persons age 65 and over who need help with personal care from other persons: 7.0%

The charts and reports are endless. What emerges from all this data? We seniors are living much longer these days. Seniors will soon be 40 million strong in the United States and over 75% are doing pretty good. And they're going to be around well into their 80s and beyond, going and coming, living in their own homes. The 25% who aren't so blessed will feed the Home Health Care industry and provide challenges for their families.

Here are some guidelines from the Bible about caring for the elderly of your family.

"In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’" - Acts 20:35 ESV

Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach.  

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work. - 1Ti 5:1-10 ESV