An Overview Of The US Home Care Industry
Helping people continue to live their lives even when they are incapable of doing so alone is a very old human tradition. The home care industry expanded as the industrial revolution occurred and then continued as more and more people worked outside the home, thus removing the informal caregivers that used to perform these services.
Professional assistance for people who needed it has been around for a long time, too. Originally, this was mostly in-home, but it moved to mostly nursing homes during the late 1800’s and first half of the 20th century. Reverting to in-home care has been the trend of more recent years, however.
In the 1960’s, there was a tax break in the US for people who set up nursing homes. This led to many largely unregulated nursing homes, which in turn led to the passing of regulations on nursing homes and allowances from Medicare for other types of assistance.
Medicare still pays for a large portion of the total expenditure of the home care industry. Some 37 percent of the total costs for this type of aid come from Medicare. Services included are things like wound care and medication administration, but also things like help with bathing, dressing, cooking, and other life skills. Aides who are not specially trained perform most of the non-medical work, and LVNs or RNs provide most of the medical services.
Health services tend to be expensive, and this is no exception. While aides may be paid minimum wage and up, nurses’ visits often command upwards of $40 per visit. There are over 600,000 people receiving this type of aid every year in the US, which results in a significant total cost.
Total estimates for the field are difficult to reach because of the variety of people paying for services, what does and does not meet the definition, and more. Medicare is estimated to be paying for 37 percent of this type of assistance in the US, and they spent approximately $428 billion on it in the year 2007.
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