About Home Health

Your doctor will work with the Ascend Home Health team and your family to develop an individual plan of care based on your needs. Some of the services we offer include:

• Skilled nursing
• Physical, occupational, and speech-language therapy
• Cardiac and pulmonary care
• Wound care
• Disease and pain management
• Medication management and education
• Patient education to promote self-management
• Treatment for balance problems that can lead to fall risks

For Medicare (and most private insurance), home health services are only covered if you are considered homebound. This refers to a specific kind of evaluation, performed by a doctor or other healthcare provider, to determine the severity of your condition. If you are certified homebound, then your condition significantly restricts your ability to leave home without a lot of effort and specialized assistance. Leaving home without your specialized assistance would also be a serious risk to your health. Assistance might be the aid of an assistive device (such as crutches, canes, walkers or wheelchairs) or another person.

Maintaining coverage means you are staying home nearly all the time. You may leave the home as often as you need for medical treatment that cannot be provided in the home. You are also allowed brief and infrequent absences from the home for some non-medical reasons, such as an occasional trip to the barber or beauty shop, to attend church, or for unique family events such as a graduation or wedding.

To receive home health care, you must meet the following requirements:

• You must have a doctor’s order for home health.
• You must need either skilled nursing care or therapy services on an intermittent basis.
• You must be, in most cases, Certified Homebound by a medical professional.

Hospitalization is NOT a requirement to receive home health care. Many of our patients are referred by their physicians.