Have you heard about the regulatory changes that will affect how Washington State home care agencies provide live-in care? New rules went into effect last month and agencies are reacting to the changes in different ways.
Families who are considering home care always have some basic questions to ask. Among them are:
- What do I need help with?
- How much help do I need?
- How often do I need help – how many days per week and how many hours?
The answers to these questions are driven by the needs and preferences of the client, the amount and level of care the family feels comfortable with, financial considerations, and more.
Many families find that after researching the options (including moving to a retirement or assisted living facility), the best option is live-in care. Live-in care is most appropriate when the client does not want to move and a caregiver is required around the clock. A typical live-in client may be dealing with multiple health issues, have difficulty with activities of daily living, may be receiving home health or hospice services, or simply want the security of knowing that there is a trained responsible person in the house at all times.
Live-in care can take different forms; typically an agency will rotate 2 caregivers who will cover the 7 days. Caregivers must be allowed to sleep at night so clients who are up several times during the night may require a 2nd caregiver to remain awake while the 1st caregiver sleeps.
Recent regulatory changes concerning certain exemptions to Federal wage and hour rules have greatly increased the complexity and costs of providing live-in care. As a result, many home care agencies have decided they will not be providing live-in care any longer and others have raised their rates considerably.
In order to continue providing affordable live-in care, agencies will now have to have more robust regulatory and scheduling oversight plus a large staff of live-in caregivers who can work with flexible scheduling.
Family Resource Home Care has over 110 caregivers who provide live-in care and dedicated supervisory staff for our live-in program. We are and will remain committed to providing quality and affordable care to all our live-in clients.
