Questions to Ask

When you are looking for a senior care service for your mom or dad, you have a lot of questions. That’s good! Questions help you to narrow down which type of service or which caregiver is perfect for your parent. They help you to separate the caregivers that look helpful from the ones that actually will be helpful.

 

Questions also help you to avoid surprises. When you’re paying for care–which is seldom ever cheap–you need to plan ahead for arrangements. Even if you are paying for care out of pocket, you want to minimize the surprises so that you are paying exactly what you thought that you would be paying for.

 

With that in mind, here are a few questions that you should consider asking before you agree to any sort of care for a parent or another loved one. You may have these questions answered for you when you initially meet with the caregiver, but not necessarily.

 

How are costs determined? Some in-home care services charge a flat fee per hour. This can include everything that is done during a visit to your parent’s home, ranging from meal prep, medication management, transportation, and more. In these cases, costs are usually determined by the hour. Some services will charge differently depending on what types of services are provided. For example, providing transportation to and from a doctor’s appointment might have an additional fee associated with it. Make sure that you know what all of the costs are and how they are calculated well before you sign or agree to anything.

 

There are many questions to consider when it comes to paying for care.

 

How do I take care of my bill? Simple question, right? Not always. And again, this is one of those things that you don’t want to be caught unprepared with. If you are supposed to pay your caregiver directly at the end of the week, you don’t want to have an awkward situation where they are standing there waiting for their check and you don’t have one handy. Know what billing arrangements are well ahead of time will ensure that you don’t encounter situations like this and there are no discrepancies or gaps when it comes to the services that your loved one receives.

 

Can fees be changed? Let’s say that you’ve finally found the perfect caregiver. After a few weeks, you look at your bill and see that it’s a lot more than what you thought it would be. You call up the service to ask about it and you find that there are services that you are being billed for that you weren’t aware of. Either they have increased their prices, or they have added needed services that have an extra cost associated with them. This is a frustrating experience, especially if you are already on a tight budget. Find out ahead of time if this is a possibility. If it is, request that you be notified before any changes are made so that you can approve them and prepare yourself.

 

Senior care can be a great blessing for your loved one and your entire family. Knowing how you’re going to pay for that service, and how it will be structured can save a lot of headaches.

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