Access fully covered home health care
Millions of older adults may be eligible for covered home health care, and they don’t even know it. Find out if you or someone you care for may qualify for the Medicare home health benefit.
More care. Less stress.
Here’s what families often experience when their aging loved one receives home health care:
- Relief from constant caregiving and decision-making
- Fewer unplanned hospital trips or ER visits
- Peace of mind that you're not doing this alone
- Fewer out-of-pocket healthcare costs
- Improved health outcomes
- Ability to live at home longer
RubyWell can help you afford to hire someone to help care for
Mom.
Here's how it works:
Answer some questions
We’ll ask about the health, mobility, care needs, and health insurance provider of the person needing care.
Personalized guidance
Our technology can predict if they’re likely to qualify for the Medicare home health benefit.
Build a care team
We connect the eligible patient with our vetted home health agency partners that can provide the approved home health services.
We’ve been there. And we know caregiving is a team sport.
RubyWell was built by and for family caregivers. We know how exhausting and isolating this work can be. So we’re helping families understand and access the support that’s out there.
We’re not a healthcare provider. We’re your advocate. We know how the system works, and we’re making it work for you.
Tech you can trust
RubyWell protects against fraud, waste, and abuse with rigorous audit practices. And we’re committed to maintaining the highest standards of security and data protection. As part of this commitment, RubyWell complies with HIPAA regulations and is SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
FAQs
Home health care includes a range of medical and therapeutic services delivered in a patient’s home. Its goal is to promote, maintain, or restore health; slow a patient’s decline; or to help manage the effects of illness, injury, or disability.
Home health services are typically provided to patients whose health conditions make it difficult, impossible, or unsafe to leave their homes. They’re designed to ensure patients receive necessary care in a comfortable, familiar environment, out of hospitals or skilled nursing facilities.
Covered home health services can include:
- Skilled nursing care (such as wound care, medication administration, and health monitoring)
- Physical, occupational, and speech therapy
- Medical social services
- Patient and caregiver education
- Assistance with daily activities (bathing, dressing, grooming) by home health aides when combined with skilled care
- Intravenous or nutrition therapy, injections, and other medical treatments
Medicare covers home health services for beneficiaries who are homebound, at risk for future hospitalizations, and need assistance with activities of daily living (bathing, toileting, continence, dressing, eating, transferring).
Medicare considers a person homebound if both of these statements are true:
- You rarely leave home and when you do, it's just for short appointments or special events.
- Leaving home is difficult due to shortness of breath, pain, limited stamina, or other reasons.
And one of these statements is true:
- You require an assistive device (e.g., wheelchair, walker, crutches, cane), special transportation, or personal assistance to leave home due to illness/injury.
- Their doctor has recommended that you not leave home because of their condition.
In order to be paid to provide care for a loved one on Medicare, you need to be trained and certified as a home health aide. Activities you can be paid for as a member of your loved one's home health team could include:
- Preparing meals
- Administering medication (as allowed)
- Routine or special skin care
- Using medical equipment, supplies, and devices
- Changing dressings
- Performing simple measurements and tests to monitor patient’s medical condition
- Performing a maintenance exercise program
- Caring for a normally functioning ostomy
- Indwelling catheter care
- Using mechanical ventilators
- Observing, recording, and reporting to the care team
We're working with our partner home health agencies on our Family Health Worker pilot program. The program will support family caregivers with home health aide certification, and employment as a member of your loved one's care team. If your loved one is eligible for care through one of our partner home health agencies, you may join the pilot once it launches.
No, hospice is specifically for end-of-life care. Patients are referred to hospice when they’re not expected to live more than 6 months, and their care is mainly palliative or “comfort” care. Home health care is for patients who may continue to live for years as long as they receive the care and treatments prescribed for them. However, if you believe your loved one would be better served by hospice services, we are happy to connect you to our hospice partners.
Home Health vs. Home Care
Home health is different from home care, in that it includes care tasks that require more medical training than the care tasks provided in home care. For example, home health aides can monitor vital signs, administer medications, and care for wounds, catheters, and ostomies. Home care aides aren’t allowed to perform those kinds of care tasks, Instead, they provide “custodial care” which may include help with activities of daily living, driving to appointments, running errands, and providing companionship.
So while a home health aide can take on some of the more medical care tasks, the person receiving care may still need a family caregiver or home care aide to provide the home care tasks they need help with.
Skilled Services
Home health aides are overseen by a skilled nurse; home care aides are not. And care provided by home health aides is only offered in conjunction with skilled services like:
- Skilled nursing care
- Physical, occupational, or speech therapy
- Medical social services
Home health care services can also include:
- Patient and caregiver education
- Assistance with daily activities (bathing, dressing, grooming) by home health aides when combined with skilled care
- Intravenous or nutrition therapy, injections, and other medical treatments
Original Medicare (Parts A and B) fully covers medically-necessary home health services for eligible patients. Medicare Advantage plans (Part C) are required to cover the same services as Original Medicare, but they may charge a copay, and you may need prior authorization for care.
- At the end of the qualification form, you’ll be asked to schedule a call with RubyWell so we can better understand the patient’s care needs and explain the process to you.
- If the patient appears to be eligible, we’ll provide directions to securely upload their Medicare records so we can review their recent hospital visits and health updates. This will help us predict with greater accuracy if they may be eligible for covered home health services.
- If that information indicates that they may qualify for covered home health, we’ll guide them through the process of discussing a home health referral order with their doctor. The referral order tells Medicare and the home health agency that the doctor believes that certain home health services would be suitable for the patient.
- Once the patient has a referral order, we’ll refer them to our Medicare-certified partner home health agencies in their area. The agencies may review the referral order, schedule the Medicare-required home visit, and prepare a personalized care plan.
- The agency you ultimately work with may match the patient with a home health aide, supervising skilled nurse, and any other therapists that may be indicated on the referral order. Care will start when the care team is staffed and visits are scheduled.
