According to Medicare.gov, a home health care provider offers a substantial range of health care services that can be provided in your home for either an illness or an injury. A few of the most significant advantages of using a home health care provider versus an in-patient facility is:
- Home health care services are typically less expensive
- Since the service is home-based, it is much more convenient to the patient and family
- The skilled home health care services are commonly just as effective as the care in an in-patient facility
What Services do Home Health Care Agencies Provide?
Skilled Nursing Services: The most typical service provided by home health care agencies are nursing services. These services are commonly provided by a licensed practical nurse (LPN), or a registered nurse (RN). These nursing professionals are available to provide a multitude of services such as:
- Post-acute care
- Assessment and observation
- Administering and managing prescribed medications
- Care, dressing, and redressing of wounds
- Pain management
- Condition management
Therapy Services: Certainly, in many cases, therapy services take precedent or are used in conjunction with nursing services. In many cases that have involved surgery, physical therapists are needed to focus on strengthening the upper and lower body to assist in the patient’s healing following surgery. The therapist will also help a patient regain their ability to complete tasks of daily living such as eating, bathing, and dressing.
Speech therapists are also called on to assist home health care patients to regain their ability to speak and swallow following a stroke or other medical event.
Since home health care service demand has grown astronomically as a result of the aging of America, and that over one-third of home health care patients are under age 60, there are over 35,000 home health care agencies operating in the U.S.
Choose You Home Health Care Service Wisely
Most of these home health care providers now rely on innovative technology that allows them to monitor patients remotely and also allows the provider to be somewhat less intrusive in patients’ lives. This technology, which is provided by organizations like Ankota, the industry’s first organization to offer a Healthcare Delivery Management (HDM) solution, will improve the prospects for America’s aging population so patients can live full and healthy lives and remain at home.
Choose a licensed home health or home care provider that uses the latest technology for scheduling and billing. This ensures that services are delivered on time and accurately.
The Importance of Obtaining Life Insurance Before Home Health Care Begins
Certainly, knowing that final expense life insurance is in place offers some peace of mind for the patient (insured) and their family or close friends. Although being enrolled in home health care services is not life-threatening or an indication that any particular illness or injury is terminal, insurance carriers are often reluctant to offer life insurance to a home health care patient due to the combination of the disease or illness and the fact that the applicant is enrolled with a home health care agency.
This is critical for a patient who lacks insurance coverage to pay for final expenses like the cost of a funeral or cremation, home health or nursing facility expenses, or debts that can be transferred to a spouse, family member, or the estate.
The 5 Most Common Conditions that Lead to Home Health Care
According to the larger home health care agencies, there are five common conditions that typically result in home health care services as opposed to in-patient care in a facility.
1. Arthritis
Having to deal with the severe pain that results from arthritis can be overwhelming for seniors. While there is no cure for this condition, the chronic pain and discomfort can only be managed with potent pain medications. Home health services will assist with medication scheduling by ensuring proper dosage is administered and performing well-checks on the patient.
2. Heart Disease
Regretfully, heart disease affects about 38% of men and 26% of women over the age of 65. Heart disease is typically a progressive condition and offers a wide range in severity. The primary services that most patients will need while managing their heart disease from home are:
- Scheduled reminders for prescribed medications
- Scheduled reminders for the use of wellness monitors so the caregiver can monitor the results either in the home or remotely.
- Automatic alerts to the patient or caregivers when wellness monitors have fallen off schedule or have readings that fall outside a predetermined range.
- Daily or as-needed well-checks on the patient.
3. Cancer
In terms of diseases resulting in death, cancer falls into the number two spot. For seniors in the U.S., cancer will affect about 28% of men and 21% of women over 65. Even though cancer requires significant managing and monitoring of the patient, there are facets of the disease that can be made much easier and absolutely more effective by using home health monitoring.
4. Respiratory Diseases
Respiratory diseases like COPD, asthma, and emphysema afflict thousands and thousands of seniors every day. Although there are no cures for these severe and life-threatening conditions, severe symptoms can be managed with inhaled medications and consistent monitoring of pulse and blood oxygen levels to ensure the patient is getting adequate oxygen. Those patients who have a severe form of these conditions will normally need supplemental oxygen every day, and monitoring for oxygen levels becomes critical.
5. Parkinson’s
Similar to respiratory diseases, Parkinson's typically mild symptom s at the onset and may go unnoticed for months or even years before it substantially interferes with the patient's lifestyles and the symptoms become life-threatening. Symptoms can begin with tremors that are barely noticed and progress all the way to problems with speech and even Dementia.
How Can I get Life Insurance when I need Home Health Care?
Fortunately for seniors who are dealing with serious and chronic health conditions, there is a solid group of insurers willing to offer coverage when the applicant has one of the previously-mentioned health conditions. In some cases, many patients will even be provided standard rates.
These insurers, who offer these policies in the form of Final Expense Insurance, take a more liberal attitude than life insurance companies who offer traditional life insurance that must be fully underwritten (medical exam, blood and urine tests).
In most cases, we are able to deliver very affordable insurance solutions from a handful of companies who we feel are the best of the best when it comes to affordable Final Expense Insurance coverage.
Transamerica Life Insurance Company
Just a little over a hundred years ago, Amadeo Giannini, launched the Bank of Italy in a refurbished saloon in San Francisco, California. His quest was to develop financial services for everyone in the community, especially working class folks. As he began developing his list of financial clients, the earthquake and fire in 1906 demolished the bank building and so Giannini established a temporary bank on the waterfront and carried on his business by offering unsecured loans so people in the area could rebuild their homes and small businesses.
Around twenty years later, in 1928. Mr. Giannini integrated his bank with Bank of America and then soon afterward acquired Occidental Life Insurance Company through the newly formed Transamerica Corporation. Then, in 1956, the bank and the life insurance division split with the life insurance division retaining the Transamerica name. Less than twenty years afterward, in 1972, Transamerica took its position in the San Francisco skyline in the iconic pyramid-shaped building.
Transamerica offers several options for burial and final expense insurance for seniors including their Immediate Solution, Easy Solution, and 10-Pay Solution products. Given that their products are available for applicants aged 0 to 85-years-old, their insurance products offer considerable flexibility for all ages and all health classes with graded terms. Transamerica’s 10-Pay Solution enables the policyholder to pay off the policy in 10 years and then have lifetime insurance protection.
Available Death Benefits: 1,000 to $50,000 (applicants 76 or older are capped at $25,000)
Coverage Type: Level benefit and Graded benefit.
Accurate rates for non-smoking seniors in AVERAGE HEALTH for a $10,000 death benefit are:
| Age Group | Male | Female |
| 60 years old | $43.81 | $34.74 |
| 65 years old | $56.33 | $41.62 |
| 70 years old | $74.66 | $53.99 |
| 75 years old | $100.33 | $72.89 |
| 80 years old | $140.22 | $104.11 |
| 85 years old | $200.43 | $148.62 |
Family Benefit Life Insurance Company
Family Benefit Life Insurance Company is yet another top-rated Final Expense and Burial Insurance company that offers coverage for seniors with their Golden Eagle Final Expense insurance policy. Golden Eagle is a permanent whole life insurance product that's available as a simplified issue or as a graded death benefit. The simplified issue policy is for seniors age 50 to 85 with a minimum death benefit of $2,500 to a maximum of $25,000. The graded death benefit policy is for seniors age 50 to 80 with a minimum death benefit of $2,000 and a maximum of $10,000. An Accelerated Living Benefit Rider for Terminal Illness or Nursing Home Confinement is included.
Family Benefit’s rates for a $10,000 death benefit are as follows:
| Age Group | Male | Female |
| 60 years old | $41.74 | $32.60 |
| 65 years old | $53.75 | $41.28 |
| 70 years old | $69.23 | $52.03 |
| 75 years old | $96.58 | $71.64 |
| 80 years old | $145.79 | $104.83 |
| 85 years old | $192.49 | $155.23 |
LifeShield National Insurance Company
LifeShield National Insurance Co. was established in 1982 as an Oklahoma domiciled Life Insurance Company and is part of the Midland Group of Companies that also include MidFirst Bank. As a subsidiary of the Midland Group, the company was initially formed to aid mortgage servicing customers by offering insurance products through direct mail and in-home sales. Subsequently, it has expanded to encompass a wide variety of financial protection related products.
LifeShield quotes for a non-smoking senior in average health with a $10,000 death benefit are:
| Age Group | Male | Female |
| 60 years old | $38.13 | $33.26 |
| 65 years old | $47.35 | $40.79 |
| 70 years old | $62.29 | $52.32 |
| 75 years old | $83.46 | $71.18 |
| 80 years old | $120.42 | $101.18 |
| 85 years old | $169.72 | $138.20 |
Have substantial health Issues? There is good news!
Although final expense insurance companies rarely require a medical exam, applicants may still not qualify for coverage if they have significant health issues. The good news is that LifePolicyShopper.Com represents many insurance companies that offer guaranteed issue (graded benefit) life insurance coverage. These companies do not require an insurance exam nor do they have health questions on their application.
Since they will accept an unknown health risk, these companies will typically charge more for your coverage and place a waiting period of two or three years before they will pay the full death benefit if you should die from natural causes. They will, however, pay the full death benefit if you die from accidental causes within the waiting period.
LifePolicyShopper.com represents most all of these highly-rated insurance carriers that provide quality life insurance coverage for seniors with first-day affordable insurance coverage. As specialists in life insurance for seniors, our licensed professionals will present every applicant’s case to multiple insurance companies so that our clients will receive the most suitable insurance solution at the most affordable rate.
Last Updated on January 14, 2018 by lifepolicyshopper