Home Instead Senior Care: Reviews and Costs in 2024
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December 19, 2024
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Home Instead is a leading care network serving over 100,000 older adults each year. Their tailored care plans, home care tech, and workforce skilled in special health conditions make Home Instead a great choice for anyone in need of care in the comfort of their home.
Offering services in all 50 states – and even additional countries – Home Instead can likely be found in your area. If you’re looking for an alternative to assisted living communities, then a caregiver from Home Instead might be a great solution.
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Home Instead Senior Care Pros and Cons
Pros
- Tailor-made care services: Home Instead provides people with customized care solutions based on a detailed assessment and discussion regarding your loved one’s needs.
- Highly trained caregivers: Caregivers with Home Instead pass comprehensive training in emergency response and dementia care. They’re also required to complete ongoing education through CareAcademy.
- In-depth pre-employment screenings: In addition to extensive training, Home Instead caregivers must pass state and federal background checks, an FBI fingerprint search, and a sex offender registry search. They must also pass a drug test and driving record review.
- Senior-friendly tablet: Home Instead’s new tablet system allows older adults to access tools and resources that support their health. With one of these devices, they can virtually chat with family, connect with healthcare providers, and quickly contact the Home Instead office.
Cons
- Spotty dependability: In our research, we found that several clients of Home Instead had caregivers cancel appointments with little time to find replacements. While this is not everyone’s experience, it’s worth noting.
- Minimum service requirements: Many Home Instead locations require minimum hours per visit and weekly hour commitments, meaning those in need of sporadic care might want to look elsewhere.
- Higher costs: Compared to average costs of home care, Home Instead services tend to cost $2-$4 more per hour.
Home Instead Senior Care Review
Background
Established in response to the minimal care options available to their family’s matriarch, Paul and Lori Hogan established Home Instead in 1994, hoping to change the way people experience aging through compassionate and high-quality caregiving.
Based in Omaha, Home Instead now has over 1,200 offices in 14 countries, where it employs more than 90,000 caregivers.
Services
Home Instead organizes its services into ten categories: personal, home help, Alzheimer’s and dementia, chronic illness (i.e., diabetes or arthritis), nurse-directed, hospice, transitional or post-op/rehab, transportation, companionship, and respite care. Not every Home Instead location offers all of these, but in our experience, several locations nearby did.
- Personal care: Caregivers help older adults maintain their independence and dignity by assisting with activities of daily living such as bathing, grooming, dressing, toileting, transferring, and medication adherence.
- Chronic condition care: Home Instead provides personalized care that aids seniors who have chronic health conditions. For example, a caregiver providing assistance for someone with arthritis may assist with mobility, opening jars, completing doctor-approved exercises, or performing household chores.
- Hospice support: Home Instead can fill the gaps between hospice workers or even provide 24/7 support for those on hospice care, allowing their loved ones to focus on enjoying valuable time with them. These services frequently include personal care, linen changes, medication management, companionship, overnight services, comfort management, emotional support, and respite care.
Customer Experience
With each Home Instead being independently owned and operated, each franchise will have different prices, services, and, of course, personnel. In our test calls with California locations, this is what we learned:
- Care was available quickly, with a caregiver being able to start within days of a free in-person consultation.
- Caregiver visits must be a minimum of four hours in length, and the total weekly hours must be 12 or greater.
- For general personal care, we were quoted between $31 and $40 per hour for care in California. Oakland had lower costs while San Francisco had higher costs.
- Overall, Home Instead’s costs are slightly higher than the state average.
- Long-term care insurance and worker’s comp are often accepted with Home Instead.
Billing occurs every two weeks, and it can be paid through cash, credit, or ACH.
Among the contacted reps from Home Instead, we were impressed by their compassion and knowledge. They displayed a thorough understanding of home care needs and offered to promptly schedule an in-home consultation.
Third-Party Reviews
Everyone has a different experience with home care agencies. Even different franchises of the same company may provide significantly different levels of quality, and sometimes a single franchise location’s service looks quite different from another’s based on which caregiver is assigned to your loved one. Here’s what we found online.
“The caregivers, the staff, and the owner of Home Instead Senior Care San Francisco are amazing. This team did a wonderful job taking care of my dad. They were all very kind, warm, and professional. They often went above and beyond the call of duty. They made Dad feel special, and they gave us peace of mind. Their communication was great as they listened well, and they were flexible as our needs evolved. I highly recommend them.” – San Francisco, CA
“If they would show up for their shift, it would be helpful. No call, no show 2x. Anywhere else you would have been fired. No communication between the caregivers’ end of shift and the start of the new shift. And it would also be helpful if they answered the phone. Beware.”– Frankfort, KY
“Our mother was in need of care, and we were having a difficult time finding the best care possible for her. Happily, we found Home Instead Senior Care. We did not want, nor did our mother want, to spend her final years in a nursing home … We are forever grateful to the entire team for making my mother’s final days a peaceful experience.” – Chicago, IL
Based on online reviews, most Home Instead customers considered their caregivers the most positive part of their experience with the company, frequently describing them as “supportive,” “nurturing,” “helpful,” “friendly,” “responsible,” and “attentive.” Furthermore, it was not uncommon to see individuals, who used services more long term, sharing that Home Instead caregivers became “like family.”
Although many customers also shared favorable experiences with logistics, sales, and office personnel, others noted persistent problems with scheduling. For example, some franchises became known for having too few caregivers to provide the number of hours the client paid for. Despite these disappointing cases, customers generally rated Home Instead between 3.5 and 5 out of 5 across Facebook, Yelp, and Google.
Care.com runs background checks on all of its caregivers.
Cost & Pricing
Based on our research within California, Home Instead services cost a bit more than the state average of $26 per hour. In San Francisco, we were quoted between $39-$45 per hour, and in Oakland, we were quoted at $31-$35. Even though these cities are roughly 12 miles from one another, there is still a significant difference.
Because of this, we’d recommend obtaining quotes from a few nearby care agencies. It’s likely that you could find a cheaper option than Home Instead. That said, Home Instead does accept long-term care insurance and worker’s comp, which is a big consideration.
Areas Served
Home Instead provides senior care services throughout all 50 states and eight Canadian provinces in North America. It also has locations in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, and 11 European countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
To find care with Home Instead, you can visit their website or contact them via telephone. To learn more about our other favorite home care agencies and caregiving techniques, check out our helpful guides:
Home Instead Senior Care Frequently Asked Questions
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What is Home Instead senior care?
Home Instead is a global network of caregivers that provides high-quality in-home care services to help older adults age safely at home.
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How much does Home Instead cost?
Home Instead costs vary by location but tend to be just slightly higher than the average cost of care in any given area. In many cases, the cost per hour goes down as the number of service hours you agree to goes up.
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How do I hire care from Home Instead?
Identify the Home Instead franchise in your area by typing the name of your city into Google along with “Home Instead” or visiting the company’s main page and typing in your city or ZIP code. Next, call the location and speak with a care manager who will conduct a care consultation who will recommend the type of care.
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What services does Home Instead Senior Care offer?
Home Instead offers ten categories of care services, consisting of personal, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, hospice support, transitional, home help, chronic illness, transportation, companionship, nurse-directed, and respite care.
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Can I use Medicaid with Home Instead Senior Care?
In most cases, Medicare does not cover in-home senior care. However, recent regulatory changes allow some Medicare Advantage plans to cover some home care services.