How to Choose a Home Health Agency in Los Angeles9 Questions to Ask

Los Angeles County has hundreds of home health agencies. Many have similar websites and make similar promises. How do you tell them apart when your parent needs care this week?

Ask questions. The answers below separate agencies that will show up, call back, and keep you informed from the ones families complain about. Here are the nine questions worth asking, and what a good answer sounds like.

1. Are you Medicare-certified?

Medicare pays only Medicare-certified agencies, and certification means the agency meets federal standards and is inspected. Ask directly, then verify on Medicare Care Compare, where you can search home health agencies by ZIP code and see their details. Comfort Care Home Health Services is Medicare-certified.

2. Are you accredited, and by whom?

Accreditation is a voluntary review by an independent organization. The Joint Commission is one of the best known. An accredited agency has invited outside inspectors to check its policies, records, staff training, and patient safety practices against national standards, and has passed. It is not required, so an agency that has done it is telling you something. Comfort Care is Joint Commission accredited.

3. How soon does the first visit happen?

Medicare rules call for the first visit within 48 hours of the referral or the return home, unless the doctor orders a different date. Ask what usually happens in practice. At Comfort Care, the first nurse visit usually happens within 24 hours after the doctor or hospital sends the order.

4. Will it be the same nurse and therapist?

A different nurse every visit is one of the most common complaints families have about home health. Ask how the agency assigns staff. A good answer names a primary nurse and therapist and explains what happens when someone is out. At Comfort Care, you see the same nurse and therapist whenever possible, and if someone else has to come, we call first and tell you who.

5. Who do I call, and will a real person call me back?

This is the question that matters most after care starts. Ask whether you will have one point of contact. At Comfort Care, each family has one coordinator who knows your name and calls you back.

6. Do you call before each visit?

Nobody should spend the day waiting by the door. Ask whether the agency calls ahead with a time window. At Comfort Care, we call before every visit.

7. How do you keep the doctor and the family informed?

Home health works best when the doctor knows what the nurse is seeing, and the family knows what is happening. Ask how updates work, especially if you live far away. At Comfort Care, we keep your doctor informed as care goes on, and, with the patient's okay, the family too.

8. What languages does your team speak?

In the San Fernando Valley and across Los Angeles County, this matters. Care is safer and warmer in the language your parent thinks in. Comfort Care's team speaks English, Spanish, Armenian, Russian, and Tagalog with patients and families. If your family speaks another language, ask the agency about interpreter help.

9. Which areas do you serve, and which insurance do you accept?

Ask about your city specifically. Comfort Care serves Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, and San Bernardino Counties from our office in North Hollywood. We accept Medicare and private insurance, and we check your benefits before care starts and tell you in writing what, if anything, you would pay.

Two more things to know

• You can choose. Under Medicare, you may choose any certified agency that serves your area, and your doctor or discharge planner should honor your choice. Medicare Advantage plans may limit you to their network. Our hospital discharge checklist explains how to ask for an agency by name.
• Look up any agency yourself. Medicare Care Compare shows an agency's certification and the services it offers. Use it alongside the questions above, and trust the answers you get on the phone. How an agency treats you on the first call says a lot.

If cost is on your mind, our guide on what Medicare covers explains the $0 rule for covered services under Original Medicare.