Now more than ever Americans are looking for ways to live longer happier lives, and not just for themselves but for their aging loved ones as well. Now that you’ve done the research and decided that senior home care is the perfect solution for you and your family to accomplish this, you have to decide what is the best services to use. Is it a home care agency or a registry? And what is the difference between the two? Here is a quick explanation of what they are and the disadvantages of each option.
What is a Registry?
A home health registry is an employment service that acts as a middleman between you and senior home care workers. A registry can provide you with a list of available workers in your area that can help provide various home care services. If you choose to hire a worker from their supplied registry list, they will charge you a specific finder’s fee. Once this fee is paid that is where the relationship between you and the registry ends.
Disadvantage of Using a Registry
When you hire a senior care worker for this service you now become their boss and that means extra responsibilities for you. This can include: covering shifts if they are unable to work, payroll and taxes, supervision, work-related injuries, termination and hiring a new replacement. Not to mention the most important thing and that’s ensuring that they are taking care of your loved ones needs to the highest standard.
What is a Home Care Agency?
A home care agency provides a variety of skilled and non-skilled services to people in their homes. They directly recruit, screen, train, pay and supervise their employees. This means that you pay the agency a specific fee, and they take care of the rest. They are responsible for ensuring their workers show up for shifts, are paid on time, have missed shifts covered, and making sure their workers are bonded and insured. If a situation arises with the worker, the senior home care agency deals directly with the worker and the family to fix the situation.
Disadvantage of Using a Home Care Agency
One of the disadvantages you may find with using a senior home care agency is that the cost may seem a little higher than a registry. This is because all of the employee costs are factored into the rate that the home care agency is quoting you. These additional costs are put in place to ensure that your loved one doesn’t go a day without the care and service they need.
As you can see at first glance a home care agency and a registry are very similar. They both help to bring families together with home care workers to provide services. It is important to understand the differences between the two, this will help to make the best-informed decision when it comes to caring for you or your loved one.
To further assist you with your choice here is a more in-depth checklist that you can use as reference.
