Episode 9- Caregiving Options and Pay Sources

Caregiving can be overwhelming—especially when you're trying to figure out what services are available and how to pay for them. In this episode, Jamie Callahan breaks down the most common types of caregiving and the funding sources that can help cover the cost, including options specifically for veterans.

She covers:

• The real cost of agency caregiving today
• How caregiver registries offer a more affordable option
• Key differences between VA programs like HHA and Veteran Directed Care (VDC)
• Medicaid and long-term care insurance benefits
• Why some caregivers can qualify for health insurance through DHS

Whether you're caring for a loved one or planning ahead for yourself, this episode offers practical guidance and real-world insight into navigating care at home.

📞 Questions? Call Team Senior at (541) 295-8230.

Transcript

 Hi there, it's Jamie Callahan and I am excited to talk to you today about caregiving options for both veterans and the general population as way, as well as pay sources. Who pays for caregiving? That's a, a. Question that comes up all the time. So first I wanna talk about the types of caregiving that's available and then we will circle back to who pays for the caregiving that is available out there.

Private pay caregiving is, probably the first thing that we should discuss. And most people pursue caregiving. That is private pay through an agency. And there are several agencies in southern Oregon, of course, hundreds, maybe thousands, across the United States. States caregiving prior to COID was like 25 to $35 an hour.

That's definitely not the landscape of caregiving anymore. We're looking at a minimum of 40 to $45 an hour with an agency. And depending on the acuity of care that someone requires, we're looking at, anywhere between 50 to maybe even. $70 an hour. As you can imagine, that gets very expensive, very fast.

There are other ways that you can hire a caregiver and I've heard, people talk about them in terms of maybe off of Craigslist or something like that. We would never recommend doing anything like that. It's so important for you to know that if you're bringing somebody. Into your home. You want them to be vetted in some capacity.

There is a way to hire private caregivers, essentially independent contractors, through a registry in the state of Oregon. There are five registries statewide. There is one in southern Oregon called the Caregiver Group, and they are a registry that usually starts their caregiving rates around 20 to $25 an hour.

The registry is required to be licensed with the Department of Human Services, so they have the same standards that a caregiving. Agency would have in that, the caregivers that they would recommend to you they are vetted by having a background check and they have to have, several number of hours.

And very similar to what an agency does but less expensive than hiring through an agency. There are pros and cons to both registry versus agency. The way that you would get caregiving hours if you are a veteran. There are two different ways to pursue, or I suppose there are several ways if you wanted to avoid using HAHA hours or the VDC.

So we're gonna talk about that. The HAHA program is for a service connected veteran that needs caregiving in their home. They can get caregiving that is paid for by the va. So essentially what happens is that the. Person that needs care gets a referral to the HAHA program, which usually happens through the doctor.

Then the VA sends the referral out to agencies that they work with to provide caregiving. Caregiving through the HAHA program is usually a three by three program, meaning that you're going to get three hours of caregiving approximately three days a week. I have seen this go up to 12 hours. But it's very rare that happens.

It is usually. Three hours of caregiving, three days a week. And again, that's through the HAHA program, and that program exists for service connected veterans, meaning the veteran has some disability as a direct result of being enlisted in the military, there is another program called the VDC, which is the Veteran directed Care Program.

That program you get qualified for, essentially the same way you go to your doctor substantiates, that you need caregiving. The referral is sent to the va. Then the VA sends that to the organization that manages the veteran directed care program. That program does not require a service connected disability.

That program can also give you substantially more hours than the HAHA program can give you. It does require, however, that the veteran is able to direct the care. That's why it's called the Veteran Directed Care Program. So in that scenario, we've seen most veterans get about 23 to $2,500 a month.

I have also seen a veteran get as much as $16,000 a month through that program. And again, the veteran doesn't need to be service connected. So if you were a veteran that was an officer in the military, you never had an injury, but you are now 70 years old and you've had a stroke. So you obviously have a disability as a result of the stroke and you need assistance in your home, but your disability did not come from your time in the military.

This is where the VDC program is paramount for veterans. You can use this to hire caregivers, not through an agency, though the VDC program will not allow you to hire an agency to provide the hours, and the reason is that they're trying to keep the cost down for the program, so they really don't want you to pay more than.

Maybe $25 an hour to a caregiver. You could use the registry to hire a caregiver so long as you could get a caregiver to agree to work for that amount of money. And I think that would be wildly probable. I think that there are plenty of people that are part of the registry that would be willing to work for $25 an hour.

And again, that's just something that you could call us and we could help you navigate. So the VDC program could provide care for this. Person who's had a stroke in their home, even if this disability that you now have didn't come from your time in the military. So the two distinctions here are the HAHA hour provides three hours of care three days a week.

Most times that is paid for through an agency, but the VA pays the agency to provide the care in the VDC or the Veteran Directed Care Program. The. Authorization process is the same in the sense that you have to get the referral from the va. But then you get to hire a caregiver of your liking and there's essentially a pool of money.

You're not given that lump sum of money. The Veteran Directed Care program helps you to manage those funds through that program. You can also ask for other things. It's not necessarily caregiving things, but let's say that you are getting $3,000 a month for caregiving and it's working out really well for you to be at home.

But it's gotten really hard for you to get out of bed and you feel like you could continue to live at home. If you could get a lift chair that you could sleep in, sit in, and that could help you get on your feet in the morning, it's highly probable that the VDC would be. Willing, and they're certainly able to give you additional monies to buy things like that.

So those dollars are not just meant for caregiving. They're truly meant to support you being in your home for as long as humanly possible. The other pay source is Medicaid. Medicaid will pay for caregiving in your home. I'm not totally sure of the number of hours that you can get through Medicaid, but they essentially provide caregivers that are certified through the Department of Human Services.

They have to become what's called a provider with the Department of Human Services. So they're background checked, they have to go through some caregiving training, and those two are paid for by the Department of Human Services or by Medicaid, really. And then they're able to send a caregiver into your home.

There are a lot of really great benefits for people to become caregivers through Medicaid also. So if you know somebody, like a neighbor that's already providing the care and they wanna become a Medicaid provider to provide caregiving if they're working a certain number of hours each week or each month department of Human Services also provides them with health insurance.

So there are lots of benefits to becoming a Medicaid provider. And then lastly, which are not of course all the ways, but the last really big one is long-term care insurance. Long-term care insurance will pay for caregiving in your home as well. But long-term care insurance cannot be paid to an independent contractor caregiver.

It has to be paid to an agency. So if again, I mean we always circle back to telling you that you don't have to remember all of this. The only thing that you really need to remember is our phone number. If you call us, we're gonna take a deep dive into what your specific circumstances look like.

We're gonna present you with options. We'll probably share that if we were what would we pursue and then what are you gonna be able to. Staying the longest. So that usually looks something like, what do you want? What do you need? What's your diagnosis and prognosis and what can you afford?

And then how long can we make your money last you to serve all of those needs? I'm gonna close here. I just wanna say thank you again for listening, and I will leave you with, if you need anything, please give us a call. I always like to remind everybody that we're not gonna spend 30 or 45 minutes on the phone going through a whole bunch of hoops.

We're gonna get. Down and dirty and ask you what is going on? How can we help you? And then assure you that if whatever advice we give you doesn't work for you to just call us back and we'll help you again with whatever hurdles or challenges you face. Thank you so much and have a wonderful day. Thank you for listening to the Team Senior podcast.