FAQs

Here are a few questions that you should be sure to ask all agencies:

• Are you licensed?
• Are your aides certified by the State?
• Do you perform criminal and DMV checks against your aides?
• Do you provide RN (Nursing) supervision?
• Does your agency take care of complete employee payroll responsibilities?

The answer to all of these with Freedom Home Care is yes!

Differentiating between home care and home health can be confusing. So here are a few key differences. Home Health Care is clinical medical care provided by skilled medical professionals and is often prescribed as a part of a care plan following a hospitalization. Services include therapy, skilled nursing and wound care. Home Health Care agencies are also often Medicare certified agencies. Home Care, like services offered by Freedom Home Care, provides non-clinical services such as activities of daily living, personal cares, housekeeping, meal preparation, medication reminders and companionship. Many families find that utilizing home health and home care in tandem can be very beneficial for an aging adult who, for example, is recovering after a hospitalization. The home health staff address clinical and rehabilitative needs during the transition home, while a home care aide can help with personal caregiving and household chores that the aging adult requires assistance with during his or her recovery. Our case managers and nurses can help determine the care that is appropriate for each client’s needs. Coordinating resources and providing peace of mind is what we do.

Home care provides a more cost-effective, comforting alternative to long-term care. In fact, studies have shown that patients do better at home both physically and psychologically. 24 hour care provides continuity of care, and peace-of-mind for client and family.

Regarding client’s physicians, we review discharge instructions and if we deem it necessary, we will have further consultation with physicians.  All of our staff are trained on confidentiality and HIPPAA and it is an area that we review with them on an annual basis. If the client is okay with us contacting the family members, then we do so. We like to keep open communications with families of our clients. There are some clients though that do not want their family members contacted and we have to respect that as well.

Freedom Home Care is available 24/7—365 days a year. We have an after-hours answering service and someone on-call at all times to handle any emergencies that may arise. We also offer an emergency contact service through our case management team in the event our client may need to be taken to the hospital, emergency department or clinic unexpectedly.

We offer a full spectrum of medication management services, which are overseen by our registered nurses.

Yes! We are happy to transport people to appointments. Our case managers can transport the client in their own car or a Freedom Home Care vehicle. The case managers stay at the medical appointments and help the client to communicate with their health care provider as well as report back to the client and family and facility social worker if necessary. Caregivers can also transport clients for outings, adult day services and much more. At the time of the assessment we determine if these services are needed. If so, we have the client fill out paperwork allowing the caregivers to use the client’s car for transportation if necessary. Mileage fees are only charged if the client is using the caregiver’s personal car or one of the Freedom Home Care vehicles.

The aide is qualified to make a judgement about when to call the family, a doctor or 911. Freedom Home Care is available to assist the aide 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

When hiring our staff we take care to select the candidates with the best experience, but also the most compelling reasons for wanting the jobs. Since we’ve began focusing on each candidate’s “why” we have weeded out people just looking for a job and have really found quality caregivers looking for a career for which they can be proud.

We carefully select only the most qualified caregivers using a multi-step hiring process that includes state specific and national criminal background checks, employment history checks, license verification, personal reference checks and skills assessments. Caregivers who are not certified nurse aides have to complete a rigorous pre-employment training through the Relias Health Care Education. From there, each of our caregiver applicants must sign a confidentiality agreement, pass a competency exam, complete orientation and caregiver training and pass several on-line training modules.

Yes, Freedom Home Care covers all wages, payroll taxes and Workmans’ Compensation insurance.

We create a unique plan of care for each client. The client and/or responsible party signs off on the plan of care. As changes to the plan of care occur, we repeat the process of having the client and/or responsible party sign off on the changes and approve the plan.

Freedom Home Care is licensed through the MN Department of Health as a Comprehensive Home Care Provider. The Department of Health has a very robust oversight program that includes the initial licensing phase and ongoing surveys at our location.

Our team of registered nurses have a combined experience of nearly 110 years! They makes unannounced visits into the client’s homes while the caregivers are working in order to supervise their activities. The RNs help with caregiver skills assessments, monthly employee training, medication management training and they also do on-site training with caregivers at their first shifts with new clients to ensure they are properly caring for each client based on their individual needs.

For anyone who is not already a certified nursing aide, we require pre-employment training through Relias Health Care Education. All employees have orientation and a skills assessment with one of our Registered Nurses before starting cares with our clients. We offer monthly training for our caregivers as well as on-line training through Relias. Relias even offers a unique program that allows us to certify our caregivers in specific care areas such as dementia care, diabetes care and Parkinson’s care to name a few.

We do not have a one size fits all cost for our services. We like to discuss all of the client’s needs during the initial consultation, which is free of charge, and put together a comprehensive plan that will best serve them. We are very up-front about the costs and payment options prior to beginning services.

As is industry standard, Freedom Home Care bills on a weekly basis with payment due upon receipt each week. We also require a one week deposit with all new service agreements. For your convenience, we offer automatic payment drafts from a checking or savings account.

Yes, Freedom Home Care will accept long-term care insurance reimbursement after benefit verification from most insurance companies.