Find Home Health Agencies Near You

Home health care agencies provide skilled medical care in your home, so searching for "home health care near me" is a great first step to finding the right services for your needs. Doctors or nurse practitioners can prescribe home health care when someone needs help recovering from surgery, an accident, or a serious illness. 

Home health care is a great option when your senior loved one is not ill enough to be in a hospital but is not yet well enough to be home alone. The state licenses home health care agencies; Medicare-eligible home health care agencies must adhere to federal regulations.

Home health agency nurses administer medications, change dressings, manage catheters and intravenous lines, give injections, and provide other skilled home medical care. Occupational or physical therapists help patients recover and safely regain mobility. Nurses and therapists can teach patients and family caregivers to perform many of these tasks. Certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and home health aides also help with care under the supervision of agency nurses.
 

Note: Home health care, which is short-term medical care, differs from in-home care, which is short-term or long-term nonmedical personal assistance. Sometimes, the same agency can provide both types of care.

In most cases, home health care agencies do not provide fee-for-service; they offer services covered by Medicare or other insurance. If they charge fee-for-service, home health care costs depend on the training and expertise of the specific health care worker who comes to your home. Nurses and physical therapists are more expensive; home health aides charge less. CareScout's 2024 Cost of Care survey places home health care at a median of $34 per hour.

When your loved one recovers from surgery, accident, or illness and home health care is prescribed by a doctor, Medicare generally covers the associated costs. Here's the tricky part: Medicare provides coverage for a specific ailment. Once recovery from that ailment is complete, Medicare coverage ends. Medicare coverage also ends if your loved one ceases to make progress in recovery efforts.
 

When Medicare does not cover home health care, you can explore options like veterans' benefits, Medigap, Medicaid, long-term care insurance, or private pay. 

Also called CNAs, certified nursing assistants, and certified nurse aides, these home health aides perform duties as their title implies — come to your home to provide medical care. Home health aides and CNAs may also help with other day-to-day care needs, such as bathing, dressing, light housekeeping, or meal preparation.

Generally, home health aides and certified nurse aides have undergone formal training and certification. They can:

 

• Administer medications
• Change dressings
• Give massages
• Assist with braces and other mobility devices
• Troubleshoot and operate home oxygen or ventilators

 

Training and certification requirements for this type of caregiver vary by state, so ask about each caregiver's qualifications. You should expect any home health worker to operate under nurse supervision and provide services as outlined in your loved one's home health care plan.

After a stroke, fall, broken bone, or serious illness, your loved one will likely need help with movement and muscle strength. Your home health care agency may send a physical therapist or occupational therapist to the home to assist with recovery. 

A physical therapist can help your loved one with overall mobility, including walking, getting in and out of bed, sitting, and standing.

An occupational therapist will help your senior loved one with activities of daily living (ADLs), such as eating, buttoning clothes, and brushing hair. These caregivers can also help relieve pain, improve range of motion, build muscle, and retain motor performance.

If your loved one's illness or injury has affected their speech, a home health agency might send a speech therapist or speech-language pathologist (SLP) to your home. Speech therapists provide care to improve a person's speech, language, cognition, voice, and ability to swallow. They may offer drills and activities to improve skills or provide strengthening exercises for lip and tongue muscles.

Also called registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs), licensed vocational nurses (LVNs), and advanced practical nurses (APNs), these nurses provide skilled care, including administering medications, changing dressings, managing catheters and intravenous lines, and giving injections. You can expect a visiting nurse to provide an evaluation, take vital signs, and write detailed notes about your loved one's progress. 

Visiting nurses are highly trained and tend to have higher hourly rates than other caregivers. According to Payscale data from Feb. 2025, home health nurses charge an average hourly rate of $22-$47 per hour. Other factors that may affect a visiting nurse's hourly cost are:

 

• Cost of living in the area
• Density of local nurses; fewer nurses per area may increase the cost of available options
• Other specialized skills a particular nurse may have

Home health care agencies will assess your loved one's specific health care needs and propose a health care plan, sometimes called a plan of care. Your loved one's doctor will then review and sign the health care plan. 

The health care plan details the medical care your loved one will receive, what types of workers will provide the care, how frequently they will come to the home, and the expected length of the care provided. You should receive a written copy of the plan of care.

Depending on the patient's progress, the home care agency may request an extension of services. They'll send additional paperwork to the doctor for approval. Confirm that your loved one's insurance will cover extended services.

Note: It can take time for the doctor of record to approve the original health care plan and extensions. In the meantime, most experienced nurses and therapists will prescribe care that aligns with that patient's needs unless they see an area of concern. 

 

Be aware that care providers and doctors may not be conferring closely (or at all) about what's happening. Do not assume that everyone's on the same page. If you have a question about any service, ask the home care agency and the doctor to advocate for your loved one's needs.

In most cases, the doctor or hospital will make arrangements for home health care. If you'd like to know more about any agency, search the Caring.com home health care directory for reviews and ratings from other families.

• Average home health nurse hourly pay. (2025). Payscale
• Calculate the cost of long-term care near you. (2023). CareScout 
• Common diseases seen in home care. (2021). North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
• Home health services. (n.d.). Medicare.gov
• State operations manual: Home health agencies. (2024) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services