Home Health and Personal Care Services

APFC’s commitment to “family-first” and an effortless customer experience is our biggest strength. We treat our customers like family – Let’s face it, the things we do for our customers like bathing, dressing, feeding and transferring if not by us would most often be provided by actual family members . For them, knowing that we truly care for their loved one’s well-being can’t be understated.

Customers requiring care will be matched with a primary and secondary caregiver. However, we ensure that every customer will meet every caregiver in their bubble at least once during scheduled appointments. This ensures that no customer will receive services from an APFC caregiver prior to them being introduced. We call them family “drop-bys” just to say “hi” and see how you’re doing.

Home Health Care (Medical) is medically driven and helps adults and seniors who are recovering after a hospital or facility stay, or need additional support to remain safely at home and avoid unnecessary hospitalization. These Medicare-certified services may include short-term nursing, rehabilitative, therapeutic, and assistive home health care. This care is provided by registered nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, home health aides and medical social workers.

Private Duty Care (Non-Medical) offers a broad range of long-term services to assist senior adults with their daily lives, from non-invasive medical and nursing care to transportation services, meal preparation and companionship. The goal of a private duty caregiver is to provide whatever support a senior adult needs to remain independent as long as possible in their own home. These services are not Medicare-certified and therefore must be paid for by either LTC insurance or private pay.

APFC is a Private-Duty Care provider that is not certified by Medicare.

APFC Home Care provides what is considered by the health care industry as non-skilled home care. However, we have a staff of Registered Nurses that perform all initial patient assessments and develop individualized care plans for our caregivers to implement.

Skilled Care Services
A health service is determined to be skilled based upon whether or not clinical training is necessary for the service to be delivered safely and effectively and on the need for physician-directed medical care. Examples of individuals with clinical training include a registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, respiratory therapist, physical therapist, occupational therapist, and speech therapist. This list is not all-inclusive.

Non-Skilled Care Services (Custodial)
The following are non-skilled health services:

• Personal care/domiciliary care/custodial services are those services that:
  • Do not require clinical training in order to be performed safely and effectively
  • Do not seek to cure or which are provided during periods when the medical condition of the patient is not changing or are non-health related services for activities of daily living (ADLs). Examples of such services that assist with ADLs include bathing, dressing, toileting, transfer, continence and feeding.
• Custodial services include, but are not limited to, the following caregiving activities: assistance in dressing, eating, and using the toilet
• Braces and related devices- Routine care in connection with braces and similar devices
• General supervision of exercises which have been taught to the patient to maintain function, including the actual carrying out of maintenance programs
• Repetitious exercises to improve gait, maintain strength, or endurance; passive exercises to maintain range-of-motion in paralyzed extremities and assistive walking
• Prolonged oral feedings (e.g., child with neuromuscular disorder who is spoon-fed taking hours to complete each meal, although based upon the ongoing risk of aspiration, alternative methods of feeding should be considered)
• Use of heat as a palliative and comfort measure, such as whirlpool and hydrocollator
• Routine use of small volume nebulizers, cough stimulation devices, administering of chest physiotherapy, postural drainage
• Routine care of the incontinent patient, including use of briefs and protective sheets
• General maintenance care of colostomy and ileostomy
• Skin care
  • Prophylactic and/or palliative skin care, including bathing and application of creams, or treatment of minor skin problems
  • Turning and positioning: Period turning and position in bed
  • Topical application of ointments or dressing changes for grade I ulcers only

Home health care is typically short term. A nurse will develop a care plan with set goals. The Caregiver will work with the patient to meet those goals and once achieved the patient is discharged.

On the other hand, Hospice is focused on end-of-life care. Hospice workers are most concerned with maintaining quality-of-life for the patient. It’s all about keeping the patient comfortable in their own home while managing a terminal illness.

It varies on a case-by-case basis depending on the individual’s unique needs. Caregivers can be dedicated live-ins, offer 12x2 support 7 days a week, or just come a few times per week for a couple of hours. Again, every patient’s care plan is personalized.

When it comes to needing care 24/7, it's important to define what level of care you need. Does the patient need monitoring all day and all night or only when he/she is awake? If the patient truly needs the aide to be awake every hour of the day, we would assign two aides to each 24-hour period which is consider 12x2 care coverage. We would assign 4 aides to cover a full week. On the other hand, if the patient only needs an aide while awake, a live-in Caregiver can be hired to reside in the patient's home and be available whenever needed. The Caregiver is provided with their own bedroom either permanently or for extended periods of time. A live-in aide will be able to get some hours of uninterrupted sleep and a couple of "off duty" hours a day. We usually suggest 2 live-in aides to cover the seven days in a week.

Home Health Care and Hospice are covered by commercial private insurance and Medicare/Medicaid. Personal Care (Private Duty or Non-Medical Home Care) is covered only by long-term care insurance or through private pay.

Home Health Care that’s covered by commercial private insurance and Medicare/Medicaid typically requires the patient’s primary care physician to order Home Health services. There’s no need for a patient’s physician to order Personal Care (Private Duty or Non-Medical Home Care). Anyone interested can reach out directly to APFC Home Care.

ADL care is limited to assistance with activities such as dressing, grooming, feeding, bathing, toileting and transferring. On the other hand, IADL care are associated with tasks that enable a person to live independently at home such as meal preparation, driving, light housework, managing finances, assistance with the physical taking of medications, and arranging medical care.

Someone with a prolonged physical illness, a disability or a cognitive impairment (such as Alzheimer’s disease) often needs long-term care. The cost of LTC insurance depends on the amount and type of care you need and where you get it. This policy usually pays for skilled, intermediate and custodial care in a nursing home, as well as care in other settings, such as the home, adult day care center or assisted living facility. The policy usually pays a fixed amount per day while a person is receiving care. A great Shoppers Guide to LTC Insurance can be found on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners website at http://www.naic.org/prod_serv_consumer.htm#ltc_guide

If you are covered by Long Term Care Insurance, an APFC Home Care representative will be your advocate for your needs and work directly with the insurance company.

No, APFC is considered a private-duty home health care agency. We accept most LTC insurance providers and private pay.

Medicare doesn't pay for:

• 24-hour-a-day care at home
• Meals delivered or prepared in your homes
• Homemaker services - Homemaker services include shopping, cleaning and laundry when this is the only care you need, and when these services aren't part of your plan of care.

APFC Home Care is ready to provide all of these non-skilled services.

If you do decide to use a Medicare-certified home health agency make sure they tell you how much Medicare will pay. The agency should also tell you if any items or services they give you aren't covered by Medicare, and how much you'll have to pay for them. This should be explained by both talking with you and in writing. The home health agency should give you a notice called the "Home Health Advance Beneficiary Notice" (HHABN) before giving you services and supplies that Medicare doesn't cover.

All of our Caregivers are carefully screened to make sure they're committed to providing ethical care. However, APFC uses an Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) system that monitors the arrival and departure of home care workers to and from the home of a recipient of services. Customers will receive an attendance report with their monthly invoice.

APFC Home Care conducts thorough background, criminal and reference checks on all of our employees.

Our normal business hours are Monday-Friday from 8:30AM to 5:00PM. However, AFPC is on-call and available to provide services 24 hours a day every day of the year.

APFC offers a minimum of 2 hours of care per visit to 24 hour care (live-in or 12x2). Restrictions may apply. Please Contact Us for more information.

No, an authorization is not required for our services. However, we will work closely with your physician and family caregivers to ensure that we are creating the most comprehensive plan to meet your specific needs.

APFC welcomes anyone within our family bubble which is a 13-mile radius around the APFC Home Base in Medford.

The support the following towns in Burlington county:
Burlington, Chatsworth, Delran, Eastampton, Evesham, Hainesport, Lumberton, Maple Shade, Marlton, Mount Holly, Mount Laurel, Medford, Medford Lakes, Moorestown-Lenola, Pemberton, Shamong, Southampton, Tabernacle, Westampton, Willingboro and Woodland.

The support the following towns in Camden county:
Barrington, Berlin, Cherry Hill, Clementon, Gibbsboro, Haddonfield, Haddon Township, Laurel Springs, Lawnside, Lindenwold, Pine Hill, Somerdale, Stratford, Voorhees and Waterford.