Frequently Asked Questions
About Signature Home Health Care
Can I choose any home health agency I want?
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Yes. Federal regulations guarantee patients freedom of choice. No other organization may restrict your access to any Medicare certified home health agency. They may not refuse to offer other services because you did not choose their home health. They may not restrict your choices to members of their Accountable Care Organization (ACO). Patients have the freedom to choose and the freedom to switch home health agencies at their discretion.
Will adding home health improve coordination of care?
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Yes. Signature Home Health Care does not believe in asking patients to switch doctors. We coordinate closely with your primary care physician or the doctors you are working with currently. Then we make sure the whole health strategy is implemented and help coordinate all your health care from home infusion, to home medical equipment, to private duty. We feel this coordination should be part of the skilled home health care that we provide.
Will Signature Home Health Care help with laundry, cleaning, and other household chores?
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Yes, but there are considerations of which you may want to be aware. Medicare and other third-party payers have only limited coverage for non-medical support such as this built into your medical insurance. If you need more household support than what is allowed under your health insurance, we will make arrangements for you to receive that additional support.
Do you require your patients to be homebound?
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Medicare and most insurance require patients to fit the definition of homebound to pay for home health services. Medi-Cal does not require homebound status. "Homebound" is actually less restrictive than the term itself may imply. Homebound only means that leaving the home requires a considerable and taxing effort and that trips from the home are therefore infrequent and of short duration. Almost anyone can be temporarily homebound due to illness or injury. Trips to religious services will in no way disqualify a person from homebound status.
How does Signature Home Health protect my privacy?
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Signature Home Health Care takes the privacy of our clients very seriously. At enrollment into our services, we will cover with you in detail with whom we will be allowed to discuss your care, and we will create contracts with you to document these agreements. Our standing policy is that we are not allowed to identify our patients in any way except to those people you specify in writing (such as your doctors and your spouse). All our employees are well trained in patient privacy and know to not even identify our patients with their own spouses. Furthermore, all patient records are kept in locked cabinets or locked/supervised areas. We reiterate, we take the privacy of our patients very seriously.
Is it required that Signature work with my primary care physician?
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Because Signature provides a higher level of medical care considered skilled care, state and federal regulations require us to obtain orders from an MD, DO, or DPM who has had or will have face-to-face contact with you recently or soon. While this professional is often your general practitioner, any of your doctors with knowledge of your current medical challenges can sign your home health orders. For instance, our plans of care are often overseen by our patients' cardiologists, oncologists, surgeons, endocrinologists, etc. When you have a skilled need for nursing or therapy, Signature will coordinate with your doctor(s) directly. We do not burden our patients with the task of working as a go-between.
What education programs does Signature offer?
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Our skilled nurses bring into your home an individualized educational program based on your diagnosis. The skilled nurse teaches patient and primary caregiver, for example on: Congestive Heart Failure, Diabetes, Arthritis, Pulmonary Disease, Stroke and Wound Care. A booklet on your diagnosis is provided and the nurse instructs over 6-8 weeks and answers all your questions prior to discharge. The nurse makes sure you understand when to call your primary care provider for abnormal vital signs, a change of condition or onset of particular symptoms related to your diagnosis. Our job while being with you for this period of 9 weeks (sometimes more) allows us to assist you in learning how to better care for yourself. We are showing that with this kind of personalized educational program, patients are less likely to return to the hospital.
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