There are many advantages to directly hiring a home health aid to care for your loved one.
The big advantage is that you will get to decide the type of skills and background of the person you hire.
If you hire and pay the aide directly you will more likely get a person you’re loved one will feel safe and comfortable with.
And the reason is that if you go through a home health agency (i.e., they are the aide’s employer), you may pay the agency $40/hr but the worker will get much much less (sometimes as little as $10-12/hr). Your loved one will probably be much happier with the direct hire that you’ll pay $30-40/hr.
If I were hiring someone for my relative, I would go with a retired RN because they have the perfect skill set and need no additional training. And a skilled nurse could do a complete physical assessment when your loved one is ill that would allow the telemedicine provider to safely and effectively treat the patient at home.
Below are the steps that you’ll want to go through.
So first you need a job description of what you want. So just Google “how to write a job description for hiring a home health aide”. You’ll get a bunch of examples that you can use.
Then you’ll want to directly hire your home health aide. And to find people who you’ll feel comfortable with considered retired teachers, for example. I typed into Google “club for retired Indianapolis teachers” [an inelegant phrase but it worked]. And you’ll get a whole bunch of associations that you can post your job to.
Another way to find retired teachers [or whatever group you want – say pharmacists or nurses or anything] you can post local targeted adds on Facebook.
Next you’ll want to pick three or four persons to interview [via Skype or by phone – Skype is better].
Before you interview anyone, you’ll want to run a thorough background check on each person you are considering interviewing. To learn how to do that you will Google “how do I check out potential employees on the internet?”. And just like above, you will get a useful list of “How To’s”
So after you’ve run your background checks and found two or three likely candidates, you’ll email them to set up the Skype interview.
You’ll want to have a prepared list of questions to run through with each interviewee. And so you’ll want to Google “A list of questions to ask a potential employee” and you’ll get a bunch of great website examples.
So out of the three or four potential employees you like, you and your loved one will select one. And the best way to do this is to use Google Hangouts. Google Hangouts will allow you, your loved one, and the potential employee to visit together on a three-way video conference call.
Then you and you’re loved one will select the person who seems like the best fit and you’ll email an offer to that person.
And once she or he has accepted, you’re done except for one more thing.
You or your loved one will have write out the checks and do all the with holding and file the requisite forms with the IRS. You’ll definitely want to do that right.
And you’ll easily find payroll services on line that will keep track of all the employee payroll requirements for you for surprisingly little.
And you’ll want to make sure your employee is enrolled in your state’s workers compensation program.
Although directly hiring a home health aide might seem like a lot work. There is a very big benefit.
If you hire and pay the aide directly you will more likely get a person you’re loved one will feel safe and comfortable with.
And the reason is that if you go through a home health agency (i.e., they are the aide’s employer), you may pay the agency $40/hr but the worker will get much much less (sometimes as little as $10-12/hr). Your loved one will probably be much happier with the direct hire that you’ll pay $30-40/hr.
If this sounds like more work than you have time for, I have a friend I can highly recommend who is a retired insurance executive who does this out of her home. She can do all of the above for you for $200 which is a one-time fee. If you want to use her, email me at tomwademd@gmail.com with your contact information and I will have her get in touch with you.
