Call your Primary Care Doctor (the doctor you go see for a common cold) and let them know you yourself feel like you need a tune-up, or call on behalf of your loved one you recognize is declining.

Simply say, “I was hoping to get a referral and home health order faxed to Absolute Home Wellness at 630-345-3233 for myself/parent/spouse.”

Ugh! We wish this had a simple answer, unfortunately, it is insurances world and we are all just living in it!

There are so many different policies out there, with new ones coming out all the time too. The best way to know is have your Primary Care Doctor (the doctor you go see for a common cold) fax over a referral with your insurance information included. Absolute will run your insurance and see if we are in-network.

Note: Please DO NOT STRESS. We do not take patients without making sure we have clearly discussed finances ahead of time. No secret bills from us, most of our patients have already contributed to Medicare/Insurance most of their life while working and now you rightfully so are on fixed income, we are passionate about protecting that!

Home Health = skilled care (IV’s, wound care, medications, therapy etc. covered by your insurance). Absolute Home Wellness IS Home Health.

Private Duty/Home Care = companion care (sitting with patient for long time periods, light housekeeping, driving to appointments, private pay NOT covered by insurance). Absolute Home Wellness is NOT Private Duty or Home Care.

If a Home Health Company is doing it right, you will have your first visit within 48-hours from the time Absolute Home Wellness received the order/referral. A liaison will be calling you to verify your address and phone number you want used to schedule visits.

Please make sure to answer unknown numbers for a few days as this could be one of our therapists or team members reaching out to you.

You will always hear from our nurses or therapists the evening before.

They get their assignments the day before, and often times we are waiting on the last bit of paperwork from the hospital before reaching out to our patients. (You do not want a nurse or a therapist to come see you, that knows nothing about you… Yikes!) They will call you between 3-7 pm the night before your visit to introduce themselves, touch base about the next appointment and see if you have any questions they can help answer.

NOTE: in busier times of year (holidays and cold and flu season) you might receive a call first thing in the morning, morning of your first visit. This is rare though and we really try to avoid this as much as possible.

We typically come anywhere from 1-3 times per week and stay anywhere from 33 minutes to an hour. How frequently we come truly depends on what is going on with the patient clinically. If you have more needs insurance approves more visits, if you have less needs or are more independent with those needs insurance approves less visits.

It is ok. Truly we mean that from the bottom of our heart. Not only are we living it each day with even our own families but we are taking care of hundreds of your family members too. The worst thing we can do is ignore it, because ultimately if we wait too long that can lead to Hospital stays, Skilled Nursing Facilities “Nursing Homes” and the things your parents/grand parents are REALLY trying to avoid!

Things to Look Out For:

• Leaving things out on top of counter tops, that use to be kept in drawers

  • Basic things like teeth or hair brushing, deodorant etc sometimes they don’t even notice that cognately it is helping them remember if they visually can see it every day so they stop using the drawers.

  • Kitchen counter tops becoming more cluttered? When they reach their hands above their head or below their waist, they might get a little off balance or dizzy. And might not be able to tell you why they aren’t putting away groceries as fast as they use to, but they know they no longer like the task.

• Take a peek at the medications, buy a pill box from Walgreens on your way over and ask them to put their pills in accordingly.

  • You might be very surprised what you find with that group activity

• The car. Well, not so much the car, but the car keys.

  • Sometimes driving is not the safest option anymore. Did you know Marian Joy can do an assessment if you are too nervous to be the bad guy and tell them it is time?

  • Instacart is a beautiful thing. Set up an account together. Have your parent/loved one make a couple saved shopping carts of commonly purchased items and you can manage it for them.

• Cooking is tough and it takes a decent amount of endurance to stand in the kitchen for an extended period of time to make a meal.

  • There are services like Meals on Wheels in your county for seniors. This allows them to stay out of the drive thru, and Stouffers (high salt) foods while not having to exert too much energy in the kitchen.

It is not that bad we promise, we win the hearts of stubborn patients every day. We know a lot of times Home Health is not necessarily needed until after a big hospital stay and that is fine. We are prepared to pick up those pieces and make the situation whole again after discharge. But like anything in life the earlier we are introduced, usually the more effective we can be. We can often reduce the severity of that big hospital stay, but if they know how it works we eliminate the fear and resistance when they REALLY need us. A lot of times if we can work together for tune ups, we can keep your parent/spouse/loved one out of the hospital. We are on their team we want to keep them at home SAFELY as long as possible too! Letting us in allows us to keep them in place.

Standard PT

• Goal: Work on areas of weakness and deficits to improve or reach baseline function

• Treatment plan is tailored to current struggles within the home setting 

  • Examples: stairs, getting in and out of the shower, car transfer

• Shows measurable progress

Maintenance PT:

• Goal: Prevent or slow deterioration or regression  of physical mobility 

  • No improvement anticipated

• Is patient specific NOT based on diagnosis or condition

• Requires the knowledge, judgment, or skill of a qualified PT/PTA

• If family or caregivers can carry out learned exercise SAFELY--- maintenance often is excluded