For those who receive Medicare services in their homes, there is a concept called ‘homebound’. The nurse or therapist coming to visit you at home will ask you questions about this and it can sometimes be confusing as to what being homebound actually refers to.
To be eligible for Medicare services at your home, you must be classified as being homebound. This means that you are not able to leave your home due to a medical condition or the condition requires special transportation or assistive services. Even though you are homebound, you may still go to kidney dialysis, cancer treatments, doctor or dentist visits or to a hospital for laboratory testing or x-rays. These are all considered infrequent and short visits and would still qualify you as homebound. You may even occasionally go to religious services, to the hairdresser or barber, go to holiday dinners with your family or to a friend’s funeral. These occasional absences from the home would be considered appropriate.
If, however, you are going to a social function on a weekly basis, going on vacation or to a weekend retreat, you would not be considered homebound. The nursing and therapy staff will be suspicious if you are regularly not home when they attempt to visit. Medicare requires that you maintain your homebound status to receive your care at home. If you are able to leave your home, with the exception of going to a therapy center or hospital, you will no longer be eligible for home based care due to your improving condition.
If you have questions about whether you are eligible for Medicare due to being homebound, talk to your physician or a nurse at the office. The therapy staff and nurses that visit you at home can also answer any questions you may have.
If you have trouble speaking to healthcare professionals, contact us to help open the lines of communication in order to get your questions answered.