Does Medicare Cover Home Health Care?

The short answer is yes, but conditionally — and what it actually covers surprises a lot of families who assume it works like general insurance for daily help.

What Medicare Actually Covers

When the eligibility criteria are met — homebound status, a physician-certified skilled need, care from a Medicare-certified agency — Medicare Part A and/or Part B covers intermittent skilled nursing care, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, and medical social services, along with a home health aide if you're also getting skilled care.

What Medicare Does NOT Cover

This is the part that catches families off guard:

• 24-hour care at home
• Meal delivery services
• General housekeeping unrelated to your care
• Personal care alone, without an accompanying skilled nursing or therapy need — Medicare won't pay just for help with bathing or dressing if there's no other skilled service involved

Why This Gap Matters

Most families researching this are looking for ongoing daily support, and that's precisely the part Medicare's home health benefit doesn't fund. It's built around short-term, skilled, intermittent care — not the kind of consistent daily help many aging or recovering adults actually need.

What Fills That Gap

Non-medical home care — personal care, meals, mobility, companionship — isn't Medicare-covered, but it also doesn't require Medicare's restrictive eligibility. It's privately arranged and can continue as long as a family needs it, filling exactly the gap Medicare home health leaves.

Using Both Together

If your loved one does qualify for Medicare home health, that coverage typically handles the skilled, intermittent visits, while non-medical home care covers the daily, ongoing support around those visits. The two aren't competing services — they're often used side by side.

How Interim Fits In

We provide the non-medical side of that equation, coordinated with any Medicare-covered home health team already involved.

Our 7th Week Guarantee

No long contracts. If you don't feel the difference after six weeks of care at 20 or more hours a week, your seventh week is free.

Get Started

Call us at (801) 401-3515 to talk through what kind of support actually fits your family's situation.

Learn more about who qualifies for home health care services, our in-home care, and what home care actually costs.