The Family Guide to Private Duty Caregiver

This term shows up constantly in home care searches, and it's worth explaining plainly, because it's essentially describing what we do.

What "Private Duty" Means

"Private duty" simply means care that's privately paid — not billed through Medicare or insurance — and typically one-on-one, focused on a single client rather than split across a facility's residents. It stands in contrast to Medicare-covered home health, which is skilled, medical, and comes with strict eligibility rules (a homebound requirement, a physician's order, limited hours). Private duty care has none of those restrictions: it's built around what a family actually needs, on their own schedule.

What a Private Duty Caregiver Actually Does

Personal care (bathing, dressing, mobility), meal preparation, light housekeeping, medication reminders, transportation, and companionship — the full range of daily support that helps someone stay safely at home. Because it's privately arranged rather than insurance-dictated, the hours and services flex around the family's actual situation: a few hours a week, daily visits, or full live-in care.

Private Duty vs. Medicare Home Health

This is the distinction that trips up a lot of families: Medicare home health is skilled, medical, time-limited, and requires meeting specific criteria (homebound status, a physician-certified need for skilled nursing or therapy). Private duty care is broader — no medical necessity requirement, no homebound rule, and it can continue indefinitely as long as a family wants and can arrange it. Many families use both together: Medicare home health for skilled visits, private duty care filling the rest of the week.

What It Actually Costs

Because private duty care isn't insurance-billed, it's paid directly — hourly, based on how many hours a week your family needs. We're upfront that our own investment runs $25 to $42 an hour depending on your specific situation, rather than quoting a national average that has nothing to do with what you'd actually pay.

How Interim Approaches This

We're a non-medical, private duty home care agency — this is exactly the service we provide. If your loved one also has a Medicare-covered home health team involved, we coordinate around their visits rather than working independently.

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 a private duty care schedule could look like for your family.

Learn more about our in-home care, live-in care, and what home care actually costs.