Home health care is skilled medical care, like nursing or physical therapy, ordered by a doctor and often covered by Medicare, while home care is non-medical support with daily activities such as bathing, meals, mobility, and companionship, and the two are frequently used together during recovery from surgery or illness.
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What Home Health Care Covers
Home health services are prescribed by a physician and delivered by licensed professionals, nurses changing wound dressings, physical therapists rebuilding strength after surgery, or occupational therapists helping relearn daily tasks. These visits are usually short term, tied to a specific medical need, and end once that clinical goal is met.
What Home Care Covers
Home care, sometimes called non-medical or personal care, focuses on everything a doctor’s order does not include: help getting dressed, bathing safely, preparing meals, managing a medication schedule, running errands, and simply having someone present for safety and company. It can continue for as long as a family needs it, not just while a prescription is active.
Why Families Often Need Both After Surgery
A senior recovering from hip surgery might have a physical therapist visiting twice a week through home health, while a home care caregiver is there daily to help with the tasks that PT does not cover, transfers, hygiene, meals, and getting to follow-up appointments. Without that daily support, the clinical progress from home health visits can stall.
Premier Homecare Services provides the non-medical side and coordinates directly with your loved one’s home health team or surgeon’s office, so care in Miami-Dade stays consistent instead of siloed between providers.
To see exactly what a home care plan includes day to day, read what post-surgical home care is and who needs it, and for more on the clinical side, our piece on nurse case management covers how the two connect.