Home health vs home care vs concierge nursing: what's the difference?

Home health, home care, and concierge nursing sound alike but are very different. A plain guide to what each covers, who pays, and which one you need.

Home health, home care, and concierge nursing get used interchangeably, but they are three different services with different providers, different payment models, and different rules. Picking the wrong one wastes weeks. Here is the plain-English difference.

What is home health care?

Home health, or home health care, usually means Medicare-certified skilled care ordered by a physician for a patient who is homebound. It is billed to Medicare or insurance, is time-limited, and is staffed by whichever clinician the agency assigns that visit. It is the right fit when you qualify for a Medicare benefit and meet the homebound requirement.

What is home care?

Home care, sometimes called personal care or companion care, is non-medical help: bathing, dressing, meals, light housekeeping, transportation, and companionship. It is provided by aides, not nurses, and is usually private-pay or covered by long-term-care insurance. It does not include clinical work like wound care or medication management.

What is concierge (private-duty) nursing?

Concierge nursing, which is what Kando provides, is private-pay skilled nursing from a dedicated Registered Nurse, with no homebound requirement and no insurance gatekeeping. You get the same nurse every visit, direct access, and clinical care (wound care, post-surgery recovery, medication management, overnight coverage) on your schedule rather than the agency's.

Side by side

• Home health: skilled, insurance-billed, homebound requirement, assigned staff, time-limited
• Home care: non-medical aides, private-pay, no clinical care
• Concierge nursing: skilled RN care, private-pay, no homebound rule, one dedicated nurse, flexible

Which one do you need?

If you qualify for a Medicare home-health benefit and are homebound, start there. If you only need help with daily activities, home care aides are the fit. If you want skilled nursing, wound care, post-surgery or post-hospital recovery, or overnight coverage without insurance friction and with continuity, that is concierge nursing. Many families use concierge nursing to fill the gap a home-health benefit leaves, or when they do not qualify for one.

Getting started

Kando's concierge nursing serves Frisco, Little Elm, Plano, McKinney, Allen, and North Texas, private-pay with HSA and FSA accepted. See concierge nursing or book a free consultation.

Frequently asked questions