I need a qualified in-home caregiver to help my elderly parent who lives alone. What is the best way to arrange this?

Finding a reliable and trustworthy in-home caregiver for an elderly parent is not always easy. How can you ensure you find a caregiver that your parent likes and is comfortable with? Here are some tips that can help.

Know Your Parent's Needs

Before you start the task of looking for an in-home caregiver, your first step is to determine the level of care your parent needs. For example, if they only need help with daily living tasks like shopping, cooking, doing laundry, bathing or dressing, a "homemaker" or "personal care aide" could be sufficient. If your parent also needs health care services due to a condition or a disability, a "home health aide" can provide all the services a personal care aide does, plus they have training in administering medications, changing wound dressings and other medically-related duties. Home health aides often work under a nurse's supervision.

Once you settle on a level of care, you then need to decide how many hours of assistance they will need. For example, does your parent need someone to come in just a few mornings a week to cook, clean, run errands or help with a bath? Or do they need more continuous care that requires daily visits?

After you determine their needs, there are two ways in which you can go about hiring someone. You can hire someone ither through an agency or you can hire someone directly.

Hiring Through an Agency

Hiring a personal care or home health aide through an agency is the safest and easiest option, but it is more expensive. Costs typically run anywhere between $30 and $50 an hour depending on where you live and the qualification of the aide.

An agency will handle everything including an assessment of your parent's needs, assigning appropriately trained and pre-screened staff to care for them and finding a substitute caregiver on days the aide cannot come.

Some of the drawbacks, however, are that you may not have much input into the selection of the caregiver and caregivers may change or alternate, which can cause a disruption to your parent's routine.

To find a home care agency in your parent's area, use your preferred search engine with key words "home health care" or "non-medical home care" followed by the city and state your parent lives in. You can also visit Medicare's search tool at Medicare.gov/care-compare - and select the button for "home health services."

It is also important to know that original Medicare does not cover in-home caregiving services unless your parent has receiving doctor ordered skilled nursing or therapy services at home too. But, if your parent is in a certain Medicare Advantage plan, or is low-income and qualifies for Medicaid, he may be eligible for some coverage.

Original Medicare may cover eligible home health services for persons who are homebound and need part-time or intermittent skilled services like doctor ordered skilled nursing or therapy services. Medicare, however, will not pay for 24-hour-a-day care, homemaker services unrelated to your care plan or personal care activities, when it is the only care needed. If your parent has Medicare benefits through a Medicare Advantage Plan, you should verify with your plan about home health benefits. If your parent is eligible for Medicaid, they may also receive assistance with personal care activities.

Hiring Directly

Hiring an independent caregiver on your own is the other option, and it can be less costly. Costs typically range between $14 and $28 per hour. Hiring directly also gives you more control over who you hire, which allows you to choose someone who you feel is right for your parent.

Be aware that if you do hire someone on your own, you become the employer and there is no agency support to fall back on if a problem occurs or if the aide does not show up. You are also responsible for paying payroll taxes and compensating for any work-related injuries that may happen. If you choose this option, make sure you check the aide's references and thoroughly conduct background checks.

Savvy Living is written by Jim Miller, a regular contributor to the NBC Today Show and author of "The Savvy Living" book. Any links in this article are offered as a service and there is no endorsement of any product. These articles are offered as a helpful and informative service to our friends and may not always reflect this organization's official position on some topics. Jim invites you to send your senior questions to: Savvy Living, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070.