Do home health aides help with bills?

I would never have an aide handle finances. I would think this is a no no with the agency too. Too many ramifications. An insurance company will not talk to them. I had to prove POA to talk to anyone about Moms acct. You can pay online or have electronic pay set up. I find that Medicare and my suppliment are usually correct with payments. The only time I have problems is when the provider uses the wrong code.

That’s asking for trouble. Unless they will pay them from their own $$. Your financial information is personal & private. You’re inviting trouble

Candee, it would be in the best interest of the client to have his/her financial Power of Attorney to take over the bill paying, and the medical Power of Attorney to call the health insurance companies.

The caregiver Agency I had used, they did have caregivers who were good at bookkeeping and since the Agency was bonded the client would have little to worry about. I know, there is always a first. My Dad a habit of leaving his bank and stock statements out for anyone to see, so his day caregiver made sure those were placed in Dad's desk, or upside down in the filing tray.

When I took over the bill paying for my Dad, his checks also had to have my name on the checks and my signature on file with the bank. I had all of Dad's bills and statements sent to my house which made it much easier.

Yes, there will be clients who want full control of their money. The caregiver could help that client by writing out the check but having the client sign the check, and the client balance the checkbook.

Totally agree with CWillie. I found it hard to even adjust to strangers in the house, moving things around at will b/c they thought a different placement was better than what my father had worked out over the years.

I think it's just too much temptation, and too much responsibility. We assume that others are automatically going to have our level of financial savvy and bill paying, but that may not be true.

I was rudely awakened to different levels of knowledge during a short stint with private duty caregivers. Two used undiluted bleach in a closed area (one got sick), one used a wet washcloth on a plugged in electric strip with 3 cords to appliances, one got lost while driving about 6 - 7 miles in an area in which she grew up, two out of three misrepresented in the company log what level of work they did....lots of fudging. What they claimed to have done couldn't possibly have been accomplished in the time they were there.

I shudder to think of the disasters that could happen if I gave them any level of financial control.

No. I would never ask this of a caregiver and if I were a caregiver myself I would never accept this responsibility. There is just too much opportunity for things to go wrong: who is at fault if there is a missed payment? what if the caregiver misappropriates funds? what if the family accuses the caregiver of doing so unjustly?

In this digital day and age it is simple to arrange for bill information and payments to be directed automatically to the POA  and even daily expenses can be safeguarded by exclusively using plastic money.