Comfort and Care
for your family in Cary

In-home companion care is non-medical help provided in a senior's home by a trained caregiver. It covers companionship and conversation, light housekeeping, meal preparation, errands and transportation, medication reminders, and safety monitoring. It does not include hands-on body care like bathing or dressing — that's personal care, a related service.

No. Medicare covers only skilled home health — nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy — when ordered by a physician for a specific medical issue. Non-medical companion care falls outside that. Families typically pay privately, use long-term care insurance, or qualify for Medicaid waiver programs in their state. Some Medicare Advantage plans now offer limited supplemental companion benefits.

Companion care runs $25 to $40 per hour nationally in 2026, with most families spending $2,000 to $3,200 a month on a typical schedule of four hours a day, five days a week. The exact rate depends on your city, the agency's overhead, and whether you need evening, weekend, or overnight coverage those carry a 10 to 25 percent premium.

Most agencies can start care within 48 to 72 hours of signing a service agreement and completing the in-home assessment. If you're facing a hospital discharge or family emergency, ask about urgent-start availability — many agencies hold capacity for exactly this situation and can have the first caregiver in your parent's home within 24 hours of the first call.

A typical visit blends companionship with everyday tasks: conversation and shared meals, light housekeeping, meal preparation, errands and grocery shopping, transportation to appointments, medication reminders, and hobbies. The caregiver does things with your parent, not just for them — gardening together, looking at photos, playing cards. That mix is what makes the service meaningful, not any single task.

Most modern long-term care insurance policies cover companion care once the policyholder meets the activities-of-daily-living trigger — usually needing help with 2 of 6 ADLs. Read the policy carefully: many have a 30 to 90 day elimination period (out-of-pocket cost before coverage kicks in) and a daily or monthly benefit cap. Older policies sometimes restrict coverage to clinical care only.

Companion care is non-medical, hands-off — conversation, meals, errands, housekeeping. Personal care adds hands-on help with the activities of daily living: bathing, dressing, toileting, and safe transfers. Most families start with companion care and layer in personal care when their parent's needs grow. Personal care is provided by Certified Home Health Aides; companion care doesn't require certification.

Yes - and they should. A reputable agency assigns a primary caregiver who covers the bulk of scheduled hours, with one or two trained backups for sick days and vacation. Consistency is the single biggest predictor of a good companion-care relationship. When interviewing agencies, ask directly what percentage of clients see the same caregiver every visit; the answer should be 80 percent or higher.