Vermont home health agencies

The Vermont Division of Licensing and Protection lists 9 licensed home health agencies. 6 of Vermont's fourteen counties have none licensed to them, so coverage in those counties comes from a neighbouring agency or through a discharging hospital.

Home health is clinical care ordered by a clinician — nursing, physical or occupational therapy, wound care — usually for a defined episode and often covered by Medicare. Home care is non-medical help with daily life, open-ended, and paid privately or through Vermont Medicaid. Both can run in the same house on the same day.

Medicare can cover home health services when a clinician orders them and the qualifying conditions are met. It does not cover long-term non-medical home care. The episode is time-limited, so ask on day one how long it is authorised for and what happens when it ends.

Bennington, Essex, Franklin, Grand Isle, Orange, Windham have no home health agency licensed to them in the state directory. That does not mean no service is available — it means the agency serving an address there is licensed elsewhere, so confirm coverage for the specific address rather than the town.

It starts with a clinician's order, most often through a hospital discharge planner or a primary care practice. Families cannot self-refer into a Medicare home health episode. If the need is help with bathing, meals, company or supervision, the service you want is home care, and that you can arrange directly.