Home Care

Finding the right home care provider is deeply personal — you're trusting someone to look after the person you love most. Whether it's your mom who needs help with meals and medication reminders, or your dad recovering from surgery, choosing a caregiver feels like one of the biggest decisions you'll ever make. We want you to know: you're not alone in this, and there's no single "right" answer that works for every family.

Home care covers a wider range of services than most families expect. Companion care means someone stops by to chat, prepare a meal, and make sure your loved one isn't isolated. Personal care goes further — help with bathing, dressing, transferring in and out of bed, and toileting. Skilled nursing brings licensed professionals into the home for wound care, IV management, and chronic disease monitoring. Many families start with a few hours of companion care and adjust as needs change, and a good agency will help you scale up or down without penalty.

Cost is almost always the first question families ask, and it deserves a straight answer. Non-medical home care runs roughly $30–$35 per hour nationally, while home health aides average $33–$37 per hour. Full-time care can exceed $60,000 a year. Medicare generally does not cover long-term custodial care, though it may pay for short-term skilled services when prescribed by a doctor. Medicaid, VA benefits, and long-term care insurance can fill gaps — our guide to hiring a home health aide breaks down every payment option in detail.

Our team has reviewed 18 home care providers and put together cost guides and hiring checklists to help you compare your options with confidence. Below you'll find honest, side-by-side assessments of agencies both large and small — their strengths, where they fall short, and what real families have told us about working with them.

How We Evaluate Home Care Providers

Every review on SeniorsList follows the same process. We contact agencies directly, request pricing and service details, verify licensing in each state, and speak with families who have used the service for at least 60 days. We don't accept payment for placement in our rankings, and we update every review at least twice a year as agencies change their offerings.

When we evaluate a provider, we look at five things: caregiver screening and training (do they run background checks and require ongoing education?), care plan flexibility (can you adjust hours week to week without a penalty?), geographic reach (do they actually serve your ZIP code?), cost transparency (will they give you a clear hourly rate before the first visit?), and family communication (how do they keep you updated on your loved one's wellbeing?). These aren't abstract criteria — they're the things that separate a good experience from a stressful one.