Non-Medical Home Care
Companion Care Services
Companion care is the cheapest thing we sell and, for a lot of households, the most useful. Not because company is a luxury, but because the person sitting with your mother three afternoons a week is the first person who will notice she has stopped eating. Focus Family Care provides companion care services across seven South Florida and Treasure Coast counties.
What Companion Care Includes
Company and Conversation
The actual service, not a filler item on a list.
Meal Preparation and Eating Together
Because people who eat alone eat badly.
Light Housekeeping and Laundry
Keeping the place in order rather than doing a deep clean.
Errands, Shopping and Prescriptions
Including picking up prescriptions and the weekly shop.
Transportation
Appointments, the hairdresser, church, the store.
Help with Correspondence and Bills
Mail, paperwork and the telephone, which pile up quietly.
Reminders
Medication, appointments, and drinking enough water.
Encouraging Activity
Getting out of the house, which is harder to do alone.
Watching for Changes
Noticing what has shifted and reporting it, which is what makes this a care service.
Quick Answer
Companion care is non-medical, hands-off support: company, conversation, errands, transportation, meal preparation, light housekeeping and supervision. It does not include bathing, dressing or toileting, which is personal care. It is usually the least expensive service and very often the right place to start.
Key Takeaways
- Families buy it for company. What they get is the household's early warning system.
- It is hands-off. Bathing, dressing and toileting are personal care, a different service.
- It is the easiest service to get accepted, which is why it is often the right place to start.
- Medicare does not cover it. Long-term care insurance often does, and that surprises people.
The early warning system nobody buys it for
Families arrange companion care because someone is lonely. What they get, unadvertised, is the household's monitoring system.
A caregiver who is in the house regularly notices things a weekly phone call cannot. The mail piling up. Food going out of date in the refrigerator. The same story told twice in an hour. A bruise on a forearm that nobody mentioned. Weight coming off. A change in how steady someone is on their feet.
Those are the early signals of almost everything that follows: a fall, a UTI, the first stage of dementia, a medication problem. Catching them weeks earlier is the difference between an adjustment and an ambulance.
We ask our companion caregivers to report changes, and a registered nurse reviews what comes back. That is the part that makes it a care service rather than a visit.
If you live at a distance from a parent, this is the single most cost-effective thing you can arrange. It is considerably cheaper than the alternatives and it is the only one that gives you eyes in the house.
What companion care does not include
Bathing, dressing, toileting, transfers or anything hands-on. That is personal care, and it is a different service with different pricing. Many households use both, and the same caregiver can often provide both.
Loneliness is a health problem, not a mood
This is worth stating plainly because families often feel embarrassed arranging care for something that sounds emotional rather than medical.
Sustained social isolation in older adults is associated with worse health outcomes across the board, including cognitive decline, cardiovascular problems, depression and poorer recovery after illness. It is treated as a serious risk factor by clinicians, not as a soft one.
Someone who has stopped leaving the house, stopped cooking properly and stopped speaking to anyone most days is not simply sad. They are on a trajectory, and the trajectory is expensive.
Arranging company is not indulgent. It is early intervention, and it is priced like the cheapest service on the list.
Where to start when someone is reluctant
Companion care is the easiest service to get accepted, which is why we often recommend beginning here even when more will eventually be needed.
Nobody wants a stranger helping them wash. Almost anybody will accept someone who drives them to the store and stays for a cup of coffee. Once that relationship exists, the harder conversations get easier, and the same caregiver can often move into personal care later without the household ever going through an introduction again.
If your parent has refused help outright, say so when you call. We will plan the first few weeks around it.
How it works with everything else
Companion care sits alongside the rest rather than competing with it.
- With personal care: When someone needs both hands-on help and company, and the same caregiver can usually do both. See personal care.
- With skilled nursing: Where the nurse comes for clinical visits and a companion covers the hours in between. See skilled nursing at home.
- As respite: Giving a spouse or an adult child a reliable afternoon off. See respite care.
- After a hospital discharge: When the medical need has passed but being alone is still risky.
Who pays for companion care
- Medicare does not pay for companion care: It is non-medical and it is not part of the home health benefit.
- Florida Medicaid Long-Term Care may cover it: If you qualify. Screening runs through your county's Area Agency on Aging. See Florida Medicaid Long-Term Care.
- Long-term care insurance often covers it: This catches people out in a good way, because policies frequently cover non-medical care that families assumed was private pay only. Dig it out and we will tell you what it actually covers, free.
- Most companion care is privately paid: Because it is hourly and hands-off it is the least expensive way to have someone reliably in the house. We quote in writing and hours can start small.
What we can tell you about our caregivers
Sixty Focus Family Care caregivers are available for companion visits across the seven counties we serve. The minimum visit length is four hours, and from your first call the typical time to a first visit is 48 hours.
Every caregiver passes a Florida Level 2 background screening, and a registered nurse reviews the changes our companion caregivers report.
Where we provide companion care
Companion care services across Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee counties.
How We Know This
Focus Family Care is a Florida-licensed home health agency and nurse registry (License NR #30211928, HHA #299995403) accredited by ACHC. Guidance on this page is reviewed by the agency's Director of Nursing, and coverage details are verified with each family's insurance before care begins.
Sources
- Medicare.gov, Home health services coverage
- Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA)
- National Institute on Aging, Aging in place
- National Institute on Aging, Loneliness and social isolation and their health risks
- Florida AHCA, Background Screening Clearinghouse
- Florida Department of Elder Affairs, Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long-Term Care Program
Insurance & Payment
We Accept Medicare, Medicaid, Private Pay, and 100+ Insurance Plans
Focus Family Care accepts Medicare, Florida Medicaid, private pay, and more than 100 private insurance plans, including most long-term care policies. We verify your coverage at no charge before the first visit.
Not sure what your plan covers? Call (561) 693-1311 for free insurance verification, no obligation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is companion care just someone sitting there?
No. It is company, meals, errands, transportation, household order and, the part families value most in hindsight, someone who notices when something changes and tells us.
Can the same person do personal care later?
Usually yes, and that is the main reason to start with companion care when someone is reluctant. The relationship transfers; a new caregiver would have to build it from nothing.
Does Medicare pay for companion care?
No. Medicare's home health benefit covers skilled care, not companionship. Medicaid Long-Term Care and long-term care insurance sometimes do, and private pay is the usual route.
What is the smallest amount we can start with?
The minimum visit length is four hours. Starting with one or two visits a week is common and often the right way in.
My mother says she does not need company. What do we do?
Do not call it company. Call it a ride to the store, or help with the paperwork, or someone to make lunch. The service is the same and the framing decides whether it is accepted.
How is this different from personal care?
Companion care is hands-off. Personal care is hands-on: bathing, dressing, toileting. Many households use both.
Request Home Health Care Today
Focus Family Care starts care in as little as 24 hours. Call now or request an in-home assessment. We answer around the clock.
515 N Flagler Drive, Ste 350, West Palm Beach, FL 33401