Home Health Aide Certification Issues

Home Health Aide Services

Home health aides provide critical in-home services, often to elderly or disabled patients who wish to avoid nursing home care to remain in the home. Home health aides also enable patients recovering from hospitalization or institutionalization because of illness, injury, or medical treatment to return home earlier or remain in the home for longer periods. Home health aides also assist in providing in-home hospice care to the chronically and terminally ill. Home health aides assist these in-home patients with basic daily activities like bathing and dressing, and may also assist with routine tasks like shopping, cooking, or paying bills. Home health aides often provide these services under the supervision of a registered nurse or other licensed medical care provider with substantial professional education and training. Some home health aides are certified nursing assistants (CNAs). If you are pursuing work as a home health aide, you have chosen a vital, indeed critical, role.

Home Health Aide Reimbursement

Home health aide service reimbursement plays a big role in who gets to serve as a home health aide under what conditions. Many patients cannot afford needed home health aide services. Thus, the federal Medicare program Part A hospital insurance or Part B medical insurance may cover home health aide services. But Medicare pays for home health aide services only when the patient is also receiving skilled nursing or therapy services like physical therapy, occupational therapy, or speech-language pathology services. To qualify for Medicare reimbursement, the home health aide services must also be through a home health care agency that Medicare has certified. While individuals with no training or certification could provide home health services, Medicare and other similar reimbursement limits encourage home health aides and their employers to train and certify for reimbursement purposes. You may well need education, training, and certification to have a home health aide job, income, and career.

Home Health Aide Employment

Home health aide candidates often pursue home health aide employment because it can require less education and training, and thus provides an easier, quicker, less expensive, and less time-consuming route into the healthcare field. Home health aides and certified nursing assistants may also be at their first steps of education, training, and certification for other healthcare careers like licensed practical nurse (LPN) or registered nurse (RN). But candidates also pursue home health aide employment out of a devotion to caring for the disabled and ill. Home health aide employment isn't simply a convenience but a rich ministry to those in the greatest need. Yet no matter your goals, you and your in-home patients are very likely to benefit from formal education, training, and certification as a home health aide. The home health care agency that employs you to place you in patient homes will likely require your training and certification for reimbursement, safety, and competency reasons. Indeed, your agency is likely to have its own Medicare approval and National Association for Home Care certification. Some home health aides also find periodic employment in nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, and other institutions, each likely to require your education, training, and certification.

Home Health Aide State Certification

Home health aide certification programs differ widely from state to state. Some states have no education, training, or certification requirement, while other states require significant education. Some states require substantial training hours and additional substantial work hours. Many states require that the candidate for certification pass a competency evaluation, either separately or as part of an approved training program. States generally require that the candidate complete some form of state-approved training program that may include substantial classroom hours. You will need to determine the state in which you plan to work and then fulfill the state's certification requirements. And keep in mind that no matter what state in which you work, your employing home health care agency may depend on federal Medicare reimbursement, generally requiring that home health aides have at least seventy-five hours of training, including at least sixteen hours of clinical training. Here are a few examples of state requirements:

• New York requires candidates to successfully complete a Home Health Aide Training Program or a competency evaluation program that either the New York State Education Department or the New York State Department of Health has approved. The approved program or school issues the certificate of completion through the New York State Home Care Worker Registry;
• The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs offers a certified homemaker-home health aide (CHHA) credential, authorized under New Jersey Statute 45:11-24(d)(20). Regulations at New Jersey Admin. Code 13:37-14 require the CHHA to complete an approved training program of at least seventy-six hours, including sixty hours of classroom instruction and sixteen hours of clinical instruction in a skills laboratory or patient care setting;
• Pennsylvania's rules and regulations for home health services require home health aides to complete at least sixty hours of approved training, although they may do so during their first three months of probationary employment. Home health aides work through certified home health care agencies under the supervision of a registered nurse;
• California's Department of Public Health, Healthcare Professional Certification and Training Section certifies home health aides under California Health & Safety Code Sections 1725-1742. Candidates must complete an approved training program that includes an examination proving the applicant's knowledge and skills related to basic patient care services; and
• Michigan does not require home health aide certification, but to work for an employer depending on federal Medicare reimbursement, the aide must complete an approved training course of at least seventy-five hours, including at least sixteen hours of clinical training.

Home Health Aide Private Programs and Certification

Private organizations like the American Caregiver Association, and commercial training programs offered by organizations like Southern Technical Institute, CareerStep, and Penn Foster, also offer home health aide training programs and certifications. These programs generally acknowledge that they operate outside of the above regulatory requirements and that their training and certification may not satisfy state certification or federal reimbursement requirements. Depending on your employer and state, private certification through a professional association may or may not qualify you for employment as a home health aide in the state or for reimbursement through state or federal programs. If not, private certification may still provide its own benefits in working for patients not requiring government reimbursement. Just be cautious in pursuing commercial programs that do not satisfy regulatory and reimbursement requirements.

Home Health Aide Issues

Home health care agencies generally expect home health aides to conform their on-the-job conduct to professional standards like those stated in the National Association for Home Care Code of Ethics. You, too, expect to act professionally in your rewarding home health aide career. Yet as rewarding as home health aide work can be, home health aides can face special challenges making it difficult to meet ethical and professional expectations. A Harvard Business Review article summarizes these obstacles to home health aide services, any one of which could create a training and certification issue for your continued home health aide employment and career:

• First, patient preferences aren't always for home health aide services. As a home health aide, you may find yourself caring for patients who would rather have someone else, like a doctor or nurse, provide the care in a different setting, like a hospital or other institution. Patients may thus falsely or exaggeratedly complain of home health aide care not because of true incompetence but because they expect different care;
• Second, the physicians, registered nurses, or other professionals who must order, approve, and supervise home health aide services may, for financial or other reasons, prefer different care in a different setting. You may not get the professional respect and support you need to thrive in your critical home health aide role;
• Third, the home in which you serve as a health aide may lack the equipment and other infrastructure for competent care. You may, for instance, find yourself attempting to provide services without the necessary hospital bed, transfer equipment, shower or bath facilities, and wheelchairs and ramps;
• Fourth, the patient for whom you care may face unreasonable risks in the home setting, especially if skilled medical and nursing services and supporting infrastructure are not available. You may find yourself in a situation in which the patient's safety is at risk because of factors entirely outside your control; and
• Fifth, the regulatory structure for in-home care can be either patchwork or non-existent, leaving home health aides without clear standards and expectations for their care. You may provide perfectly skilled aide care and yet face different and even unreasonable supervisor, agency, or employer expectations.

Home Health Aide Certification Issues

The on-the-job training and clinical practice hours that your certification may require could present you with any of the above issues, interfering with your certification. But the certification process itself could present you with other issues. Home health aide training, examination, and certification programs necessarily challenge the candidate to meet program requirements. You may face claims that you did not complete certification requirements. Those claims may be false, exaggerated, and unfair. Or those claims may be credible but raise issues that you could address if given a fair chance. Home health aide training, examination, and certification issues can include any of the following. Retain national education attorney advisors from the LLF Law Firm, if any of these issues are interfering with your home health aide training, certification, employment, and career.

Home Health Aide Academic Misconduct

Home health aide training programs have extensive classroom components. Classroom instruction requires home health aide candidates to learn not only about care services but also about patient anatomy, systems, and health. Home health aides do not provide medical services. But their classroom training can look like a medical course of study. And classroom assignments and course examinations can lead to allegations of academic misconduct, including cheating, plagiarism, unauthorized collaboration, and falsification of clinical data.

Home Health Aide Failure to Progress

The classroom and clinical demands of a home health aide training program can also lead to allegations that the candidate is failing to progress in meeting program academic standards. Home health aide training programs may not generally award course grades and require candidates to maintain minimum grade-point averages. But they will still have their measures of competence. And failing to meet those measures could result in program dismissal.

Home Health Aide Professional Misconduct

A home health aide candidate's biggest concern may be charges of unprofessional conduct. Home health aides serve in a sensitive setting. They must satisfy the safety and other medical concerns of their supervising registered nurse while also meeting the patient's expectations. In the worst case, that service can feel like operating between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Allegations of incompetent care, insubordination or disrespect toward a supervisor, or neglect or even abuse of a patient can arise when a home health aide does not meet everyone's expectations, reasonable or not.

Home Health Aide Sexual Misconduct

The worst of possible issues, though, may be allegations that the home health aide engaged in some form of sexual misconduct. Training programs and home health care agencies would naturally place patient sexual abuse allegations as among their greatest concerns. Sexual misconduct allegations could also include unwanted sexual advances or offensive sexual comments toward other professionals, not just toward a patient.

Education Attorney Advisor Available Nationwide

Any of the above home health aide challenges could result in your program suspension and dismissal. And if you cannot certify as a home health aide, you won't likely be able to continue your practice, training, and education toward other healthcare jobs and careers. Don't let home health aide challenges ruin your dreams of a rewarding job and career. Retain national education attorney advisors from the LLF Law Firm, Student Defense Team to represent you nationwide for the best outcome for your home health aide issues. Student Defense Team attorneys have successfully represented hundreds of students nationwide on failure to progress, misconduct, unprofessionalism, and other charges and certification issues. Call 888-535-3686 now or use the online service.