If You Need: Private Duty Nursing Services

If you need someone to provide nursing care for long periods of time, you may need a private duty nursing service. Some people need a nurse for only a few hours each day, while others need 24-hour care. Most private-duty nursing services offer:

Fees are charged for nursing services. Prices vary and depend on the skills of the person needed to provide the care. Some private insurance groups will pay all or part of the costs of private-duty nursing.

How Private-Duty Nursing Services Can Help

Private-duty nursing services can help by:

How Do You Find These Services?

The best way to find a private-duty home care service is to ask your doctor, nurse, or social worker to recommend an agency. You can also look in the Yellow Pages of your phone book under "Nurses" or "Home Health Services."

To obtain private insurance payment for this service, your doctor must state in writing that you need this type of care.

Private home care services are available from home health agencies and other private nursing agencies.

Your local American Cancer Society may also provide information about these services.

Helpful Hints

Before choosing a private nursing service, it is best to look at several and compare prices and types of care given.

Ask the home care service how the people who give home care have been trained and how they will be supervised. You should also ask if their workers are bonded.

If your insurance company will cover home health care costs, ask your nursing service to contact your insurance company about payment. Ask if the nursing service can bill the insurance company directly.

Remember that Medicare and state medical assistance programs will not pay for a private duty nursing service.

The pamphlet, "How to Select a Home Care Agency", will be useful in choosing a private duty nursing service. The cost of the pamphlet is $1.25. To get this pamphlet you can write or call:

National Association for Home Care
519 C Street NE
Stanton Park
Washington, DC 20002
1-202-547-7424

Some people with cancer need a non-skilled person to stay with them for part of each day or even 24 hours a day. They do not need and cannot afford to pay the rates charged for a private duty nursing service. In this case, there are some options to think about:

This Fact Sheet is adapted from the book, Helping People Cope: A Guide for Families Facing Cancer, written by Joan F. Hermann, ACSW, Sandra L. Wojtkowiak, RN, MSN, Peter S. Houts, Ph.D., and S. Benham Kahn, MD, and supported by the Pennsylvania Cancer Control Program of the Pennsylvania Department of Health; 1990 Revised edition.

c 1993, American Cancer Society, Inc.

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