Integrated Home Care Services (IHCS) is the nation’s leading home care benefits manager that partners with health plans and at risk provider groups to deliver expertly coordinated, high-quality services to patients at home. Its unique home care model helps keep patient satisfaction high while improving care quality and reducing unnecessary utilization and costs. IHCS offers home care, home infusion, and durable medical equipment (DME).
IHCS FAQs
General
What services does IHCS offer?
IHCS is a comprehensive home care benefits manager that coordinates with health plans via a network of home care providers to deliver a broad range of services in the home, including skilled nursing care, rehabilitation services (PT, OT, speech), social services, respite care, personal care services (from home health aides), attendant care, and skilled private duty nursing. IHCS also provides durable medical equipment (DME) and infusion therapy.
What value does IHCS offer providers?
For healthcare providers that join its network, IHCS offers the ability to expand their practice volumes and revenues while reducing the time and challenges of managing home care services.
What value does IHCS offer patients and their families?
IHCS offers compassionate, coordinated care tailored to meet every patient’s needs, including help with daily tasks, nursing care, physical rehabilitation, specialized equipment, and round-the-clock care.
What is MedTrac?
MedTrac is a proprietary home care insights and outcomes platform that provides real-time visibility across all providers to significantly improve efficiency and care coordination for each patient. It provides a complete picture of the home care ecosystem and connects to other solutions, enabling health plans and home care providers to track and coordinate clinical and administrative tasks. The solution delivers real-time insights that help optimize care and appropriately manage utilization and costs.
Home Health Care
What is home health care?
Home health care refers to a variety of services that are delivered to patients in the comfort of home. IHCS’ home health services include:
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- Skilled nursing, personal care services, rehab services, licensed social services, and respite care. Please click here for additional information
What can I expect at my first home health visit?
The first visit may involve an in-home assessment of your situation. Your coordinator will contact you to schedule the first visit and answer any questions you have.
What services will my home health caregiver provide?
The services will depend on your health condition and specific needs. If you need assistance with daily tasks such as bathing or dressing, a home health aide may be helpful. If you have dressings to change, or need assistance with other nursing tasks, skilled nursing services may be needed.
How long will I receive home care/how many visits will I receive?
The type of services and number of visits will vary by your insurance coverage, specific needs, and overall care plan. Your doctor and your care team can help you know what to expect when they schedule your first visit or during that visit.
Home Infusion
What is home infusion?
Infusion therapy treats health conditions requiring medication, nutrients, or fluids that can’t be taken by mouth. It can be used for a wide variety of serious infections, cancer, dehydration, or gastrointestinal diseases. The home infusion nurse will deliver medication through a vein (intravenously) or through the skin (subcutaneously).
What training does the infusion nurse have?
Infusion nurses have completed an accredited nursing program and have an active RN license. IHCS requires infusion nurses to have one or more years of supervised experience in infusion therapy. It also requires infusion nurses to be certified as CRNIs, the nationally recognized program that requires nurses to have at least 1,600 hours of infusion therapy experience within the past two years.
Is home infusion safe?
Yes. Home infusion is as safe as, if not safer, than infusion services administered in an infusion center. An advantage of home infusion is that patients can avoid the inconvenience and potential risk involved with traveling to and from the center.
How long should I expect the infusion to take?
Infusion times can vary depending on the type of medication being administered, but you should expect an infusion to take somewhere between one half hour to four hours.
Durable Medical Equipment (DME)
How do I order equipment?
Your coordinator will help you get the right equipment on a timely basis.
How much will it cost/how much will insurance cover?
The cost will depend on your insurance coverage. IHCS accepts Medicare, which will cover a portion or all of the costs of medically necessary equipment when a participating health care provider orders it for use in your home.
Do I keep the equipment, or must I return it?
If you are renting the equipment, you will need to return it. If you purchased the equipment, or if there are leftover supplies, you may keep them.
What kind of equipment is available?
A wide range of equipment is available but what you will receive will depend on your medical condition and needs. Equipment includes wheelchairs, hospital beds, canes and walkers, oxygen equipment and accessories, blood sugar meters and test strips, infusion equipment, and much more.
Find a full list here.
Personal Home Care &
Home Health Aide
What kind of activities will my home health aide assist with?
Your aide can help with dressing, bathing, eating, and other common daily tasks in the home. They may also help you with shopping for food, running errands, preparing meals, or doing laundry and light housekeeping.
What is the cost of home care assistance?
To learn about the current cost of home care assistance, please submit an inquiry.
Will I get the same home care staff each time/what home health caregivers will I get?
IHCS strives to have the same staff members care for you throughout the entire time you receive home care, but there may be changes depending on staff availability. Which staff will care for you will depend on your specific health condition and needs.
How do I start/stop receiving care?
If your doctor has ordered home care, home infusion and/or DME services for you, we will contact you about starting care. Many insurers will pay for a specific number of visits, which may determine when you stop receiving care. Your home care provider will review with you how long you can expect to receive care and how often. If you were scheduled to begin services but have not heard from your doctor or a member of our staff, you may call us at 844-215-4264.
What happens if I have an issue with my caregiver?
If you have any concerns with your caregiver, please call us at 844-215-4264. We strive to ensure that our patients are consistently satisfied with our services and will seek to promptly resolve any issues.
How do you select and train caregivers?
IHCS has a rigorous hiring and supervisory process. We ensure our multi-state network of high-quality providers are fully credentialed in their state. We comply with the credentialing standards of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Department of Health, Department of Insurance and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).
What training and experience do home health aides have?
Our home health aides are certified nursing assistants (CNAs) who have been trained for a minimum of 75 to 100 hours and have passed a home health competency exam. Most of our CNAs are highly experienced.
Provider and Referring Physician
How do I become a network provider?
To become a network provider, please complete and submit a credentialing application
How quickly can patients begin receiving services?
We strive to begin providing services within 24 to 72 hours of a referral.
What insurance plans do you accept?
We accept a wide variety of private insurances. Please call 844-215-4264 to inquire about a specific insurance plan.
ABOUT US
Bringing coordinated Home care
to more people
IHCS has over 25 years of experience delivering high quality, coordinated
care that helps people restore their health without leaving home. Serving
more than 2.4 million people in twelve states and Puerto Rico, IHCS is
continually expanding to new areas to better serve more patients.
