In-home care in the Rochester area

What kinds of home care agencies does New York license?

New York licenses certified home health agencies (CHHAs), which provide Medicare and Medicaid skilled home health services, and licensed home care services agencies (LHCSAs), which provide aides and nursing paid privately or through Medicaid plans.

The Department of Health's roster shows 3 certified home health agencies, 44 licensed home care services agencies and 5 hospice licenses with office addresses in the five counties; agencies based elsewhere also serve the area, so ask each one about its service area.

What does home care cost around Rochester?

CareScout's 2025 New York median for a non-medical caregiver is $35 an hour, about $6,673 a month at 44 hours a week; local agency rates vary, and many set minimum visit lengths.

Medicare pays only for skilled home health under a doctor's plan, not hourly aides.

Which programs pay for home care?

Medicaid pays through Managed Long Term Care plans and CDPAP after an assessment by the New York Independent Assessor Program, PACE covers it through ElderONE in Monroe, Ontario and Wayne, and EISEP helps non-Medicaid seniors 60 and older through the Office for the Aging.

NY Connects in each county is the best first call.

What should Rochester families ask a home care agency first?

Ask whether the agency is a CHHA or LHCSA, how it screens and trains aides, what its minimum visit length is, how it covers call-outs and snow days, and who to call after hours.

Ask for the same aide each visit where possible. Continuity matters more than almost anything else in home care.

How do home care and a residence compare over time?

Home care is flexible and keeps a parent at home, but costs rise with each added hour, while a residence's cost is more predictable; many families move from one to the other as needs grow.

See the hourly math for the break-even point.

What does a home care aide do and not do?

A home care aide helps with bathing, dressing, toileting, meals, light housekeeping and companionship, and a home health aide working under a nurse can also help with some health tasks, but aides do not give injections or make clinical decisions.

Ask the agency for the written plan of care so everyone knows what the aide will do on each visit.

Where is in-home care licensed across the Rochester area?

Here is how the Department of Health's roster distributes in-home care across the five counties; agencies and hospices have no bed count.