Editorial: A signed agreement shows that the family and the agency agreed to terms on one day. It does not show that the agency is insured on the day you read it. Certificates carry their own expiration lines, and those lines pass whether anyone is watching or not. This guide sets out what to keep, who owns each renewal, and what to do when a renewal is late.
Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.
Ask for the certificate, not a verbal assurance. Ask the agency for its current certificate of liability insurance and for any bond it carries. Ask it to name the insurer and the expiration line. A spoken yes is not a file.
Match the name. From the file: Check that the certificate names the same company that signed your agreement. Check that company name against the public listing you pulled when you checked the agency. If the names differ, ask the agency to explain the difference in writing before you rely on the certificate.
Mark the line. Editorial: Write the expiration line on your copy of the certificate and on the household file cover. Keep one copy in the household binder and one with the agreement.
Name the renewal owner. Pick one person in the household to own the renewal. That person asks the agency for the renewal certificate before the old expiration line runs out, and writes beside the old line the day the new paper arrived. A renewal with no owner is the one that lapses.
Ask for renewals to arrive without a request. Ask the agency to send each renewal certificate as soon as its policy renews, and ask it to confirm in writing that it will do this. Editorial: The agency decides what it sends. The family decides who checks what came in.
Check what arrived. When a renewal comes, compare it to the old certificate. The insurer, the company name and the type of coverage should match, unless the agency has told you in writing why they changed. Keep both copies until the new one is filed.
Handle a gap in writing. If a certificate lapses before its renewal arrives, ask the agency to explain in writing what covers the gap and whether any visits are paused while it is resolved. Do not assume coverage continues because the visits continue. Editorial: A gap is a question to put on paper the same day it is found.
Keep the record. Keep one line per renewal in the household binder: which document it is, which expiration line it replaces, when the new paper arrived, and who checked it. Over time this log is the proof that the arrangement was kept current.
Pair it with the public check. The insurance paper is one check. The registration and listing checks are separate and run on their own. The five federal lookups for those are explained here: How to check any home health agency in five federal lookups.