This sheet is about the clock. An agency total is built from billed time, and billed time is counted by rules that often sit on a different page from the headline offer. Two offers can look alike on the front page and produce very different totals once the clock rules are applied. Use this sheet to find those rules before you compare.

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Pull the paper and mark it

Gather the written offer, the service agreement, and any policy or fee sheet the agency hands out. Mark each page FROM THE FILE if it came from the agency, and EDITORIAL if it is your own note or a question you still need answered. Keep the two marks apart so you never mistake a guess for a term.

Find the rounding rule

Search the pages for words such as round, increment, unit, or block. Some agencies bill in fixed blocks, so a short visit can still bill as a full block. Others round to a small unit, which changes the total only a little on each visit but adds up across a plan. Ask for the rule in a plain sentence, then copy that sentence onto your sheet word for word.

Find the minimum visit length

A minimum means a visit shorter than the floor still bills as the floor. Ask whether the minimum applies to every visit or only to some visit types, and whether it applies on the first day of a new plan.

Find the gap time

When a helper moves from a client to the next, the time between them is a cost question. Ask whether the time between back-to-back visits is billed to the family, paid to the helper, or not billed at all. Ask where that time appears on the schedule and on the invoice. If the answer is not written down, mark it EDITORIAL until it is.

Find the short-notice line

Ask what happens when the family changes a visit on short notice, cancels one, or asks for a visit moved to another day. Some agencies keep the time on the bill, and some do not. Write the answer as the agency gives it, including any notice period the agency names.

Compare on the same clock

Ask each agency to write out a sample week of your planned visits, then mark what that week bills under each rule. Compare the sample weeks, not the headline lines. A lower headline line can sit on top of a stricter clock, so the sample week is where the real difference shows.

Health questions go to the family's doctor. This sheet covers only how time is counted on paper.