The name on the agency listing is not always the name on the aide's pay stub. Some agencies hire and supervise their own aides. Others place an aide who works for a second firm, or fill a shift through a referral arrangement. Neither setup is wrong on its face, but the family should know which one they are buying, because the answer decides whose screening, training, and complaint route apply to the person who comes through the door.
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.
From the file: this desk starts each check from public files, meaning the federal registration of the agency and the Medicare-certified home health lists when the agency is that type. Those files name the agency that holds the registration. They do not name each aide, and they do not show whether a particular shift is filled by the agency's own staff.
Editorial: anything about who employs the aide comes from the agency itself, so write it on the check sheet as an answer to confirm, not as a fact from a file. Put these questions to the agency in writing, so the answers can be compared later.
Ask who the aide's employer of record is, and whether that name matches the name on the agency's contract with the family.
Ask whether any shift is placed through another firm, which firm it is, and whether that firm uses the same training and screening steps as the agency.
Ask who runs the background screening for each aide, what the screening covers, and how the agency hears about a new finding after an aide has started.
Ask who trains the aide, what the training covers, and how the family can see the training record for the person who will come to the home.
Ask who the family calls when an assigned aide cannot come, and whether that person works for the agency or for the placing firm.
Ask whether the agency will give the family written notice when the staffing source for a shift changes.
Read the contract for words such as placed, referred, subcontracted, or provided by. If the aide's name appears on one page and an outside firm's name appears on another, write both on the check sheet and ask which name governs complaints and replacements. Two agencies that give the same answer about the employer are a consistent record. Two answers that disagree are a question to resolve before any decision is made.
Plan the week in a simple grid. Write each day, the name of the employer for that shift, and the back-up person for that shift. If a day shows an employer the family has not been told about, stop and ask before the first shift is booked.
To check a provider on your own, the public-file steps are laid out in How to check a provider yourself, and the five federal lookups are in the guide at How to check any home health agency in five federal lookups. Those lookups confirm the registered name. The employer questions above are the part the agency must answer on paper.