How to Choose a Home Care Agency in Indianapolis: 12 Questions to Ask

Letting a stranger into your parent’s home is a big decision. A search for home care in Indianapolis returns dozens of agencies, and most of their websites promise the same things: compassionate, reliable, trusted. It is hard to tell them apart until something goes wrong.

Here is how to choose a home care agency: confirm the type of care you need, check the agency’s Indiana license, ask how caregivers are screened and supervised, compare written costs, and make sure the agency accepts your way of paying.

This guide on how to choose a home care agency gives you the checks to run, the 12 questions to ask, and the red flags to watch for. We are Vital Home Care, a family-owned agency in Fishers serving Central Indiana since 2016, and we encourage families to ask us every one of these questions.

How to choose a home care agency: start with the type of care

Make sure you are comparing the right kind of agency before you compare prices or caregivers.

	Non-medical home care	Home health
What it covers	Bathing, dressing, meals, housekeeping, companionship, supervision	Skilled nursing and therapy ordered by a doctor
Indiana license	Personal services agency (PSA) or home health agency	Home health agency
Who usually pays	Private pay, Medicaid waivers, VA, long-term care insurance	Medicare, Medicaid or insurance
How long it lasts	As long as it is needed	Usually short term, while there is a skilled need

Many families need both at different times. Our guide to home care vs home health in Indiana explains the difference in more detail.

Is the agency licensed in Indiana?

Any agency that provides non-medical personal care in Indiana must be licensed by the Indiana Department of Health. Ask for the license and check that it is current.

A license matters because it comes with rules. According to the state’s personal services agency requirements, a licensed agency must:

• Run criminal background checks on staff.
• Evaluate each caregiver’s skills for every task before they do it alone.
• Write and sign a service plan before care starts.
• Give you a written statement of client rights, including how to complain, within seven days of starting services.
• Have a manager or designee you can reach 24 hours a day.
• Review your satisfaction with services regularly and investigate complaints.

Families can report problems with a licensed agency to the Indiana Department of Health complaint line at 1-800-246-8909.

12 questions to ask a home care agency

When you work out how to choose a home care agency, ask every agency the same questions so you can compare their answers fairly.

Caregivers and training

1. Are your caregivers W-2 employees, or independent contractors?
2. What background checks do you run, and how often?
3. What training do caregivers get, including dementia care training?
4. Can we meet the caregiver before the first visit, and can we ask for a different one?

Care plan and supervision

5. Who does the first assessment, and how often is the care plan reviewed?
6. Who supervises caregivers, and how often does a supervisor visit?
7. What happens if our caregiver is sick or cannot come?
8. How do you handle an emergency during a visit?

Cost and payment

9. What is the hourly rate, and is it higher for nights, weekends or holidays?
10. Is there a minimum number of hours per visit or per week?
11. Do you accept our Medicaid waiver, PathWays plan, VA authorization or insurance?
12. How much notice do you need to change or cancel care, and is there a contract?

For typical prices in our area, see our guide to home care cost in Indianapolis.

How do you check reviews and references?

Reviews show patterns that a sales call will not. Read them for what keeps repeating, not for one angry or glowing comment.

Look at Google reviews from the last year and note how the agency responds to complaints. Ask the agency for references from families with needs like yours, such as dementia care or overnight shifts, and ask those families how the agency handled a missed visit or a change in the care plan. Your loved one’s doctor, a hospital discharge planner or your Area Agency on Aging may also know which local agencies families trust. In Marion County and nearby counties, that is CICOA.

If you are still deciding how to choose a home care agency after these calls, trust the agency that answered plainly, put things in writing and asked as many questions about your loved one as you asked about them.

What are the red flags when choosing a home care agency?

Part of how to choose a home care agency is knowing when to walk away. Be careful if an agency cannot give clear, written answers.

• It will not share its Indiana license or the license is not current.
• Caregivers are contractors, and you would be responsible for taxes or injuries.
• There is no written care plan or no clear supervisor.
• The price is vague, or fees appear that were not explained up front.
• It pressures you to sign a long contract quickly.
• Online reviews mention missed visits with no replacement.
• It says it can manage medical tasks that its license does not allow.

How do you compare agencies side by side?

A side-by-side checklist is the simplest tool for how to choose a home care agency. Fill this one in for each agency you call.

What to check	Agency A	Agency B	Agency C
Current Indiana license
Caregivers are employees
Written care plan and supervisor visits
Backup caregiver policy
Hourly rate and minimums
Accepts our payment source
Start date

If you rely on Medicaid, check two extra things: whether the agency is an approved provider for your waiver, and whether it is in network with your PathWays for Aging plan. Vital is in network with all three Indiana PathWays plans: Anthem, Humana and UnitedHealthcare.

What if your current home care agency is not working?

You can change agencies without starting over, and often without losing your approved hours.

If you have missed visits, frequent caregiver changes or poor communication, a new agency can coordinate the switch with your care manager or health plan. Our page on switching home care agencies in Indiana explains how it works.

Why families choose Vital Home Care

• Family-owned and based in Fishers, serving Central Indiana since 2016.
• Non-medical home care, respite, overnight and live-in care, plus paid family caregiving.
• In network with Anthem, Humana and UnitedHealthcare for PathWays for Aging.
• Help in English and Spanish, with a same-day callback.

We serve Indianapolis, Fishers, Carmel, Noblesville, Westfield, Greenwood, Zionsville, Avon and Plainfield. See all of our home care services.

Conclusion

Knowing how to choose a home care agency comes down to a few checks: be clear on the type of care you need, confirm the Indiana license, ask how caregivers are screened, trained and supervised, get costs in writing, and make sure the agency accepts your payment source. Use the 12 questions and the checklist above with every agency you call, and walk away from vague answers. The right agency will welcome your questions.