Is there a minimum number of hours for in-home care?

Sheet 17 · Minimum hours

Published September 11, 2026. Desk byline, no clinician. Every fact links to its source.

You have already spent a week on hold. One office in Chesterfield said they book in blocks. A second office in Ballwin said something shorter. A sibling forwarded a blog that treated four hours as a law. Is there a minimum number of hours for in-home care is the question you type when you want a number this desk will not invent for St. Louis. It is a question to ask, then a line to write. This sheet is how to ask it, how to keep Medicare's 28-hour figure out of the companion column, and how to compare two answers without a price table.

Is there a minimum number of hours for in-home care?

Ask the company. Write the answer in their words. Family Caregiver Alliance's hiring sheet is the only public line this desk will use for a minimum: an agency might have a minimum number of hours, for example only four-hour shifts, or a shorter shift at a different rate. That sentence is FCA's example, not a St. Louis ordinance, not a Missouri DHSS rule, and not this metro's floor. Do not print four hours as the local rule. Do not print a dollar. If the person on the phone names a number, that number belongs on your pad with their name.

Ask, out loud: "What is the shortest shift you will staff at this address, on a weekday, on a weekend, and overnight? If I need a shorter block, do you staff it at a different rate, or do you not staff it?" Write yes or no. Leave the dollar off this sheet. FCA also says to request a packet that describes services, fees, and a list of references. Read the packet. Still do not copy a fee onto this page.

A good answer sounds like A number in hours for this address, said as a policy, plus whether a shorter block exists at all. A name attached to the sentence. A packet coming before anyone starts.

Walk away if They will not name a minimum, they treat the question as rude, or they quote a blog as if it were a Missouri rule. A fog is not a schedule.

Put the house on a grid before you dial

The National Institute on Aging's needs page is how you stop guessing. NIA says the best way to know what someone needs is to ask them directly, then look at the house: meals, bathing, clothing, clutter, medications, weight, hygiene, confusion, falls, loneliness, trouble walking. Those observations become blocks: morning, afternoon, evening, overnight. Circle the blocks you cannot cover this week. The minimum-hours question is about staffing those blocks, not a weekly total from a blog.

NIA's getting-started list is the task side: personal care, household tasks, preparing food, transportation. Everyday activities, also called activities of daily living, are bathing, dressing, grooming, using the toilet, eating, and moving around. Some people who live alone simply need someone to check on them. Circle the tasks a hired person will do. Write the town, the days, the blocks, who holds a key, and the emergency contact. FCA's ten tips still apply: talk about a care plan, and ask to meet potential caregivers before the first shift.

Overnight is a shift, not a visit. If you need a person in the house from 10pm to 6am, that block has its own minimum to ask about. Ask whether the person will be awake or expected to sleep, who covers if they are sick, and who holds a key after midnight. Write those answers on the same pad.

Does Medicare's 28-hour figure set a minimum for a companion?

No. Do not put Medicare's number in the companion column. Medicare.gov says that, in most cases, "part-time or intermittent" means you may be able to get skilled nursing care and home health aide services up to 8 hours a day combined, for a maximum of 28 hours a week. That is skilled home health, if the person qualifies and is homebound. It is visits, not presence. It is not a private-pay companion minimum, and it is not a floor for a non-medical shift in Valley Park.

The same Medicare page prints what home health does not pay for: 24-hour-a-day care at your home, or personal care that helps with daily living when that is the only care you need. The long-term care page is one line: Medicare does not pay for long-term care. The 8-hour and 28-hour figures do not tell you how short a companion shift can be. Write VISITS next to Medicare home health. Write SHIFTS next to the hours you are actually trying to book.

Missouri DHSS describes three types of care in the home. Home health is skilled, part-time or intermittent, major payer Medicare. Private duty and private pay is care in shifts, no physician order needed for aide personal care, respite, or companion care, and no license issued in Missouri for that type of company. The hours question on this sheet lives in that third type, or in the Medicaid line if they qualify, not in Medicare's 28-hour sentence. Ask which type you are buying. Write it next to the minimum they name.

What do I write down when two companies give two answers?

You write both. You do not average them. You put them on one pad, in the same columns, with no dollar column. Two answers are a comparison. A comparison that includes a rate is a price table, and this desk does not print one.

Fill this while they are still on the line:

1. Company name, person who spoke, date of the call.
2. Shortest weekday, weekend, and overnight they will staff at this address, in hours. Overnight: awake or expected to sleep.
3. Do they staff a shorter block at a different rate? Yes or no, and the hours they named. No dollar on this line.
4. Which of Missouri's three types they say they are.
5. Towns they can staff this week, and the first date they can start if you say yes today.
6. Who covers if that person is sick. FCA says an agency can provide a substitute if a worker is sick. You want that as a process, not as a hope. Packet coming? Read it. Still no rate on this page.

A good answer sounds like Two rows filled. Different numbers are allowed. You can see which office will staff the morning block you circled.

Walk away if They will not put a number on a weekday, they will only talk in weekly totals with no shift length, or they mix Medicare's 28 hours into the companion answer.

If both answers are longer than the block you circled, you have a staffing fact. You can book the longer block, or you can look at the private-hire lane.

The private-hire lane: you set the hours

If you hire the person yourself, you set the hours. Family Caregiver Alliance says that in the private-hire lane you are responsible for hiring, firing, payroll taxes, and all aspects of being an employer. If the worker is sick, it is your responsibility to find alternate help. Always check references. You can write "Tuesday and Thursday, 8am to 11am" on a job description. You still own backup, and you still own the tax question.

The IRS does not care what you called the person on the fridge sheet. Topic 756 says household workers are your employees if you can control not only the work they do, but also how they do it. This sheet does not compute a payroll and does not print a wage. Read the tax sheet before you make an offer that names a short daily block.

Who pays the block you just named

A minimum in hours is not a payment plan. Medicare does not pay for the companion hours. Who writes the check for the block is a different desk. Paying for Care STL is the sister page for who pays the block. Name the hours before you argue about the bill.

Missouri has 10 Area Agencies on Aging. Aging Ahead covers St. Louis, St. Charles, Franklin, and Jefferson counties. The St. Louis Area Agency on Aging covers the city, (314) 612-5918. The Eldercare Locator is 800-677-1116. Those numbers find doors. They do not set a minimum shift.

What to do tonight

1. Draw the four blocks: morning, afternoon, evening, overnight. Mark which ones you cannot cover this week.
2. Circle the NIA tasks that apply. Write the town at the top of the pad.
3. Call one company. Ask the shortest-shift question for weekday, weekend, and overnight. Write the exact answer, the name, and the date.
4. Call a second company with the same script. Fill the same columns. Do not add a dollar column.
5. If both answers are longer than the block you circled, open the tax sheet before you offer a private hire those same hours. You set the hours. You still own backup and taxes.

When to ask the care team or the doctor

How many hours a parent "needs" in a medical sense, whether they can be left alone between blocks, and whether overnight is a safety question rather than a convenience question are calls for the physician. A fall, a new confusion, or a hospital discharge that said they cannot be alone is not something this desk will translate into a shift count. Ask the doctor what they meant, in hours if they will say it, then staff the gaps you can see. If home health is ordered, write VISITS next to it, and do not wait for those visits to cover the morning block you already know is empty.

Featured, and paid for

New Plan Care

New Plan Care is an independently owned non-medical in-home care company based in Chesterfield, Missouri. Call (314) 405-0887 and ask them the minimum-hours question like you would ask anyone: shortest weekday, weekend, and overnight they will staff at your address. This desk does not invent that number. Ballwin, Chesterfield, Eureka, Glencoe, Grover, Pacific, Valley Park and St. Louis.

New Plan Care pays for this spot. It is a client of OwnersFirm, which publishes this site, so read it as an advertisement with a phone number rather than as a result, a rank or a recommendation drawn from any of the articles on this page.

Next sheets

• How fast can a home care agency start after the first call
• If I hire a caregiver myself, do I have to pay taxes?

Sources opened 11 September 2026. Full list on the sources page.