Your father needs help in the morning and again before bed. That is not one block of care. It is two arrivals, two departures, and possibly two minimum charges.
Do not compare hourly rates yet. First find out how each provider converts the schedule into a bill. The public rules cited below do not set a provider's visit minimum or billing unit. Those terms come from the provider's own agreement. Your job on the phone is to make the provider apply those terms to one real week.
1. Write the schedule as separate visits
Use one line for every time someone must enter the house. Do not combine morning and evening work into a daily total.
Monday morning: arrival _____ departure _____
Monday evening: arrival _____ departure _____
Tuesday morning: arrival _____ departure _____
Tuesday evening: arrival _____ departure _____
Continue through the week. Mark each visit required, optional, or movable. If you have not settled the schedule, use the worksheet in Start Here: Five Steps to Hiring before calling.
2. Ask for the smallest billable visit
Read the first required visit exactly as written. Then ask: "If the caregiver is in the house for this entire window, how much time appears on the invoice?"
Follow with these questions:
"Is there a minimum number of billed hours for each arrival?"
"Does the minimum apply separately to the morning and evening visits?"
"If the work ends before the minimum, is the full minimum still billed?"
"Do you round time? If so, what is the billing increment and which direction is it rounded?"
Write down the unit, not just the rate:
Scheduled time _____ Billable time _____ Billing increment _____
Listen for an answer that converts your actual visit into billable time. "We usually work something out" is not a billing rule. Ask where the rule appears in the service agreement.
3. Ask whether the minimum belongs to the visit, day, or week
A minimum can attach to different parts of the schedule. Do not supply the answer for the provider.
Ask: "Is your minimum measured per visit, per day, per week, or another way?"
Then test the answer: "If we schedule one morning visit and one evening visit on the same day, how many minimums apply?"
Write the response in a sentence:
Each arrival creates _____
Each day creates _____
Each week creates _____
Walk away from the comparison if the representative cannot identify the billing rule or will not show where it is written. You cannot reproduce a total from an undefined minimum.
4. Test a late arrival and an early finish
Ask the provider to apply its rule to both situations.
"If the caregiver arrives late, does the invoice begin at the scheduled time or the actual arrival time?"
"If the assigned work is finished early, may the caregiver leave, and what time is billed?"
"Who records the arrival and departure?"
"What record can the family review before or with the invoice?"
The U.S. Department of Labor's Checklists for Paying Home Care Workers Properly tells families using an agency to make sure the agency records all hours worked and keeps employment records that the family can access if needed. Its sample agreement for home care workers also provides spaces for schedules, hours, and pay terms. These public pages do not decide your invoice dispute, but they show why the written schedule and time record belong in the comparison. Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Checklists for Paying Home Care Workers Properly; Employment Sample Agreement for Home Care Workers.
5. Ask what happens between two visits
Do not assume that a caregiver who returns later is assigned to your father all day. Ask:
"Are the two visits treated as separate assignments?"
"Is any time between them billed to us?"
"Is travel between our home and another client billed to us?"
"Is mileage, transportation, or another charge added when the caregiver returns?"
Ordinary travel from a worker's home to the first work location and home from the final work location is generally treated differently from travel during the workday. Travel performed as part of the job can count as work time under federal rules. Ask the provider to identify which travel, if any, it places on your invoice. Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet 79D, Hours Worked Applicable to Domestic Service Employment.
6. Run the same schedule through the direct-hire lane
If you may hire a caregiver directly, do not compare the caregiver's stated wage with an agency's invoice rate as though both figures contain the same items. First decide who controls the work.
The IRS says a worker may be a household employee when the household controls both what work is done and how it is done. It also says that when an agency provides the worker and controls what is done and how it is done, the worker is not the household's employee. Household employers may have employment tax and recordkeeping duties. Source: Internal Revenue Service, Publication 926, Household Employer's Tax Guide.
Ask a direct-hire candidate:
"Will each visit have a minimum paid length?"
"Will travel between our split visits be paid?"
"Who will keep the time record?"
"Who will handle payroll records and any required employment filings?"
Write the person responsible beside each item. If you have not chosen between the two hiring structures, use Hire a Caregiver in St. Louis: Agency or Direct to separate the jobs before comparing totals.
7. Build one comparison line
Do not ask for a monthly estimate. Ask each provider to price the same sample week from your written schedule.
Provider or candidate _____
Number of arrivals _____
Scheduled hours _____
Billable hours under the stated minimum _____
Rounding rule _____
Travel or mileage treatment _____
Other recurring charge named in writing _____
Sample-week total _____
Agreement page or section supporting the calculation _____
If the representative gives only a total, ask for the arithmetic. The useful answer shows how scheduled visits became billable hours and how billable hours became the total.
8. Get the rule into the document you will sign
Before choosing, request the agreement and mark the provisions for minimum visits, rounding, travel, time records, and added charges. Match each marked provision to the sample-week calculation.
The Department of Labor's home care sample agreement is a voluntary discussion tool, not a statement of every legal obligation. It includes schedule, compensation, reimbursement, and recordkeeping subjects that families and workers can put in writing. Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment Sample Agreement for Home Care Workers.
Stop if the written agreement contradicts the phone calculation, leaves the visit minimum unstated, or permits charges the representative cannot define. Send one written question: "Using the attached schedule, please identify the billable hours and the agreement section that controls each adjustment."
Keep the schedule, calculation, marked agreement, and answer together. Record the public authorities you used on the site's Sources page worksheet. The final comparison should show what happens every time the door opens, not merely the number quoted per hour.