Clarifying Care-At-Home Options

Data-Driven Growth for Care at Home

Patients, families, and even healthcare professionals often find it challenging to distinguish between the different types of care services delivered in the home. Is home health the same as home care? How does palliative care differ from hospice? And where does post-acute care fit in? 

In this blog, we’ll clarify the major categories of at-home care—explaining what each entails, who they are designed for, and how Maxwell TEC supports every step of the journey. 

Home Health Care: Clinical Support for Recovery 

Home health care involves skilled clinical services provided in the home, typically following a hospital stay or managing a chronic condition. Services include nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and medical social work². These are ordered by a physician and are often covered by Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance when deemed medically necessary². 

Home health is appropriate for patients recovering from surgery, illness, or managing chronic conditions. It offers an alternative to extended hospital stays or skilled nursing facility admissions by enabling patients to safely recover at home with professional support. 

Home Care: Assistance with Daily Living 

Home care—sometimes called personal care—offers non-clinical support with activities of daily living such as bathing, grooming, meal preparation, transportation, and companionship². Unlike home health care, these services are typically not covered by health insurance and are often paid for privately or via long-term care insurance. 

Home care is ideal for older adults or individuals with disabilities who require assistance to live independently but do not necessarily need skilled medical care². Support can range from part-time help a few days a week to full-time, live-in care. 

Palliative Care: Relief Without Time Limits 

Palliative care provides relief from pain and other symptoms associated with serious illness—regardless of age, diagnosis, or stage of disease⁴. It can be provided alongside curative treatments in settings such as hospitals, clinics, or at home. In addition to physical relief, palliative care supports psychological, social, and spiritual well-being for both patients and families. 

Palliative care can be especially valuable for those facing complex symptoms, repeated hospitalizations, or who need support navigating care options. The goal for palliative care is to improve quality of life—not only for the patient, but also for their families⁴. 

Hospice Care: Comfort in the Final Chapter 

Hospice care is specialized end-of-life care focused on comfort, dignity, and emotional support. The goal of hospice is not to cure illness, but to enhance the quality of life during a person’s final months⁵. Services include symptom management, spiritual counseling, and guidance for both patients and their families—typically delivered by a multidisciplinary team of doctors, nurses, social workers, chaplains, and trained volunteers. 

Hospice can be provided in a patient’s home, in a facility, or a dedicated hospice center. Eligibility requires a physician’s certification of terminal illness, election of hospice care in writing, and an individualized care plan aligned with the patient’s goals and preferences, as outlined by CMS Hospice Conditions of Participation³. 

Post-Acute Care: Bridging the Gap from Hospital to Home 

Post-acute care encompasses wide-ranging services aimed at helping patients recover after hospital discharge. It’s designed for patients who are not yet ready to manage their care independently and may include therapies (physical, occupational, or speech), IV infusions, wound care, and more¹. 

Post-acute care services are delivered in various settings, including the home (via home health or hospice), skilled nursing facilities, and rehabilitation centers¹. The goal of post-acute care is to restore function, prevent rehospitalization, and support the patient’s return to independence or long-term care planning. 

How Maxwell TEC Supports Every Type of Care 

Maxwell TEC is committed to advancing care in the home by empowering providers through purposeful technology and strategic insights. We know that success in this space hinges on having tools that adapt to the unique demands of each care setting. That’s why our tech-enabled solutions are designed to scale across the full continuum of care—from routine check-ins to complex care coordination. 

nanaCONNECT: Strengthening the Patient-Provider Communication 

nanaCONNECT is our core engagement tool that empowers care teams to stay closely connected with patients through automated check-ins and simple self-reported wellness updates. A 1-5 rating system enables patients to easily share how they’re feeling and allows providers to spot changes early and act quickly. 

NOTIFYnana: Keeping Patients in the Loop with their Visits 

NOTIFYnana improves transparency and trust through real-time text notifications about upcoming visits. Patients receive alerts when a clinician is scheduled to arrive, helping reduce missed visits and ensuring everyone stays informed throughout the care process.  

nanaBEREAVEMENT: Modern & Compassionate Bereavement Support 

nanaBEREAVEMENT blends innovation and empathy to transform traditional bereavement outreach into a timely, text-based experience. Using AI-based risk scoring, the platform identifies which families may be more vulnerable during the grieving process—triggering personalized messages and compassionate support when they need it most. 

Caregiver Accelerator: Real-Time Scheduling & Productivity Insights 

Caregiver Accelerator helps care agencies optimize clinician schedules and monitor productivity. With intuitive dashboards and real-time staff utilization data, administrators can better allocate resources, prevent missed visits, and improve consistency of care delivery across the continuum. 

Together, nanaCONNECT, NOTIFYnana, nanaBEREAVEMENT, and Caregiver Accelerator form a flexible, scalable toolkit that supports each phase of the care-at-home journey—from clinical recovery in home health, to daily engagement in personal care, to compassionate outreach in hospice. With technology that’s simple, smart, and human-centered, Maxwell TEC helps agencies deliver care at home that’s not only efficient—but deeply connected. 

Resources 

1. Advantis Medical. "Post-Acute Care vs Skilled Nursing" 
2. Amedisys. "Home Health vs Home Care: What's the Difference?" 
3. CMS. "Hospice Conditions of Participation" 
4. Mayo Clinic. "Palliative Care" 
5. National Institute on Aging. "What Are Palliative Care and Hospice Care?"