The home health benefit requires the patient to be homebound.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Not sure
• D. Partly

Answer: (A)

True. For Medicare’s home health benefit, being homebound is a key eligibility requirement. This means the person is ordinarily unable to leave home and would require considerable effort or assistance to do so because of illness, injury, or frailty. There are limited exceptions: brief or infrequent trips for medical treatment, religious services, or similar essential needs are allowed, but regular, unsupervised outings would generally mean the person is not considered homebound. When homebound status is certified by the physician and documented in the plan of care, skilled services such as nursing, therapies, and home health aide can be provided at home. If someone is not homebound, home health services under this benefit typically aren’t covered, and alternative care arrangements would be considered.