Personalized Home Care in Austin

There's rarely one dramatic moment — it's usually a pattern. Watch for missed meals, unopened mail and unpaid bills, a fall or near-falls, confusion about the medication schedule, a home that's no longer kept up, giving up driving, or pulling back from friends and activities. Another sign is in the mirror: you or a sibling are exhausted from filling the gaps. Non-medical home care can start small — a few hours a week for meals, errands and companionship — and grow as needs change. If this sounds familiar, request a complimentary in-home consultation in Austin or call (512) 430-4354.

It starts with a conversation. You call (512) 430-4354 or reach out online, and we schedule a complimentary in-home consultation anywhere in the Austin area — from Round Rock and Georgetown down to Buda and Kyle. Together we build a care plan around your family's routines: which days, which hours, which tasks. We then match a trained, background-checked caregiver to your loved one's needs and personality, and our office handles scheduling, supervision and backup coverage. The plan isn't fixed — hours can go up or down as needs change. Start with a complimentary consultation.

Most people want to age where life happened — their own kitchen, their own street, their own neighbors. Home care is built around that wish. Care is one-on-one, so attention isn't divided among a floor of residents. Hours flex to what you actually need, from a few hours a week to around-the-clock schedules, instead of a facility's fixed structure. Family stays close and involved, and routines — pets, gardens, breakfast habits — stay intact. For many Austin families it's the least disruptive way to add support. See how home care works.

Less than most families expect. Medicare covers part-time, intermittent skilled home health — skilled nursing and therapy ordered by a doctor for someone who is homebound. It explicitly does not cover 24-hour care at home, home meal delivery, homemaker services unrelated to a care plan, or "custodial or personal care" (help bathing, dressing, using the bathroom) when that's the only care needed. That last category is exactly what non-medical home care provides, so families typically pay privately or use long-term care insurance. Ask us about paying for care in Austin — the consultation is complimentary.

Medicare covers home health care only in a specific situation: a doctor or other provider sees you face-to-face, confirms you need care and orders it; you need part-time or intermittent skilled services (nursing or therapy); and you're homebound — leaving home takes considerable effort or isn't recommended. Even then, coverage is limited to part-time hours. Medicare does not pay for long-term custodial care — the ongoing non-medical help with daily living that most aging-in-place families actually need. For that, families plan privately. Talk through your options at a complimentary consultation.

Non-medical home care covers the everyday things that keep life at home working: personal care (bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting and transfers), meal planning and preparation, light housekeeping and laundry, medication reminders, errands and transportation to appointments, companionship and engagement, support for people living with dementia, respite for family caregivers, and overnight or around-the-clock schedules. ABS Austin serves Austin, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Lakeway, Pflugerville, Leander, West Lake Hills, Buda and Kyle. Every plan is custom — tell us what your family needs.

Professional caregivers — trained, background-checked and supervised by the agency's office team. A caregiver's day is shaped by the care plan: help with bathing, dressing and grooming; preparing meals; light housekeeping; medication reminders; driving to appointments and errands; and genuine companionship — conversation, walks, cards, a shared cup of coffee. What a non-medical caregiver doesn't do is nursing: no injections, wound care or clinical procedures. At ABS Austin we match caregivers to clients by needs and personality, not just availability, because the relationship is most of the job. Meet us at a complimentary consultation.

Yes, for those who qualify. Texas Medicaid's STAR+PLUS managed-care program serves adults 65 and older and adults with disabilities, and it covers long-term services and supports — including personal assistance services, described by Texas HHS as "help in your home with basic daily activities." Its Home and Community Based Services program helps people stay at home who would otherwise need a nursing home. Eligibility runs through Texas HHSC, with income and functional requirements, and services are arranged through your Medicaid health plan. If you're weighing every way to pay for care in Austin, start with a complimentary consultation — we'll point you in the right direction.

They sound alike but are different services. Home health is medical: skilled nursing and therapy, ordered by a doctor, usually short-term after an illness, surgery or hospital stay — and often covered by Medicare for homebound people who need intermittent skilled care. Home care — what ABS Austin provides — is non-medical: ongoing help with bathing, dressing, meals, housekeeping, errands and companionship, scheduled by the hour and typically paid privately. Many families use both at once: a nurse visits twice a week while a caregiver covers daily living every day. Learn what non-medical home care includes.

Neither is "better" — they solve different problems. Assisted living offers a built-in community, prepared meals and staff on site, but it means leaving a home your parent may be deeply attached to, and staff attention is shared across many residents. Home care is one-on-one in familiar surroundings, with hours matched to actual needs — which can make it the gentler first step. The honest questions to work through: how much support is needed each day, does your parent want to move, and what does each option truly cost at the hours required? We'll help you think it through — book a complimentary consultation.

It depends on the level of need. Nursing homes exist for people who need round-the-clock skilled nursing and medical supervision — care that can't reasonably be delivered at home. Home care is non-medical support with daily living, delivered one-on-one where the person already lives. When needs can be met safely at home, many Austin families prefer it: familiar surroundings, continuity, family nearby, and hours scaled to the actual need rather than an institutional routine. When medical needs are constant, a nursing facility is the right call — and an honest agency will say so. Talk through what fits your family.

Hospice is medical comfort care for people with a terminal illness — under Medicare it requires doctors to certify a life expectancy of six months or less, and it focuses on symptom relief rather than cure. Home care is non-medical day-to-day support, with no diagnosis or prognosis required. The two often work together: hospice care is delivered mainly through visits, so families frequently add home-care hours for bathing, meals, overnight presence and respite for exhausted relatives, while the hospice team manages comfort. Ask how home care can support your family.

Within non-medical home care: companion care (conversation, meals, errands, light housekeeping), personal care (hands-on help with bathing, dressing, toileting and mobility), support for people living with dementia, respite care that gives family caregivers a break, overnight care, and 24-hour schedules. Separately, there are medical services delivered at home — home health (skilled nursing and therapy ordered by a doctor) and hospice (comfort care for terminal illness) — which run under different licenses with different teams. ABS Austin provides the non-medical kinds, in whatever mix your care plan calls for. See our services.

Sometimes. IRS Publication 502 explains when long-term care services count as a medical expense; a tax preparer can say if it applies. With a long-term care policy, we organize the claim paperwork and follow up with the carrier.

Yes. A caregiver steps in for a few hours a week, a full day or an overnight so a family caregiver can rest. The person keeps their routine at home, and the same caregiver returns week after week.