The four kinds of care, at a glance
Most families shopping for “home care” are actually choosing among four different types of care — and the terms are often used interchangeably, which can make the options confusing. Here is the whole landscape in one view; everything in the table is explained in plain language below.
| Non-medical home care | Home health | Hospice | Facility care | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Help with daily living in the person’s own home — companionship, personal care, meals, errands | Skilled medical care at home — nursing, therapy, wound care | Comfort-focused care in the final months, at home or in a facility | Housing plus care — assisted living or a nursing home |
| Ordered by a doctor? | No — families arrange it directly | Yes — provided under a physician’s orders | Yes — after a terminal prognosis | No — though a nursing home often follows a hospital stay |
| Typical length | Months to years — as long as it helps | Weeks — an episode after illness or surgery | The final months of life | Long-term |
| South Carolina license | In-Home Care Provider (SC DPH) | Home Health Agency (SC DPH) | Hospice (SC DPH) | Community residential care facility or nursing home (SC DPH) |
| How it’s commonly paid | Private pay, long-term care insurance, VA benefits, SC Medicaid programs | Medicare and health insurance | The Medicare hospice benefit | Private pay, long-term care insurance, Medicaid (nursing homes) |
Non-medical home care, defined
Non-medical home care — what South Carolina’s licensing rules call in-home care, and what many families simply call home care, companion care, or private-duty care — is help with the business of daily living, delivered where the person already lives. It typically includes:
- companionship, conversation, and someone steady in the house;
- personal care — bathing, dressing, grooming, help moving safely;
- meals, light housekeeping, laundry, and errands;
- medication reminders — caregivers can remind clients to take their medications, but SteadiCare provides non-medical care and does not administer medications;
- respite for family caregivers, overnight presence, and 24-hour coverage.
In South Carolina, an agency providing this care must hold an In-Home Care Provider license from the South Carolina Department of Public Health (DPH) under the Licensure of In-Home Care Providers Act (S.C. Code § 44-70-10 and following). The licensing standards live in Regulation 60-122 — renumbered from 61-122 when DHEC split into successor agencies on July 1, 2024. If an agency cannot show you this license, that is a stop sign.
For the record: SteadiCare Home Care holds license IHCP-2770 — details on our About page.
SteadiCare Home Care provides non-medical companion and personal care support alongside — never instead of — clinical, hospice, or palliative providers.
Home health: skilled care on doctor’s orders
Home health is medical care delivered at home: nurses, physical and occupational therapists, and aides working under clinical supervision. It exists on a doctor’s orders, usually as a short episode — a stretch of weeks after a surgery, hospital stay, or new diagnosis — and it ends when the ordered goals are met. In South Carolina, home health agencies hold their own separate DPH license, and most are Medicare-certified.
Home health and non-medical home care are not competitors. After a hospital stay, many families run both at once: home health handles the wound care and therapy visits — an hour here and there — while non-medical care covers the meals, steadying, and everyday help in the long hours between those visits.
Hospice and palliative care
Hospice is comfort-focused care in the final months of life, chosen after a terminal prognosis, at home or in a facility. The Medicare hospice benefit covers the hospice team’s visits, comfort medications, and equipment — but it does not provide someone at the bedside around the clock. That gap is exactly where families often add a non-medical caregiver: overnight presence, respite for the family, a hand with daily care between hospice visits.
Palliative care is comfort care alongside ongoing treatment, at any stage of a serious illness — not only at the end of life. Both are medical services; non-medical care works beside them, never in place of them.
When care moves out of the home
Facility care means the person moves to where the care is: assisted living — licensed in South Carolina as community residential care facilities — or a skilled nursing facility. For some families it becomes the right answer, usually when safety needs outgrow what any amount of in-home help can cover.
An honest home care agency should tell you when that line is near. The goal is the right setting for the person — not the longest possible client relationship.
How families combine them
In practice, these kinds of care overlap all the time. Three combinations come up constantly in South Carolina households:
- After a hospital stay: home health for the skilled visits, plus non-medical care for recovery’s daily reality — meals, bathing, steadying, reminders.
- With hospice: the hospice team manages medical comfort; a non-medical caregiver keeps someone at the bedside — overnights, respite, presence — so the family can just be family.
- Around a family caregiver: a spouse or adult child carries most of the load, and non-medical respite care protects the hours they cannot cover — or simply lets them rest.
If you take one thing from this guide: you do not have to pick a single box. Ask any provider how they coordinate with the others already in the house.
Who pays for what
The shortest honest version: Medicare pays for home health and hospice — ordered, episodic, medical — and does not pay for ongoing non-medical home care. Non-medical care is usually paid privately, and some families qualify for help through long-term care insurance, veterans benefits, or South Carolina Medicaid programs such as a waiver or Community Long Term Care.
What drives the cost of non-medical care — and every way families cover it — is its own topic, covered plainly on our Cost & Payment page.
Sources & review
- South Carolina Department of Public Health — In-Home Care Providers
- S.C. Code of Regulations R. 61-122 — Standards for Licensing In-Home Care Providers — Renumbered to R. 60-122 after DHEC’s July 1, 2024 split into successor agencies; updated standards were proposed in 2025.
- Licensure of In-Home Care Providers Act, S.C. Code Ann. § 44-70-10 et seq.
- Medicare.gov — Home health services: what’s covered
- Medicare.gov — Hospice care coverage
Sources accessed August 27, 2026.
Reviewed for the SteadiCare team by Karli Wood
Vice President · Registered Nurse
Last reviewed August 27, 2026. Re-reviewed annually, and sooner when a source changes.
Update history
- August 27, 2026 — First published.