Home Health Care in Lutz, FL

Lutz still feels like its own place, with lakes tucked behind the trees, wooded lots and winding side roads north of the city. When someone here comes home from the hospital or needs help with a health condition, home health care in Lutz, FL, lets that care happen in the living room instead of a waiting room.

What is home health care in Lutz?

Home health care is skilled medical care that your doctor orders and our licensed clinicians deliver at your home. In Lutz, that might mean a registered nurse who checks a surgical incision at a home off US 41, or a physical therapist who works on balance with you in a two-story home in Cheval. Visits are part-time and planned ahead. They are not round-the-clock care, and they never replace calling 911 in an emergency.

Our team includes skilled nursing, physical therapy, occupational and speech therapy, and medical social work. Nurses also teach you and your family how to handle new medicines, track heart failure symptoms or care for a wound between visits, always as your doctor orders.

Only the Hillsborough County side of Lutz

Lutz has no city limits. It is an unincorporated community, and its four mailing ZIP codes, 33548, 33549, 33558 and 33559, run past the northern edge of Hillsborough County. Our nurses and therapists can visit only Lutz homes that sit inside Hillsborough County. Our service area is Hillsborough, Polk and Manatee counties, and we cannot send clinicians beyond those lines.

That is why the very first thing we do with any Lutz referral is check the street address. If you are recovering at a relative’s house instead of your own, give us that address. If it turns out to be outside our area, your doctor or hospital case manager can help you find another agency.

Who qualifies for home health care in Lutz

Medicare looks at a few things before it pays for home health:

• Your Lutz doctor, or an allowed practitioner such as an NP, a clinical nurse specialist or a PA, signs off that you need care at home and looks over your plan of care.
• The care you need is skilled and part-time: intermittent nursing visits, physical therapy, speech-language therapy, or occupational therapy that is continuing.
• You count as homebound. For many people here, even the walk down a long driveway to the car takes considerable and taxing effort. Quick, occasional outings to see a doctor, attend worship or spend time at adult day care are allowed.
• In the 90 days before your start of care, or the 30 days after, you saw your provider in person about the problem that calls for home health.

Medicare and other coverage for Lutz residents

Once all four points apply to you, Original Medicare can pay for visits from a Medicare-certified agency, and Making Memories Home Health is one. Round-the-clock aides, meal delivery, and help that is only housekeeping or bathing fall outside what Medicare pays for at home. We accept Traditional Medicare, plus long-term care plans and private pay. Medicare Advantage coverage and our participation depend on your specific plan, so we verify both before care starts. Call (813) 931-0015 to verify your coverage. Our insurance page explains more, and our Medicare home health guide walks through the rules step by step.

How to start home health care in Lutz

1. Before you leave the hospital, let the discharge planner (or your own doctor) know you want Making Memories Home Health as your agency.
2. Medical offices may submit the referral through our website or send it by fax to (813) 931-0017.
3. Prefer to call first? A family member can phone (813) 931-0015 any weekday, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM, and our intake staff will request the orders from your doctor’s office.
4. Once we confirm your Hillsborough County address and your benefits, a clinician comes to your home for the first visit.

Once you are a patient, a nurse is on call for you 24/7.

Areas we serve in Lutz

Our office sits at 7827 N Dale Mabry Hwy in Tampa, and Dale Mabry Highway runs north from there right into the Lutz area. Clinicians also travel US 41, Van Dyke Road and Lutz Lake Fern Road, the same road where the replica Lutz train depot stands at US 41. We visit the Cheval area and its neighborhoods such as Heritage Harbor, homes around Lake Magdalene, and homes out toward Keystone, as long as the address is in Hillsborough County.

The hospital inside Lutz itself is St. Joseph’s Hospital-North, at 4211 Van Dyke Road. Our intake team also works with discharge planners at AdventHealth Carrollwood and at the large hospitals downtown, including Tampa General and St. Joseph’s.

A few local tips help visits go smoothly. Lock up or move dogs before your clinician arrives on a large lot. Keep a porch light on if your house number is hard to see from the road. Neighbors just south of Lutz can read about our care in Carrollwood, and you can browse every community on our Hillsborough County list. Our bilingual team can explain everything in English or Spanish.