In-home respite care is short-term help that comes to your house so you, the family caregiver, can take a break. A trained caregiver stays with your loved one for a few hours, a full day, or sometimes several days, and takes over what you normally do: company, meals, personal care, and keeping them safe. You get time to sleep, see a doctor, work, or simply be somewhere else.
Most families pay for it themselves, at roughly the same hourly rate as other in-home care. Medicare generally does not pay for respite care at home, with narrow exceptions. Medicaid waivers, the VA, private insurance, and local respite programs can help pay for respite, depending on where you live and who you care for. This guide walks through how it works, what it costs, and how to find it.
What in-home respite care includes
The word “respite” just means a pause. The care itself looks a lot like regular non-medical home care, planned around giving the primary caregiver time off. Depending on the provider, in-home respite can include:
- Companionship and supervision, especially for someone with dementia who shouldn’t be alone
- Personal care such as bathing, dressing, toileting, and help moving around
- Preparing meals and reminding about medicines
- Light housekeeping and laundry
- Overnight stays, so you can sleep through the night
What respite usually does not include is skilled medical care. If your loved one needs wound care, injections, or tube feeding, you will need a nurse or a home health agency, and the price goes up. Our article on what home health aides cannot do explains where that line sits.
You can use occasional respite care, like one weekend to attend a wedding, or regular respite care, like every Tuesday afternoon. There is usually no fixed limit on how long in-home respite care can last when you pay privately. Programs that pay for it often cap the hours or days per year.
Benefits of respite care: caregiver syndrome
“Caregiver syndrome” is not an official diagnosis, but it is a real pattern: exhaustion, poor sleep, irritability, getting sick more often, and feeling that you have lost your own life. It builds slowly, and many caregivers don’t notice it until they are running on empty. Regular breaks are one of the few things known to help, and respite care gives you those breaks before you reach the bottom. If you see yourself in that description, our piece on when caring for a parent is too much may be worth reading next.
Respite is good for the person receiving care, too, and it is easier to keep taking care of someone for years when you get real time off. A rested caregiver is more patient, and a new face can bring some variety to a long week.
Who is eligible for respite care
If you pay privately, anyone can use respite at home. Eligibility only matters when someone else pays. Each respite program sets its own rules, but they often look at:
- The care recipient’s age or condition, for example 60 and older, or living with dementia, disability, or a serious illness
- How much help they need with daily activities
- Whether you are an unpaid family caregiver living with or near them
- Income and assets, for Medicaid-funded programs
- Veteran status, for VA respite
Costs of respite care: per hour, per day, per week
Costs vary a lot by state and city, so treat these as rough guides. The CareScout Cost of Care Survey, run with Genworth, reports these national medians for 2025:
- In-home care (non-medical caregiver): about $35 an hour
- Adult day health care: about $95 a day
- Nursing home, semi-private room: about $315 a day
So how much is one week of respite care? It depends on how many hours you need. Eight hours a day for seven days at $35 an hour comes to roughly $1,960. Round-the-clock care in the home costs far more, since you may be paying for 168 hours, although some agencies offer a lower daily rate for live-in care. A week of facility-based respite in a nursing home would be around $2,200 at the median rate. Five days of adult day care would be close to $475.
Many agencies have a minimum visit, often three or four hours. Ask about it, and about higher rates for nights, weekends, and holidays.
Does Medicare pay for respite care at home?
For most families, no. Original Medicare does not pay for custodial or companion care, which is what most in-home respite is. The main exception is hospice: if your loved one is on the Medicare hospice benefit, the hospice can arrange inpatient respite care in an approved facility for up to five days at a time, on an occasional basis, and you may pay 5% of the Medicare-approved amount. That respite happens in a facility, not at home. Our guide to what hospice at home looks like explains how it fits in.
Two smaller exceptions are worth asking about. Some Medicare Advantage plans offer in-home support or respite as an extra benefit, so check your plan’s Evidence of Coverage. And Medicare’s GUIDE model for people with moderate to severe dementia includes up to $2,500 a year in respite services, but only through participating dementia care programs.
Medicaid
Medicaid is one of the main public sources of respite funding. Most states offer it through home and community-based services (HCBS) waivers, and some let a family member be paid as the caregiver. The rules, waiting lists, and number of hours differ by state, so contact your state Medicaid office or the aging agency near you.
VA respite care
Veterans enrolled in VA health care may qualify for respite care at home, in an adult day health care center, or in a VA Community Living Center. The VA describes up to 30 days of respite a year, and a home visit of up to six hours counts as one day. Ask the VA social worker or caregiver support coordinator, or read the VA respite care page.
Long-term care insurance and other help
Many long-term care insurance policies cover respite, and some pay for it even during the waiting period. Read the policy or call the insurer. Beyond that, the National Family Caregiver Support Program, run through your local Area Agency on Aging, often funds a limited amount of respite. Many states also have Lifespan Respite programs that offer small grants or vouchers, and some disease groups, such as Alzheimer’s organizations, have respite funds.
In-home respite vs. hospice respite care vs. adult day care
- In-home respite: a caregiver comes to your home. Your loved one stays in familiar surroundings. Usually paid privately or through Medicaid, VA, or insurance.
- Hospice respite: only for people receiving hospice care, arranged by the hospice care team. Your loved one goes to an inpatient facility for up to five days, mostly covered by Medicare.
- Adult day care: your loved one spends the day at a center with activities, meals, and supervision. Often the lowest-cost option for daytime breaks, and many centers offer transportation.
- Facility-based respite care: a short stay in an assisted living or nursing home setting, useful for longer trips or when care needs are high.
Many families combine them, for example adult day care three days a week plus an evening caregiver at home once a week.
How to find respite care services
Start with these places:
- ARCH National Respite Network: its National Respite Locator service lists respite care programs and providers by state.
- Your local Area Agency on Aging: find it through the Eldercare Locator at 1-800-677-1116. It knows local programs and funding.
- Home care agencies: most provide respite visits. Our guide to finding a home care provider explains how agencies, registries, and independent caregivers differ.
- Your loved one’s doctor, hospital social worker, or hospice team
- Faith communities and volunteer groups, for informal respite care a few hours at a time
Questions to ask a respite care provider
Before the first visit, ask:
- Are your caregivers employees, and are they background-checked, trained, bonded, and insured?
- Can you match a caregiver who has experience with my loved one’s condition, such as dementia?
- What is the minimum visit length, and what do nights and weekends cost?
- Will we get the same caregiver each time?
- What happens if the scheduled caregiver is sick?
- Can you handle personal care, or only companionship?
- How much notice do you need, and can you help on short notice in an emergency?
For the first session, stay home for an hour, walk the new caregiver through the routine, and leave written notes on medicines, meals, and phone numbers. Then go and rest. You can find more ideas for pacing yourself in our guide for family caregivers.
