Careage Home Health

Pros

• The in-home physical therapists were great (five stars).
• Careage's staff were reliable and considerate, always returning calls and discussing care with the family.
• The corporate office was helpful and pleasant when handling billing and retirement insurance claims.
• In the third round, the PT and OT delivered strong care, with the father's strength and balance improving significantly.
• The first-round OT was excellent and consistently kept appointments.

Cons

• Careage charged the patient $1,500 per visit to their insurance, despite a $400-per-visit contract, due to being out-of-network.
• The manager/owner refused to honor the contract.
• The company is described as very profit-motivated.
• The PT was consistently late, rescheduled at the last minute, and some sessions lasted only about 20 minutes.
• The PT preferred talking over performing therapy.
• Scheduling and communication were poor, with frequent OT scheduling issues.
• The overall experience was terrible, with very poor communication and a major waste of time.
• Careage laid off the PT, disrupting continuity of care.

Review

A set of home physical therapy experiences from Careage paints a portrait of a company that can deliver genuinely caring, skilled therapists on one hand, and, on the other, experiences that feel mismanaged and profit-driven. The reviewer who wrote about being struck by a car in 2023 needed in-home care and ultimately encountered Careage in this context. The report includes high praise for individual therapists and frustration with billing practices and communication, illustrating how a patient's outcome and satisfaction can hinge on which staff member is in the home and how the company handles administrative matters.

The billing episode is a standout negative in this narrative. On the first visit, the patient signed a contract with Careage for $400 per visit. There was a lack of awareness that Careage was out of network for their insurance, and, tragically, the following billing was much higher: Careage proceeded to charge $1,500 per visit to the insurance. When the patient called to discuss the disparity with the manager/owner, the contract was not honored, and the insurance ultimately paid the majority of the charges. This specific incident is framed by the reviewer as an example of the kinds of systemic issues that fuel calls for reform in the medical apparatus, underscoring how out-of-network dynamics and contract terms can collide with a patient's expectations and financial planning.

Despite that troubling billing chapter, the reviewer notes several consistently positive interactions with Careage's communications and staff. Across the board, staff members were described as "always returned calls" and "always willing to talk with family about our Mom's care," with a strong emphasis on kindness and consideration. In other words, when it came to interpersonal behavior and responsiveness to family members, the company could be dependable and supportive, which is an important dimension of in-home care where trust and clear communication matter deeply.

Turning to the care experiences for the reviewer's elderly father, the story becomes more nuanced and varied across different rounds of service. In the first round of home care, the schedule was managed with a clear distinction between two therapists: an outstanding OT and a PT who did not meet the same standard. The OT was described as great, consistently making appointments and keeping them. In contrast, the PT was often late, rescheduled at the last minute, and frequently ended up doubling up with the OT, which the patient's father could not handle. The PT also had a tendency to spend a portion of sessions chatting rather than performing therapy, and some sessions lasted only about 20 minutes. This round exposed how patient experiences can hinge on the personalities and time management skills of individual therapists.

In the second round, the pattern shifted somewhat, but problems persisted in scheduling and coordination. Here, the PT delivered more exercises and a sense of structured activity, but the OT continued to show scheduling challenges and a preference for talking over performing. The OT would call to ask if the therapist could arrive in 20 minutes, illustrating ongoing issues with timing and planning. The overall impression of this round remained that administrative and scheduling inefficiencies were hampering the therapy's effectiveness, even as the clinical content of care showed potential.

The third round arrived with a note of improvement and, for the patient, real progress. Both the PT and the OT earned top marks in this final round, each rated as five on the scales described by the family. The father's strength and balance increased substantially, and there was a sense that the care team finally clicked in a way that produced meaningful gains. Unfortunately, there was a twist: Careage laid off the PT who had become very effective, and her replacement was described as "okay." This staffing change tempered the positive outcomes, underscoring how fragile continuity of care can be in home-health settings when personnel turn over.

Administratively, there were bright spots as well. The admin side of Careage received a five rating from the reviewer, particularly for the ease of obtaining billing information for retirement insurance claims. The corporate office was described as "super helpful and pleasant," contrasting with the more chaotic experiences in other areas. That dichotomy - exceptional administrative support on one hand and inconsistent clinical scheduling and communication on the other - helps explain the mixed overall sentiment.

Ultimately, the reviewer's experience is presented as a two-edged sword: there is clearly value in the skilled, compassionate therapists who showed up, listened, and worked to improve the patient's and family's situation. Yet the overall impression is marred by poor communication, inconsistent scheduling, and a difficult, even punitive, billing dynamic that undermined trust and wasted time. The closing judgment is blunt: the overall experience was terrible due to poor and eventually abandoned communication, a sense of major wasted time, and a perception that the company is highly profit-motivated. The reviewer acknowledges that outcomes depended heavily on which therapist was assigned, a reminder that in home care, the human element can dramatically tilt the experience from frustrating to life-changing.

Cafes

• Mercurys Coffee (0.4 miles)
• Google (3.1 miles)
• Starbucks (3.5 miles)
• Starbucks (4.5 miles)
• Mercurys Coffee (4.5 miles)
• Urban Coffee Lounge (5.7 miles)
• Don’t Yell At Me 不要對我尖叫 (5.8 miles)

Physicians

• Evergreen Speech and Hearing Clinic (0.5 miles)
• Medical Arts Associates (0.6 miles)
• Allegro Pediatrics (0.8 miles)
• UW Medicine Sports Medicine Center at Eastside Specialty Center (1 miles)
• Seattle Reproductive Medicine (1.2 miles)
• Advanced Family Medicine (1.6 miles)
• Group Health Cooperative: Redmond Primary Care (3.7 miles)

Hospitals

• Overlake Hospital Medical Center (0.9 miles)
• Dengda Tang MD | Kaiser Permanente (0.9 miles)
• Seattle Children's Hospital (5.5 miles)
• Uw Medical Center Cafeteria (6.4 miles)

Pharmacies

• Bartell Drugs (0.9 miles)
• Safeway Pharmacy (0.9 miles)
• Walgreens (1.2 miles)
• Bartell Drugs (1.6 miles)
• Safeway Pharmacy (1.7 miles)
• CVS Pharmacy (1.9 miles)
• Walgreens (1.9 miles)

Restaurants

• McDonald's (0.9 miles)
• Uwajimaya (1 miles)
• Chick-Fil-A (1 miles)
• Kura Revolving Sushi Bar (1.3 miles)
• Burgermaster (1.5 miles)
• Din Tai Fung (1.5 miles)
• Marymoor Amphitheatre (3.4 miles)

Parks

• Georgia Zumdieck Park (1.1 miles)
• Bellevue Downtown Park (1.7 miles)
• Terrace Park (2.8 miles)
• Grass Lawn Park (3.1 miles)
• Marymoor Park (3.3 miles)
• Marymoor Dog Park (3.4 miles)
• Luther Burbank Park (3.6 miles)

Theaters

• AMC Factoria 8 (3.4 miles)
• Cinemark Totem Lake And Xd (5.8 miles)

Transportation

• University of Washington LINK Station (6.2 miles)
• Mount Baker Station (6.8 miles)
• Capitol Hill LINK Station (6.8 miles)
• U District Station (6.9 miles)