Active duty life comes with challenges and unpredictable moments. It can be hard to manage responsibilities and look out for your family’s medical needs. Luckily, the military’s TRICARE health program provides many benefits for your family. This article will explore TRICARE’s ECHO and ECHO Home Health Benefit and show you how to use these programs to access home healthcare through Maxim Healthcare Services.

TRICARE ECHO

TRICARE is the Department of Defense’s worldwide healthcare program that provides care to eligible beneficiaries in the uniformed services – the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service and the Commissioned Corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

TRICARE’s extended care health option, or ECHO, provides financial assistance and an integrated set of services to beneficiaries with moderate or severe intellectual disabilities, profound physical disabilities or extraordinary physical or psychological conditions. To use ECHO, individuals must be enrolled in the Exceptional Family Member Program through their branch of service and register with a case manager in their TRICARE region.

ECHO provides several benefits, including:

  • Assistive services
  • Durable equipment
  • Expanded in-home medical services
  • Rehabilitative services
  • Respite care
  • Institutional care
  • Transportation to and from institutions and facilities

ECHO Home Healthcare Benefit

The ECHO home healthcare benefit, or EHHC, is an expanded service of ECHO offered to individuals who are homebound, require skilled care and frequent interventions, have a case manager who assesses their needs and possess a physician-approved care plan. A primary care physician, care manager or attending physician decides an individual’s eligibility for EHHC services and reviews your care plan periodically.

Under the EHHC, authorized home healthcare agencies can provide:

  • Skilled nursing care from an RN, LPN or LVN
  • Home care provided by a home health aide
  • Physical, occupational and speech-language therapy
  • Medical social services
  • Medical supplies

Respite care is another popular EHHC benefit. Primary caregivers of a homebound TRICARE beneficiary can receive respite care for up to eight hours daily, five days a week.

Quality healthcare at Maxim Healthcare Services

At Maxim, we are committed to improving the quality of life for the service members in our community. In pursuit of that goal, we are pleased to provide a range of services to active duty service members and their families. Some of our most used services under the EHHC are private duty nursing, part-time or intermittent skilled services and respite care. These services are available to adult and pediatric patients and are tailored to the individual’s unique needs.

Our available services vary by location, so the best way to find out which services are provided near you is to speak with your local Maxim office. Our team members can review your needs and tell you what you need to do to access services.