How Much Does Home Care Cost in South Florida?

Private duty home care runs $30 to $40 per hour across Palm Beach, Broward, Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties, with a four-hour daily minimum. Nights and weekends are billed at the same rate. Major holidays are the only exception.

Where you land in that range depends on the level of care, the hours you schedule, whether transfers need two people, and whether care is for one person or a couple. Care for a couple is quoted separately. We give you an exact figure in writing at the free in-home assessment.

Whatever the rate, it is all-in. It covers the caregiver wages and payroll taxes, workers compensation and liability insurance, Level 2 background screening, RN oversight of the care plan, scheduling, and coverage when a caregiver is unavailable. There is no separate assessment fee, no care plan fee and no setup charge.

It depends on hours. Two four-hour visits a week runs roughly $1,100 to $1,400 a month. Three mornings a week, about 12 hours, runs roughly $1,600 to $2,100. Weekday mornings, about 20 hours, runs roughly $2,600 to $3,500. Full weekday coverage at 40 hours runs roughly $5,200 to $7,000.

Those figures spread 52 weeks across 12 months, so a month with five weekends lands higher than the average and a short month lands lower. Round-the-clock coverage is a different conversation and is set out on our 24-hour care page.

Most South Florida families land somewhere between $2,000 and $7,500 a month, which is the same band the statewide cost guides report. Your exact plan is built at the free in-home assessment, and you get the figure in writing before care begins.

Yes. Our minimum is four hours per day. Care is scheduled in shifts rather than by the hour, and four hours is the shortest shift we staff.

There is a practical reason for it. A morning routine that includes a transfer, a shower, dressing, breakfast and a medication reminder cannot be compressed into an hour without rushing the parts that carry the most risk, which is where falls happen. Four hours also gives a caregiver time to notice the things that are not on the task list: that the skin looks different, that the appetite has dropped, that the same story came up twice. Those observations are most of the value.

A four-hour minimum is standard across licensed agencies in Florida. If what you need is a short daily medication check rather than a shift, tell us at the free in-home assessment and we will say plainly whether we are the right fit.

The advertised hourly figure is lower when a family hires a caregiver directly or through a registry, but that figure is a wage rather than a total cost, because the family becomes the employer. Once payroll taxes, workers compensation, liability and the cost of covering a call-out are added, a registry caregiver costs a family $30 to $35 an hour, which is where our own range starts.

A registry works the same way: the registry refers a caregiver, the family employs them. If a privately hired caregiver is injured in the home, the homeowner policy is often where the claim lands. With an agency, the caregiver is our employee, we carry workers compensation and liability coverage, we run Level 2 background screening, and filling an open shift is our job rather than yours. The comparison table above sets both out side by side.

Nights and weekends are billed at the standard rate. The only exception is major holidays, which carry a higher rate because of what it takes to staff them.

That means an overnight shift, a Saturday morning or a full weekend of coverage costs the same per hour as a Tuesday afternoon. There is no surcharge for evenings, no premium for weekend scheduling, and no different rate for overnight awake care.

This is worth asking any agency you speak to, because the way it gets disclosed varies. Some quote a single attractive hourly figure and add differentials for nights and weekends to the first invoice. Ask for the complete rate schedule in writing before you commit, from us or from anyone else you are considering, and compare those rather than the headline number. You receive ours at the free in-home assessment, including which days count as holidays.

The hourly rate covers the caregiver wages and payroll taxes, workers compensation and liability insurance, Level 2 background screening, RN oversight of the care plan, scheduling, and coverage when a caregiver is unavailable. Nights and weekends are billed at the same rate as weekday hours. The in-home assessment is free and carries no obligation.

What it does not include is anything requiring a licensed nurse, which is billed as private duty nursing at a separate rate, and the client own household costs such as groceries or fuel for errands. If something falls outside the plan, we say so before it happens rather than after.