by KYW's Salil Gutt

Any family who has the need for home health care services is faced with the following dilemma. Should you hire custodial care aides from a home care agency, or not?

There is a shortage of home health care workers and this problem is going to get more acute with an aging population.  This shortage is resulting in many workers going out on their own rather than losing a cut of their wages to an agency.  Some also insist on being paid only in cash. 

Most long term care policies will only pay benefits directly to a licensed agency. However, the labor shortage often results in haphazard and shoddy service. Hence the dilemma. 

There is certainly nothing wrong in hiring aides directly. This will entail buying an indemnity policy that pays a stipulated daily cash benefit directly to the family. However, work with an accountant to ensure that you collect all of the tax data to report to the IRS. Reconfirm the validity of the social security number and the address provided to you.  You may also need to buy a special liability or workers compensation insurance policy in case any workers are injured on the job.