Champion Care offers area-wide
home health care & provider services

By Paul de la Peña-Franceschi

With the escalating cost of health care and curtailed and inadequate funding for affordable health care in the United States, many are turning to private home health care providers for their daily and long term needs. One such agency answering that demand is Champion Care, Inc.
Velma Barrera-Decker, Champion Care's owner and chief financial officer, answered a few questions about home health care and the industry in general. Yolinda B. Treviño, the firm's administrator and co-owner, a registered nurse of 30 years, and Barrera-Decker's sister, accompanied her.
LareDOS: What are the current medical home health needs of the Laredo community and surrounding areas?
Champion Care: Laredo has a tremendous need for both home health care and provider services. Lots of people who are ill need assistance in some form or another. It is our responsibility to follow the physicians' instructions to properly implement the care desired by the doctors with whose patients we are entrusted. We assist the patients with dietary needs, wounds and dressings, and monitoring care.
LareDOS: How many years have you and your associates been in the health care business?
Champion Care: I have been in the business as a manager since 1996, my sister has been in the business of health care for 30 years and helps coordinate all of the professional nursing staffing that we provide.
LareDOS: What makes home health care so attractive as opposed to conventional care in a hospital or a hospice?
Champion Care: Because many of our patients who are elderly are covered by Medicare, we are able to service a large number of patients at home. For those patients who are covered by Medicaid, the government sets a standard by which they can be covered, and we provide the services that are needed. It is easier to be cared for long term at home, because fewer and fewer hospitals will keep patients for long period of time, and because of the convenience of being at home.
LareDOS: What is the average cost for home health care and provider services?
Champion Care: It is difficult to put a price tag on good health, but in general a single home visit costs $150, depending on the degree of diagnosis, and what services are needed will determine the additional costs. It also depends on what the government is going to contribute to the patient. In many cases the agency only meets their needs and covers their costs.

Currently, Champion Care employs over 250 employees, and offers full home health services in Webb and Zapata counties. Also offered are provider services and community-based alternatives in Webb, Zapata, Nueces, San Patricio, Aransas, Bee, Starr, Brooks, Duval, Jim Hogg, Jim Wells, Kleberg, and Refugio counties. For more information on home health care or the provider services offered by Champion Care, call (956) 712-2156, or visit their offices at 2601 Saunders, ste. 6A.