When you compare home care offers, the total is only half the picture. The other half is the list of tasks the offer leaves out of the base plan. Some agencies bundle a lot into the included hours. Others start lean and add lines as the week fills up. Neither approach is wrong, but you cannot compare two offers until you know which kind you are looking at.

Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.

Start with the base plan in plain words. Ask the agency to describe, in a single paragraph, what the included hours cover. Companion time, meal help, light housekeeping, and errands are separate categories, and each agency draws the lines in a different place. Ask for specifics. If the offer includes light housekeeping, does that mean dishes, a sweep of the floor, making the bed, cleaning the bathroom sink, or none of these?

Then ask for the extras by name. Items agencies often bill on their own line include heavy cleaning, pet care, laundry sent out of the house, and purchases the aide makes on the family's behalf. Ask the agency to show you where each item would appear on the invoice, and whether it is a fixed line or a variable one that changes with the week.

Ask the questions that change the total. If the family asks for an extra task on a day that was already scheduled, is it a new line or part of the existing hours? Who approves the extra, and how will you hear about it before it reaches the invoice? Ask whether any task that is not on the sheet can be added at all, or whether the family must sign a change first.

Ask what a cancelled visit does to the bill. Some agencies keep the scheduled hours billable if the family cancels late. Others bill only the time that was worked. Get the rule stated in the paperwork, not only on the phone, and ask what counts as late.

Build the comparison on the same list. Make a simple two-column sheet for each agency. Put the base hours, the extras, and the cancellation rule on the same rows so every offer is measured against the same items. Once the rows match, the difference in the total will tell you what is really different about the help on offer.

When you are ready to put these questions to an agency, the list at what to ask before you hire anyone covers the rest of the intake conversation.