Fain's Private Duty
Fain's Private Duty Home Care is a nationwide private duty operator built on 17 years of New Jersey home care operating experience. New Jersey is our first launch market.
SERVICE TIER

Home Health Aide (CHHA)

A Home Health Aide is the working center of the private duty home care model in New Jersey. FAINS runs every CHHA case under license verification against the NJ Board of Nursing registry, a Registered Nurse Supervisor of record, and the same weekly transparent invoicing that governs every tier of The Fain Standard.

Minimum credential: NJ-certified CHHA (license-verified against Board of Nursing)
Starting rate: $46 per hour
Shift minimum: Four hours (per The Fain Standard pillar 3)

What a CHHA case actually looks like

A Certified Home Health Aide case is the working middle tier of private duty home care in New Jersey. The client needs help with personal care, activities of daily living, or medication supervision that is beyond what a companion caregiver can legitimately do, but not yet at the clinical complexity that requires an LPN or RN. Most private duty cases in New Jersey live at this tier for the longest arc of their history, because the CHHA scope is broad enough to hold a case as it evolves and specific enough that the family knows what they are getting.

A typical CHHA shift includes bathing support (bed bath, shower assist, or partial bath depending on the client's mobility), dressing assistance, transfer support between bed, chair, wheelchair, and commode, incontinence care and toileting assistance, meal preparation and feeding support when the client needs it, ambulation with a walker or a gait belt, medication reminders and logged observation of self-administration under the RN's plan of care, and shift documentation in a format the RN Supervisor and the family both review.

The CHHA is not a nurse. The CHHA is not a companion. The CHHA is a licensed personal care professional working under nurse supervision inside the client's home. That specific position in the care hierarchy is what makes the tier work.

What a typical case looks like

Robert, 82, lives with his wife Anna in a single-story ranch in Scotch Plains, Union County. Two months ago Robert had a stroke, spent nine days in the hospital, and came home with left-side hemiparesis, moderate expressive aphasia, and a home safety picture that required substantial change. Anna, 78, was managing the transfers, the medications, the bathing, and the meal preparation on her own for three weeks after discharge, and by the fourth week she was exhausted, sleeping four hours a night, and beginning to have chest pains her own cardiologist did not like the look of.

Their daughter Elena called FAINS on a pre-license waitlist inquiry. The RN Supervisor did the in-home assessment. The plan of care that came out of it named the CHHA tier as the fit, with two four-hour morning shifts a day, five days a week, covering the wake-up, bathing, breakfast, medication window, ambulation session, and mid-day transition. Anna kept the overnight and the evening. The RN would visit every 60 days and be available by phone in between. The medication schedule was administered by Anna under a written med list the RN produced, with the CHHA doing the morning and mid-day reminders and logging what Robert actually took. When the plan issues into service, Robert's case will run at the CHHA tier at the published rate, billed weekly, with a chemistry-matched caregiver introduced at a pre-shift interview in Robert and Anna's kitchen.

What FAINS commits to for CHHA cases

Every CHHA case at FAINS is governed by all seven pillars of The Fain Standard. The CHHA tier is where the framework does its most visible work, because the shift itself involves both clinical judgment (from the RN Supervisor) and personal care (from the CHHA) inside the family's own home.

Every CHHA case has a Registered Nurse Supervisor of record. The RN writes the plan of care after the in-home assessment, credentials the assigned CHHA against the plan, and remains the family's clinical point of contact through the arc of the case. The RN visit cadence for active CHHA cases is at least every 60 days, and more often when the picture is changing.

Every CHHA on the FAINS roster is license-verified against the NJ Board of Nursing registry before the first shift and re-verified monthly. If a certification lapses, the caregiver comes off the roster the same day. This is Pillar 2 in action, and it is the pillar that most differentiates a rigorous private duty agency from a scheduler.

The four-hour minimum shift applies to every CHHA case. The published tier rate is $46 per hour. There is no per-visit fee, no coordination charge, and no assessment fee stacked on top. Shorter shifts do not fit the private duty operating model and we refer to visit-based providers when a shorter shift is what the case actually needs.

Weekly transparent invoicing runs Monday through Sunday at the published tier rate. ACH is free. Card is available with a three percent surcharge disclosed at invoice time. The invoice line matches the shift log, minute for minute.

The chemistry-matched commitment applies to CHHA cases with particular weight, because a CHHA is in the client's most intimate care spaces (bathroom, bedroom, kitchen) at a level of physical closeness that only works when the relationship is right. A human matcher proposes candidates, the family interviews before the first shift, and if the fit is wrong inside the first week we swap without penalty.

The 24-hour cancellation window applies both ways. Family cancels short-notice, minimum billed. CHHA cannot make a shift, RN calls the family personally and dispatches a covering caregiver from the on-call roster.

CHHA care is private pay and private insurance only. Families with private long-term care insurance policies are served. Families needing Medicaid or Medicare are referred to a fit-for-purpose provider with the specifics named.

What CHHA care does NOT do

A CHHA does not administer injectable medications, does not manage wound vacs or complex surgical wounds, does not manage central lines, PICC lines, ports, or complex indwelling catheters, does not perform sterile procedures, does not conduct clinical assessments that require nursing judgment, and does not write or modify the plan of care. Those tasks belong to the skilled nursing tier at FAINS or, when the case is beyond private duty entirely, to a home health agency operating under Medicare or to a facility.

A CHHA also does not replace the family's primary care physician. Ongoing medical management, prescription changes, imaging orders, and specialist referrals remain with the client's PCP and specialists. The FAINS RN Supervisor coordinates with the PCP when the case requires it, but does not substitute for the medical home.

How the intake works for CHHA cases

Three steps, the same shape as every FAINS intake, with a deeper clinical layer than a companion case.

Step one is the initial call. The FAINS intake line hears the situation, names the four-hour minimum and the CHHA tier rate before any payment information changes hands, and schedules the RN assessment window if the case looks like a fit.

Step two is the RN Supervisor's in-home assessment. For a CHHA case the assessment typically runs 90 to 120 minutes and produces a formal plan of care. The RN walks the home, meets the client, meets the primary family caregiver, reviews the discharge paperwork or the recent medical history, writes the medication list, names the safety issues (fall risk, transfer technique, bathing risk), identifies the escalation triggers that would move the case to skilled nursing, and confirms the shift structure with the family.

Step three is the chemistry match. The FAINS matcher reviews the plan of care and the RN's intake notes, proposes one to three CHHA candidates whose skill set fits the case, and coordinates the pre-shift interview in the client's home. The family interviews for 20 to 30 minutes. If the fit is right, the CHHA arrives for the first shift on the agreed schedule with the plan of care already in hand. If the fit is not right, the matcher proposes another candidate. The family never accepts a match that does not feel right in the client's kitchen.

Common questions

What is the practical difference between a CHHA and a companion caregiver?
The CHHA holds a New Jersey Certified Home Health Aide credential and is trained and authorized to provide personal care under the direction of a Registered Nurse. That includes bathing when the client cannot participate independently, incontinence care, transfer assistance, dressing support, and medication reminders logged against the plan of care. A companion caregiver is background-checked and skilled at engagement and presence, but is not certified to perform ADL work at the CHHA scope. When a family's case crosses into personal care, the case moves to the CHHA tier.
Does the CHHA administer medication?
The scope in New Jersey allows a CHHA to remind and to observe self-administration, and in specific circumstances defined by the RN Supervisor's plan of care, to assist with self-administration. Actual administration of injectable medications, controlled substances beyond scheduled reminders, and any medication delivery route that requires clinical judgment belongs to the skilled nursing tier. If your case needs true administration, the FAINS RN Supervisor moves the case to LPN or RN.
How is the CHHA license verified?
New Jersey publishes a live registry of every Certified Home Health Aide authorized to practice in the state. FAINS runs every CHHA through that registry before the first shift, then re-verifies monthly. If a certification lapses, the caregiver comes off the roster the same day. That is Pillar 2 of The Fain Standard.
What is the shift minimum for a CHHA case?
Four hours per shift, published on the pricing page and honored on the invoice. If your case needs less than four hours per visit, we say so honestly at intake and refer to a visit-based provider that fits the shorter shift. We do not accept a case that does not fit the model.
Can a CHHA do wound care?
Simple, previously prescribed dressing changes on stable wounds can fall inside the CHHA scope when the RN Supervisor has written the technique into the plan of care and the CHHA has been in-serviced on the specific dressing. Active wound assessment, wound vac management, complex surgical incisions, and any wound that requires clinical judgment about progression belong to skilled nursing. The RN makes that call at intake and revisits it on every monthly supervisory visit.
How often does the RN Supervisor visit?
The FAINS RN Supervisor writes the initial plan of care in the client's home, then makes a supervisory visit at least every 60 days for active CHHA cases, more often when the clinical picture is changing. The RN is also the family's clinical point of contact by phone in between visits. That standing relationship is what makes the CHHA shift work reliable.
What if we need to escalate to skilled nursing mid-case?
The RN Supervisor manages the transition. When the clinical picture crosses the CHHA scope, the same office moves the case to the skilled nursing tier without a new intake process, without a re-assessment fee, and with the plan of care carried forward. The pricing changes at the moment of transition because the credential changes. Nothing else about the family's experience restarts.