The Minimum Block Sets the Floor: Read the Shortest Billed Visit Before You Compare Two Totals

Two agency plans that look alike can total very differently once the shortest billed visit, the travel between homes, and the weekend or holiday terms are written out in full.

Counties · November 1, 2026

This guide gives no amounts. It explains how a total is built, so a family can set two offers side by side on the same basis. Each agency's own rate sheet is the only place to find its figures.

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.

The shortest billed visit

Many agencies bill a minimum block for each visit. If a visit needs twenty minutes of help but the minimum block is longer, the difference is still billed. Find the minimum in writing and set the planned visits against it. A plan with several short visits in one day can total more than a plan with one longer visit that covers the same tasks.

Travel between homes

When an agency serves several homes, the time between them may or may not be billed. Ask whether travel is included, billed by the minute, or charged as a fixed allowance, and whether it is added to the block or counted separately. In a county with long drives between clients, this line can move the total more than the hourly terms do.

Days and times

Ask whether weekend, holiday, early morning, or late evening visits follow different terms. Compare the shape of the plan, not only its hours. The same hours split across more visits and more days often carry more blocks and more travel.

Changes to the plan

Ask how a schedule change is treated: whether an added visit starts a new minimum block, whether a shortened visit still bills the full block, and whether a substitute aide changes the terms. These are the points where a plan drifts away from the terms first agreed.

How to compare

Write one visit schedule for a typical week and give the same schedule to each office. Ask each one to fill in the terms in its own paperwork: minimum block, travel, weekend and holiday terms, and change terms. Compare the completed sheets line by line, and ask for a written copy before signing anything.

To decide which agencies are worth asking, read How to read a caregiver-supply map for your county first. Health questions go to the family's doctor, not to the rate sheet.

The map shows where help is thin. This is where to ask for it.

Tell us the county and the hours that need covering. A locally owned team will say honestly whether it can cover them and what starting with a few hours would look like.

New Plan Care Solutions is independently owned and operated in St. Louis by Stacie Postol. Non-medical in-home support for St. Louis and St. Charles counties: personal care and daily routines, companionship, homemaking, respite for family caregivers, and day-to-day help while recovering at home. Short-term, overnight, 24-hour and live-in care with no long-term contract. Fully insured, with background-checked caregivers screened through the Family Care Safety Registry. Care visits start at $136 (a four-hour visit at $34 an hour). Every family starts with a complimentary in-home care consultation and up to 2 hours of care observation: no cost, no obligation.

The guides on this site are educational, not medical advice.