Home care after hospital discharge in New Hampshire.

NH hospitals with home care planning guides

• Catholic Medical Center (CMC) — Hillsborough County (Manchester) · upper-mid pricing ($28-40/hr) · independent · Catholic Medical Center system
• St. Joseph Hospital (Nashua) — Hillsborough County (Nashua · MA-border) · upper-mid pricing · Covenant Health system
• Wentworth-Douglass Hospital — Strafford County (Dover) · mid-tier pricing ($26-36/hr) · Mass General Brigham · seacoast NH
• Exeter Hospital — Rockingham County (Exeter · Boston-metro N-suburb) · upper-mid pricing ($30-42/hr) · Beth Israel Lahey Health
• Parkland Medical Center — Rockingham County (Derry) · upper-mid pricing · HCA Healthcare
• Cheshire Medical Center — Cheshire County (Keene · Monadnock region) · mid-tier pricing ($25-34/hr) · Dartmouth Health affiliate

NH county cost math

• Rockingham County (Portsmouth, Exeter, Salem, Derry — Boston-metro N-suburb extension): $30-42/hour · upper-mid
• Hillsborough County (Manchester, Nashua): $28-40/hour · upper-mid · Boston-metro NW extension
• Strafford County (Dover, Rochester): $26-36/hour · mid-tier · seacoast
• Grafton County (Lebanon, Hanover): $26-36/hour · mid-tier · Dartmouth-Hitchcock corridor
• Merrimack, Cheshire, Belknap, Carroll, Sullivan: $25-36/hour · mid-tier · Concord / Keene / Lakes Region / Whites
• Coos County (Berlin · far-north): $24-32/hour · mid-lower

What NH hospital discharge teams arrange · and what they don't

New Hampshire hospital discharge planning teams — whether Mass General Brigham (Wentworth-Douglass), Beth Israel Lahey Health (Exeter), HCA Healthcare (Parkland, Portsmouth Regional), Catholic Medical Center, Covenant Health (St. Joseph Nashua), Dartmouth Health (via Cheshire and the network affiliates in Grafton/Sullivan), or the independents (Concord Hospital, Elliot Hospital, Southern NH Medical, Frisbie Memorial) — follow a similar pattern for the medical transition to home. They arrange prescription filling, follow-up appointments, medical equipment, and short-term skilled home health services covered by Medicare for the initial recovery episode.

What they do not arrange — because it's outside their scope — is ongoing custodial home care. That's the day-to-day help with bathing, dressing, meal preparation, medication reminders, and safety supervision that a discharged elderly patient often needs for weeks or months. Custodial care is arranged privately by the family, and it is by far the most-overlooked component of post-hospital planning across every NH hospital system.

Southern NH's cross-state discharge patterns into MA are unusually common — a patient admitted to Exeter or Wentworth-Douglass may return to a home address in northeastern MA (Andover, North Andover, Lawrence, Haverhill, Amesbury), and vice versa. Providers with cross-state licensing matter for the seacoast + Merrimack Valley corridor. The CMS Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program targets the custodial-care gap.

How SeniorsAssistants matches NH families to post-discharge providers

SeniorsAssistants operates an independent matching platform for private-pay home care across New Hampshire. For families discharging a loved one from a NH hospital, the matching flow is: complete a brief intake at Find Care naming the hospital, discharge date, care needs, and payment tier. We match you to 2-3 vetted providers with post-discharge experience in the specific hospital service area — including MA + NH cross-state licensing for the seacoast and Merrimack Valley corridors. You interview the providers you want to talk to. You decide.

We do not receive per-lead payments from the providers we match — the matching itself is free to families and free of the lead-broker incentives that corrupt most home care directories.

Questions to ask NH post-discharge providers before hiring

The best interview questions focus on fit for the specific discharge situation, not generic caregiver quality. Ask: (1) What is your recent experience with post-discharge care from [specific NH hospital]? (2) Do you have caregivers available for the specific window we need starting [date]? (3) Do you carry MA + NH licensing if the patient's home address is near the state line? (4) What is your winter-weather protocol — how do you handle caregiver arrival during December-March snowstorms? (5) How do you coordinate with the Medicare-covered skilled home health team during their first 30-60 days? (6) What is your backup coverage policy when the primary caregiver is out sick? (7) What are your rates for the specific tier (personal care · overnight · rotational · live-in) we're planning?

Insurance and funding

Medicare covers a limited episode of skilled home health following hospitalization — NOT ongoing custodial care.

Long-term care insurance covers custodial care when policy triggers are met.

VA Aid & Attendance benefit provides up to approximately $2,795/month for eligible veterans and surviving spouses via a VA-accredited representative.

Private pay covers the balance for most NH families.

Related resources

• MA Hospitals — cross-state discharge market (Boston-metro ↔ southern NH)
• VT Hospitals — cross-state discharge market (Upper Valley ↔ Grafton NH · Dartmouth-Hitchcock corridor)
• ME Hospitals — cross-state discharge market (seacoast MA/NH/ME)
• All US hospital guides
• Cost of Home Care · Find Care