Hiring a caregiver yourself
Employing someone directly rather than through an agency — usually because it costs a third less an hour.
It genuinely is cheaper per hour, and that is not the whole comparison. When you hire directly you become an employer, and four things an agency was quietly carrying move to you: the taxes, the workers' compensation, the background check, and the answer to what happens when she does not turn up. None of them is a reason not to do it. All of them are reasons to do it deliberately.
What moves onto you the day you hire someone
A household employee means payroll taxes and, in most cases, a state and federal filing obligation. It means that if the caregiver is injured lifting your mother, your homeowner's policy is probably not the thing that answers — workers' compensation is a separate question to ask your insurer before, not after. It means the background check is yours to run, because nobody else is going to. And it means that when she is ill on a Tuesday, the person covering is you. Families do all four successfully. The ones who struggle are the ones who found out about them one at a time.
What to ask
1. May I have two references from families you worked for, including the most recent one?
The most recent one is the request that does the work. Anyone can produce two names; the family whose job just ended is the one with something to say.
A bad answer sounds like: Only older references, or a reason the most recent family cannot be reached.
2. Have you had a criminal background check, when, and who ran it?
You are going to run one anyway. Asking first tells you whether they expect to be checked, which is a fair proxy for whether they have worked for anyone who checks.
A bad answer sounds like: Surprise or offense at the question, in a field where checking is routine.
3. What are you not comfortable doing?
Transfers, incontinence care, dementia behaviors and driving are the four that most often turn out to be outside what someone will actually do, and they surface as a crisis rather than a conversation.
A bad answer sounds like: 'Anything.' Everyone has a limit, and a caregiver who names hers is telling you where the plan needs a second person.
4. What would you do if she fell and could not get up, and you could not reach me?
It is the one scenario that will happen. You are listening for a sequence — check for injury, do not move her, call 911, then keep calling family — rather than for confidence.
A bad answer sounds like: 'I'd pick her up.' Also: an answer that starts with calling you and stops there.
5. What days and hours can you commit to, and what other work do you have?
Directly hired caregivers very often hold two or three jobs, which is entirely normal and is exactly why the schedule needs to be explicit rather than assumed.
A bad answer sounds like: Total availability. It usually means a schedule that will be renegotiated once yours is the job being juggled.
6. How would you want to be paid, and are you expecting to be treated as an employee or as self-employed?
It has to be settled before day one, because the answer decides who files what. A caregiver working hours you set, in your parent's home, with your instructions, is generally an employee regardless of what either side would prefer.
A bad answer sounds like: Cash only, with no interest in how it is reported. That arrangement leaves the household exposed and the caregiver with no record of having worked.
What to check yourself
This is the half almost nobody does, and it is free. A public record answers questions no conversation will.
A criminal background check that you commissioned
Not one they show you. Run it yourself, on the name and date of birth on their identification, through a service that checks statewide records rather than a single county.
References, by phone, with one open question
Call rather than email, and ask 'would you hire her again?' The pause before the answer is the answer.
Whether your homeowner's policy covers a household employee, and whether you need workers' compensation
One call to your insurer, before anyone starts. This is the item families skip and the one with the largest tail.
How you will pay legally
A household payroll service handles the withholding and the year-end filing for a modest monthly fee, and is the usual answer for families who do not want to become bookkeepers.
If your parent's care is paid for by Medicaid, OPI or OPI-M, the state's own matching service
Carina is a free care-matching service Oregon points these consumers to. It is not open to private-pay families, which is worth knowing before you go looking for a state registry that will let you in — there is not one.
What should worry you
None of these is proof of anything on its own. Each one is a reason to ask one more question before you decide.
- Unwilling to be paid on the books.
- No references from the last two years, or only family members.
- Asks for money in advance, or for a loan, at any point.
- Discourages you from dropping in, or from installing a way for your parent to reach you.
- Wants to be added to a bank account, a card, or a power of attorney. This is the single most common route to financial exploitation of an older adult, and the request is always framed as convenience.
- Your parent starts making excuses for her.
Where this comes from
Every legal claim on this page is a paraphrase of one of these, read on the date shown. Nothing here is our opinion about what the law requires.
- OAR 333-536-0007 — In-Home Care Agencies: Classification — The four in-home care classifications and what each may provide, quoted from the rule. Read 2026-08-12.
- OAR 333-536-0093 — Criminal Records Checks; 333-536-0065 Service Plan; 333-536-0066 Initial Visit and Monitoring — That an agency must complete a records check and fitness determination before direct client contact, and must produce a service plan with monitoring. Read 2026-08-12.
- ORS 443.370, 443.373, 443.376 — long-term care referral agents — The definition of a long-term care referral, the registration requirement, and the disclosure duties. Read 2026-08-12.
- Oregon DHS long-term care referral agent register — The public search a family uses to check an advisor. Read 2026-08-12.
- Oregon Health Authority — licensed in-home care agencies, home health agencies, hospices — 235 licensed in-home care agencies with classification and expiry; 62 licensed home health agencies; 65 hospices. Read 2026-08-12.
- CMS Provider Data Catalog — Home Health Care Agencies — 51 Medicare-certified home health agencies in Oregon, against the state's 62. Read 2026-08-12.
- Oregon DHS Licensed Long-Term Care Settings Search — Inspection reports, substantiated violations and regulatory actions per facility, refreshed every 24 hours. Read 2026-08-09.
- Oregon Department of Human Services — Carina — That the state's care-matching service is open to Medicaid, OPI and OPI-M consumers, and not to private-pay families. Read 2026-08-12.
- Oregon Office of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman — That the Ombudsman is a free, independent advocate for residents of licensed long-term care settings, and its toll-free number. Read 2026-08-12.
- Oregon DHS Long-Term Care Referral Registry — consumer resources — The state's own description of the Ombudsman's service, quoted on the touring kit. Read 2026-08-12.