We hired this company to provide HHC to our mom. Capital District Comfort Care, LLC is listed as an active LLC, with Deana Viscanti as the owner on the Department of State Division of Corporations website. Deana is using the business name Serenity Associates, LLC, which is not listed aforementioned website.
Before I get into the significant problems with Deana, I'd like to be clear the two independent contractors from the company who cared for our mom are absolutely wonderful.
We hired Deana's company in large part because she assured me all the home health care people who work with her are certified. Our mom had LTC insurance, which requires direct care providers to be certified for reimbursement. One of the women sent to care for our mom was certified, and I found out later the other was not.
Deana lied to me and/or did not require her 1099 employees to provide her with their certifications. This is unethical and poor business practice. We would not have hired Deana's company had she not misinformed me.
On top of what the care providers earned, Deana charged an additional $6 per hour of care the providers worked.
Deana did nothing helpful. She had also told me she would deal with the LTC insurance and submit everything they needed for my mom to be reimbursed (certification and other information and reimbursement claims). She claimed to have submitted the certification information required to the insurance company by mail for one of the women and told me she would submit it for the other woman shortly after. She called the insurance company and may have submitted the information for the first woman by mail. Although, the insurance company indicated to me it was not received. Therefore, I asked the care provider to fill out and upload the required information online, while she was working at our mom's house, and our mom was sleeping. Sometime after she was approved, I submitted the claim for reimbursement for her hours. Obviously, Deana could not have submitted certification information for the other woman because she was not certified, even though Deana told me should would.
Deana had told me she would work with the LTC insurance company, which also is difficult to work with, and I wound up doing all the work. This was extremely time consuming for me. I wish I had spent all that time with our mom instead.
I believe Deana came to our mom's house three times, possibly more. Once when a care provider, who was not affiliated with Deana, and I were there to go over schedules and other information and have me sign a contract. She talked a lot, which our mom later told me bothered her quite a bit. Deana also barely acknowledge our mom and did not listen. It was hard for me to get a word in edgewise. Deana came by another time to drop off a binder and again on later date to meet our mom's primary/supervising Community Hospice nurse. Deana called me to complain about waiting for the nurse. I cannot recall if they met, and I was not present.
Deana wanted to coordinate with hospice, in part to bring and fill a monthly pill case for our mom. Hospice does not even provide medications by the month, which I told Deana, and some medications had to be refrigerated. I don't know how else she supposedly wanted to work with Community Hospice. However, I was told by both our mom's Community Hospice primary/supervising nurse and social worker there is no need for them to work with home health care companies. Although, the care providers did help hospice nurses to care for our mom when the nurses were there.
Deana also did not listen to me on other occasions over the phone, frequently would forget important things, and often did not return calls and texts. She was generally unresponsive to me; especially about the LTC insurance issues and certification of the second care provider.
I also seem to recall she wanted to come over when we lost our mom, and someone told her not to come. I did not want her there. My husband and I were with our mom when we lost her, and later, with two care providers (one unaffiliated with Deana) who were very helpful and comforting. It would not have been helpful, and may have been even worse, for Deana to be there, and she really did not know our mom.
Deana was paid quite a bit of money, almost all for doing payroll, and she wasted a lot of my time.
In the strongest terms, I do not recommend hiring Deana's company (Capital District Comfort Care, LLC aka Serenity Associates, LLC) for the reasons I explained, especially if you or your loved one has LTC insurance (which I also don't recommend having). The care providers were absolutely wonderful, and Deana was horrible. She should not own or manage a business. I hope the care providers affiliated with Deana will look for and find other jobs. I certainly don't want to hurt them. If I were rating them, I'd give them a rating of 5 and wish I could give them an even higher rating. read more
