A Private Geriatric Care Manager for Families Nationwide
A private geriatric care manager is the trained professional you hire directly when a parent's care has grown bigger than the family can manage alone. Alenta works with families nationwide from our office in Spring House, Pennsylvania: in person across Greater Philadelphia, and by phone, video, and secure messaging anywhere in the U.S.
A private geriatric care manager is a professional you hire directly — not one assigned by a hospital, an insurer, or a government office — to assess, plan, coordinate, and advocate for an aging or disabled loved one. "Private" simply describes how the engagement is arranged and paid for: out of pocket, by the family, with no referral fees or program eligibility rules attached. It is the path the majority of families outside a specific state waiver program use to access professional care management, and it is available to families anywhere in the country.
Most care managers in this field bring a background in fields such as nursing, social work, gerontology, or counseling, and many pursue additional professional certification in care management. That background is what lets a trained professional read a discharge summary, sit through a specialist appointment, and translate it into a plan the family can actually act on.
What's included in an engagement
A private care management engagement typically starts with an assessment and then settles into ongoing coordination. The specific mix depends on the family's needs, but most engagements include some combination of the following.
Comprehensive assessment
An in-home or virtual evaluation of medical, cognitive, functional, safety, financial, and family factors — the whole picture, not a checklist.
A written care plan
A concrete plan naming what needs to happen, who is responsible, and how progress will be checked, so the family and every provider are working from the same document.
Provider coordination
One person owning the schedule: primary care, specialists, home care agencies, pharmacy, therapy, and transportation, so nothing falls through the cracks between them.
Medical advocacy
We sit in on the appointments that matter, ask the questions your parent forgets, and make sure decisions actually get carried out afterward.
Crisis response
Falls, hospital admissions, and sudden decline get a same-day pivot with a plan and a rehab or discharge pathway, not a callback next week.
Housing guidance
Independent guidance on aging in place vs. assisted living vs. memory care, without referral fees from any facility influencing the recommendation.
Family communication
Regular written updates so long-distance siblings, spouses, and adult children are all working from the same information.
Ongoing monitoring
Periodic check-ins and reassessment so the plan adjusts as needs change, rather than waiting for the next crisis to notice.
Is this right for your family?
Any two of these usually means a call is worth your while.
You're the primary contact for your parent's medical, financial, or daily life — and it's affecting your job, marriage, or health.
You live more than 30 minutes away and can't drop everything for every appointment or crisis.
There are three or more providers in the picture and no one is talking to each other.
Your parent was just discharged from the hospital and no one explained what happens next.
You suspect early dementia and don't know who to call first.
Siblings disagree about what should happen — and someone needs to be the neutral professional in the room.
Care manager vs. home care agency
This is the most common mix-up families run into, and both roles matter — they simply do different jobs. A geriatric care manager is the clinician who plans, assesses, coordinates, and advocates: one person who quarterbacks the whole picture and is paid only by the family, with no referral fees from anyone. A home care agency sends aides for hands-on help such as bathing, meals, and transfers, typically billed by the hour or shift, with rotating staff scheduled by the agency.
Families who use both a care manager and a home care agency tend to get the best outcomes: the agency provides the hands-on help, and the care manager makes sure that help fits into a coherent plan, is actually working, and adjusts as needs change. If you already have aides you like, your care manager will work alongside them rather than replace them.
It also helps to think about accountability. A home care agency is accountable for staffing shifts and delivering the tasks on an aide's care sheet. Your care manager is accountable for the outcome — whether the overall plan is actually keeping your loved one safe, on top of their medications, and connected to the right specialists. When something isn't working, the care manager is the one who notices, asks why, and changes course, rather than waiting for the family to catch the problem after the fact.
How an engagement works
Most families start with a free consultation to describe the situation and ask questions. If it's a fit, the next step is a comprehensive assessment — usually in person for families near Greater Philadelphia, or by video and phone for families further away — covering medical history, cognitive status, daily functioning, home safety, and family dynamics. From that assessment comes a written care plan naming specific next steps and who owns each one.
After the plan is in place, the engagement shifts to ongoing coordination: attending key appointments, communicating with providers, checking in with the family on a set schedule, and responding when something changes. Read a task-by-task walkthrough on what a geriatric care manager does, or see our broader overview of what a geriatric care manager is and who they serve.
Nationwide vs. local support
Alenta is based in Spring House, Pennsylvania, and provides in-person assessment and visits across Greater Philadelphia and the surrounding counties. For families elsewhere in the country, ongoing coordination — care planning, provider communication, and family updates — happens by phone, video, and secure messaging, with the care manager arranging and overseeing local, in-person providers wherever the client actually lives. This nationwide model is common among care managers in this field and lets long-distance families access the same coordination as families nearby.
Fees for this kind of engagement are typically structured as an initial assessment fee plus an hourly or monthly rate for ongoing coordination, and they vary by care manager, region, and scope of work. Alenta does not publish Alenta-specific pricing on this page because engagements are scoped to each family's needs during the consultation. For a general breakdown of how these fee structures work, see geriatric care manager costs and fees.
Cost is rarely the only question worth asking, though. It's just as important to understand what's included at each fee level, whether appointment attendance is billed separately, how often written updates are provided, and what happens outside normal business hours if a crisis occurs. A care manager who explains their fee structure clearly, in writing, before you sign anything, is generally a good sign of how the rest of the relationship will go.
For attorneys and fiduciaries
Elder law attorneys, fiduciaries, guardians, and discharge planners refer clients to private care managers for the same reason families hire them directly: an independent clinical assessment, a written plan, and ongoing eyes on the ground when a professional can't be there day to day. Alenta works alongside legal and medical teams as a neutral party with no financial stake in any recommendation. Learn more on our page for professionals.
Vetting and getting started
Before hiring any care manager, ask about clinical background, years of direct experience, how they're compensated, and whether they accept referral fees from any provider they might recommend — the clearest way to spot a conflict of interest. Our guide on how to find a geriatric care manager walks through the full interview checklist.
It's also reasonable to ask for references from other families, to confirm how quickly the care manager typically responds after hours, and to clarify who covers for them during vacations or illness. A well-run practice will have clear answers to all of these before you've signed anything, and won't pressure you to commit on the first call.
Getting started is usually simple: a short introductory call to describe the situation, followed by scheduling the comprehensive assessment if it seems like a fit. There's no obligation tied to that first conversation, and it's the fastest way to find out whether professional care management is the right next step for your family.
