Carestar Curiosities

[Cheez-It!]

I'm curious about CareStar. I've read some other threads about it, but they turn into arguments about stuff I'm not really interested in.

I'm curious about as an LPN, how nurses handle things like, billing, state, etc etc. State visits facilities every month, do they require interviews or something with you? What are the wages like? How do you handle your taxes and billing? How do you handle patients that have wounds, such as dressing? Are those supplied by the patient or Medicaid? Do you do things for the patients like pick up meds for them? Do you call the doctors against their wishes, or do you have to go by what they want? Can you bill for mileage? About how much time on average do you get to spend with your family? What happens if you're needed on certain days, and you're not available for one of those days? This is the kind we are both curious about. In general, what's it like to work in a day as a CareStar nurse? I can read until I turn blue in the face on the CareStar websites, but it doesn't really tell me what it's really like!

My mother is an RN who has had multiple back surgeries. I was thinking this would be an awesome way for her to get back into the nursing field, and could help me out in the meantime. (I'm an LPN.) For her, I'm assuming not a lot of bending/stooping/twisting would be needed for her.

I've read some about CareStar. My understanding is it's basically starting your own business. I don't want to bite if it's more than I can chew. I have 2 small children, a whiney husband (don't we all?), and my mother to help out. I was hoping I could stay at home a bit more than my current three 12hour nightshifts a week I have now. I'm just looking for some "real" information I guess.

Oh, and what happened to the site that had all the consumers in your area? Do they no longer list those?