Care.com is an online platform that connects people seeking to hire workers for various jobs – such as child and older adult care, care for individuals with special needs and pet sitting – with those looking for work. To contact job posters or seekers, users must purchase an auto-renewing paid subscription.

According to a federal complaint, the FTC alleges that Care.com’s marketing statements about the number of jobs available on its site and the income workers could expect were deceptive.

Care.com has agreed to a settlement that mandates it to refund $8.5 million to customers who were harmed by its practices. Additionally, the company is required to substantiate its earnings claims and accurately represent the number of jobs available through its platform.

“Care.com used inflated job numbers and baseless earnings claims to lure caregivers onto its platform and used deceptive design practices to trap consumers into subscriptions,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. “The order stops these unlawful practices, returns millions of dollars to consumers and helps ensure an honest marketplace for families looking for care and caregivers looking for work.”

Care.com’s platform enables individuals seeking caregivers to sign up and post job listings at no cost. Job seekers, on the other hand, need to buy a subscription to apply for these jobs. However, in order for a job poster to view a worker’s application, both parties need to have paid memberships.

The complaint alleges that the company’s advertising often includes an inflated number of job openings on its platform, misleadingly counting positions for which there are minimal hiring prospects.

In addition to the exaggerated job claims, the complaint alleges that Care.com misled users about potential earnings when finding a job through the platform. The company advertised hourly and weekly earnings to attract consumers into paying for subscriptions, despite lacking substantial data to support these earnings claims.

Care.com has been accused of not tracking earnings for jobs found on its platform and lacking credible information to support its earning claims in its advertising and marketing. The complaint states that Care.com’s claims about earnings for specific types of work are based on an average of those jobs listed on its site. It does not track or know the actual pay rates negotiated between job seekers and job posters after they make contact off the site.

According to the complaint, Care.com continued these deceptive earnings claims even after receiving a Notice of Penalty Offenses related to earnings claims from the FTC in 2021.

It is also alleged that Care.com has used illegal tactics to prevent users from canceling subscriptions.

When customers attempt to cancel, they are required to navigate through several unrelated links to locate information on how to do so. After finding the cancellation details, customers encounter multiple steps intentionally designed to make it difficult for them to successfully cancel, the complaint claims.

Settlement requirements

Under the proposed settlement terms, Care.com will be obligated to:

• Refund $8.5 million to consumers who have been harmed by its practices.
• Only make earnings claims that are true and based on evidence.
• Only make claims about the number of jobs posted on the site by users who can hire a potential applicant.
• Be transparent with consumers about communication methods prior to payment.
• Ensure users are given a straightforward method to cancel subscriptions on the site.

In response to the FTC’s statement, Care.com issued a similar response contesting the claims.

“We would not be in business for long if we manipulated optics, inflated statistics and attempted to trick our customers,” the statement said. “We have found that many care seekers prefer to see a level of interest in their job post before committing to a premium membership, and our basic service tier offers this ‘try before you buy’ opportunity. This does not mean that there is little to no chance that a caregiver will be hired for these jobs. When a seeker sees the array of caregivers available, the commitment to a premium membership enables seekers to contact and hire caregivers. Moreover, the annual fee that caregivers pay while active on our platform is a screening fee, which helps maintain the safety of our community.”

The statement also discusses the accusations of inflated earnings data and challenges with the cancellation process. The company concluded with the following statement.

“Given the care crisis in America, we believe our collective energy as a country should be on solutions, not nitpicking attacks. Care.com intends to keep our focus on what matters: American families and the hardworking caregivers who support them.”

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The recent investment round was led by Silicon Valley-area venture capital firm Canaan, with money also coming in from Sound Ventures, Y Combinator and Pivotal Ventures, a firm created by Melinda Gates. Past big-name investors also include Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit who is also a managing partner at Initialized Capital.

The investment will help strengthen the company’s existing presence while also expanding its national footprint, according to Papa founder and CEO Andrew Parker.

“We’ve partnered with really large health plans like Aetna, Priority Health, Capital BlueCross, Vibra Health Plan, Humana, Alignment [Healthcare] and others, which is essentially bringing us across the nation,” Parker told Home Health Care News. “We’re expanding this work with our large health care partners and bringing our services to more geographies in the U.S.” 

Specifically, Papa aims to add 11 more states in 2020, growing from 14 to 25 states in which its services are available. Those services include but are not limited to companionship, transportation, housework and other assistance.

Papa first made waves following its launch in late 2017. Its unique model made headlines and also caught the attention of Humana, one of its early health plan partners.

Specifically, Papa is a membership-based platform that connects college and nursing students (called Papa pals) with seniors in an attempt to address social determinants of health.

In January, the company will have “several hundred thousand” members on its platform, according to Parker.

In the past year, business has been especially booming for the startup. Thanks to that momentum, it now has eight partnerships with large health plans overall, according to Parker.

Recent Medicare Advantage (MA) flexibilities that allow plans to offer non-medical supplemental benefits have acted as a catalyst in partnership development. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) first announced it would expand those benefits for the 2019 plan year, then expanded them even further for 2020.

“[MA] is a very big factor,” Parker said. “Not the only factor, but definitely a huge opportunity that we saw in advance and have been monitoring for many years. … We’re excited about the fact that we’re around at a time where health care recognizes the negative impacts of social determinants of health.”

Currently, Papa’s services are mainly available through MA plans, but the company is also exploring new business lines.

“We’re looking to expand into Medicaid, but we’re just exploring that,” Parker said. “Then we also are currently offering our services as an employee benefit, so [in addition to] helping the older adults, we’re helping their family caregiver with respite.”

Employee benefits provider New Benefits is at least one company working with Papa to make it happen. Employees can enroll in Papa and request caregivers for older family members when need be.

The move is in line with a national trend set by corporate giants like Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) and TripAdvisor (Nasdaq: TRIP), all of which have started to offer caregiver employee benefits.

Aside from Papa, popular employee caregiver benefit providers include Waltham, Massachusetts-based Care.com; Burlington, Massachusetts-based Torchlight; Watertown, Massachusetts-based Bright Horizons (NYSE: BFAM); and New York City-based Wellthy.

The post Papa Exploring Medicaid, Employee Benefit Opportunities Following $10M Funding Round appeared first on Home Health Care News.

While programs vary, they often offer employees a set number of subsidized care days per year — preventing workers from taking time off when their elderly parents, children or even pets need care.

Many corporate giants — such as Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) and TripAdvisor (Nasdaq: TRIP) — have turned to third party companies such as Care.com to offer these benefits. But moving forward, traditional home care agencies could have ample opportunity to set their own seat at the table, industry experts predict.

“We definitely think there is an opportunity for our members to move forward and be in front of these companies,” Phil Bongiorno — executive director for the Home Care Association of America (HCAOA) — told Home Health Care News. “Some companies are providing an extensive paid-time-off benefit, but what if you just turned to home care providers to offer employees professional caregiving in the first place?”

A Harvard Business School study backs up that idea.

About 32% of employees say they’ve voluntarily left a job due to caregiving responsibilities, according to the study, with another 80% claiming their caregiving duties affected their productivity at work. Those statistics — along with the authors of the report — suggest employers will be able to attract and retain a more productive workforce by offering employee caregiver benefits.  

Popular options

Currently, one of the most popular employee caregiver benefit platforms is Care.com’s Care@Work program.

Waltham, Massachusetts-based Care.com (NYSE: CRCM) is an online family care platform where users can find third-party caregivers for children, seniors and pets.

Meanwhile, Care@Work — which offers two different employee caregiver benefit programs — has about 250 corporate clients, according to Alyssa Johnson, vice president of global account management for Care@Work.

“We’re definitely seeing more and more companies adding these benefits,” Johnson told HHCN. “The Care@Work division is the fastest growing division of Care.com, and within that, we’re absolutely seeing senior care as a growing need.”

A bevy of high profile corporate clients use Care@Work — from Starbucks and Best Buy to TripAdvisor and P&G’s (NYSE:PG) Gillette brand. Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) was the program’s first client.

“In 2010, [Facebook] called us and said, we’ve been talking to employees, and they use and love Care.com,” Johnson said. “Is that something we can subsidize as a benefit? And at the time, we weren’t in the B2B space.”

Since then, the program has taken off. While clients can customize their benefit offerings, Care@Work offers clients two different basic frameworks: a digital program and a backup care program.

Companies who go the digital route pay to gain their employees access to Care.com’s platform, where they can find third-party caregivers of their own. The backup care plan gives employees access to caregivers employed directly by Care.com or one of its partner agencies, Johnson said.

While Care@Work client TripAdvisor started by offering backup care to U.S. employees, it has since expanded the benefits internationally and customized its offerings to include personalized expert care this year, a spokesperson told HHCN in an email.

“On average, 40% of our employees use one or more of the programs offered during the course of a year,” the spokesperson said, noting that the benefits help keep employees present at work.

Prices associated with offering the benefits vary by program and company size.

While Johnson declined to disclose the number and names of Care@Work’s senior care partners, she said the company expects to add more in the years to come — promising information for home care providers and adult day care operators nationwide.

“In order to meet the needs of the clients we have coming on and their need to support their employees with senior care and backup care, I would expect that we’ll be expanding our relationships with [senior care] providers,” she said.

Some other popular employee caregiver benefit providers include Burlington, Massachusetts-based Torchlight; Watertown, Massachusetts-based Bright Horizons (NYSE: BFAM); and New York City-based Wellthy.

Provider opportunities

Rather than partnerships with third-party companies, HCAOA’s Bongiorno has something else in mind for home care providers hoping to get a piece of the employee caregiver benefit pie: a new outreach initiative designed to gain agencies direct opportunities.  

“HCAOA has created an initiative that would allow corporate leaders from a range of industries to identify quality home care options and caregiver support as part of their employee benefits package,” Bongiorno said.

HCAOA recently started reaching out to a number of corporations to discuss benefit opportunities for members, Bongiorno — who declined to name target corporations — said.

“An alternative to online matchmaking platforms that lack accountability and oversight, this initiative is intended primarily as a resource to inform corporations and their employees of home care providers that employ caregivers lawfully, follow quality standards, coordinate and execute care plans, provide oversight and supervision of caregivers, and verify caregiver qualifications,” he said.

The post Starbucks, Best Buy and TripAdvisor Offer Employee Caregiver Benefits. Here’s Why Home Care Agencies Should Care. appeared first on Home Health Care News.

The company has also backed away, for the moment, from sharing workers with home care agencies through a platform dubbed Care Exchange.

San Francisco-based Kindly Care was founded in 2015, secured a $3.1 million funding round in 2016, and currently serves five states: Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada and Texas. The company serves people who would prefer to directly hire caregivers rather than work through a private duty home care agency.

“The majority of Americans are hiring [non-medical caregivers] directly and through referrals,” Kindly Care founder and CEO Igor Lebovic told Home Health Care News. “Hopefully, they can interview and background-check them … but sometimes you end up with problems on your hands. Also, how do you handle the paperwork—tax withholding, et cetera? We reduce those pain points.”

Specifically, Kindly Care clients provide some information about themselves to the company, which registers them as W-2 household employers with state and federal authorities and opens needed tax accounts on their behalf. Kindly Care then helps match clients with caregivers who are on the Kindly Care platform, which now numbers more than 100,000 workers, Lebovic said.

Once a caregiver is selected, Kindly Care facilitates an in-person interview and provides the caregiver’s background check and references from former employers. When a client hires a caregiver, Kindly Care runs weekly payroll, provides back-up caregivers in the event of a missed shift, and handles other logistical and administrative issues, such as carrying unemployment insurance. It’s this level of service and vetting that separates Kindly Care from marketplaces such as Craigslist and Care.com, Lebovic said.

The Kindly Care system benefits clients by reducing their burdens and protecting them from certain risks, and by improving retention of caregivers they work with, according to Lebvoic. For caregivers, Kindly Care is generating a pay stub, creating proof of employment that makes it easier for them to lease a car or rent an apartment, which can be tricky when they are employed directly by a family.

The caregiver’s hourly rate is negotiated with the client. Most Kindly Care caregivers are earning about $3 more per hour than industry averages in their markets, according to Lebovic. Kindly Care’s fee is a percentage of the caregiver’s pay rate—25% in most cases, and 20% for live-in care.

The recent funding round was led by Javelin Venture Partners, with other investors including MHS Capital and Jackson Square Ventures.

The plan is for Kindly Care to enter New York and then fill in the states down the East Coast to Florida, with a Midwest expansion also in the works and nationwide coverage the ultimate goal, Lebovic said.

Yet, the majority of the VC funding will go toward covering caregivers background checks—which are a major expense for the company—rather than supporting rapid expansion.

“The round was oversubscribed and we could have taken significantly more money than we did, but we decided that wasn’t what we were looking for,” he said. “We try to be frugal and build the business by growing revenues and providing high-quality care, and the VC money is there for what we know we really need it for, but not as a strategic weapon to brute-force us into an industry.”

Care Exchange on hold

Kindly Care has also been a proponent of caregiver sharing. The idea was that Kindly Care would make its workers available to take positions at private duty agencies, if the agencies also made some of their workers available to clients through the Kindly Care database.

Lebovic is a big believer in the model, given the labor challenges in the industry, including difficulties in finding and hiring high-quality caregivers, and high turnover rates. Yet, Care Exchange was a tough sell to home care agencies, which are used to competing with each other for workers rather than collaborating.

“We contributed hundreds of caregivers into the [Care Exchange] network, but nobody else wanted to contribute theirs,” he said. “So when the pool dried up, we were approached by agencies who said, we’ll pay if you want to contribute caregivers [to us], but that’s a different business. For a small team like ours, it felt like we would take our eye off the core of our business.”

There are some “friendly agencies” in the Bay Area, and Kindly Care has sent them caregivers for free when a need has arisen, Lebovic said. Agencies have also referred people to Kindly Care, if for some reason the agency has not been able to accommodate their needs. He still believes that ultimately, some version of Care Exchange will work, as the industry will have to move away from business as usual.

“There’s going to be all sorts of solutions in the home care market,” he said. “The industry has been strangely monolithic for 45 years, with only two ways of [hiring a caregiver], as W-2 through an agency or 1099 or nothing.”

He believes that the market can and will support a greater profusion of options, given that demand is rising across the board, and there will be clients at different price points and with different needs.

“Hopefully one day, we’ll reach a significant market share, but we’ll never put the agencies out of business, because what they do is different and valuable,” Lebovic said. “People ask, what’s the difference between you and other disruptors like Hometeam and Honor. We’re not disruptors, that’s the most different thing. We’re part of an ecosystem.”

Written by Tim Mullaney

The post Kindly Care Raises $5.4 Million, Plans East Coast Expansion appeared first on Home Health Care News.

The initiative, dubbed The Care Institute, is a not-for-profit corporation meant to provide standardized training to caregivers. To do that, the organization will team up with different organizations, experts, public figures and business executives to develop senior care workforce training programs.

The new partnership represents a meeting of two massive entities in the senior care space. Care.com, which is in part backed by Google Capital, is the world’s largest online marketplace for finding and managing family care, while AARP is the nation’s largest nonprofit advocacy organization for seniors.

Though it’s still in its early stages, the initiative’s ultimate goal is to equip people with the tools and training they need to become better caregivers, according to Bob Stephen, vice president of caregiving and health programs at AARP and a board member for The Care Institute. That may include giving someone the skills to care for a member of their own family.

“This is a nonprofit that is going to provide training to low-income individuals so they can get qualified to offer a variety of care,” Stephen told Home Health Care News.

Part of the effort is also aimed at getting more people into the home-based services industry, which is facing a massive labor shortage that is driving up the cost of care and putting stress on families. More than 27 million people will require some form of paid caregiving assistance by 2050, according to data AARP and Care.com presented.

“As you look ahead to the future, the aging population is going to put even more demand on the unpaid family caregivers,” Stephen said. “And we know that having that paid workforce is going to be very important.”

To do that, The Care Institute will provide online training in four main areas: post-acute care, family care, workplace development and early child care. The group’s stakeholders, which include Boston Children’s Hospital and other health care advocates and experts, will help shape the training curriculum, including borrowing what works with other organizations, Stephen said.

Some of the training could cost money, though how much is yet to be determined, Stephen said. Depending on how overall planning and fundraising goes, the initiative could launch within months.

Written by Tim Regan

The post AARP, Care.com Announce Nonprofit to Train New Caregivers appeared first on Home Health Care News.

In fact, prominent, Silicon Valley-based venture capital (VC) firms have invested more than $200 million altogether in home care companies this year, according to Forbes.

Home care software provider ClearCare received the most funding overall, having secured $60 million in a round led by Battery Ventures in August. Care.com (Nasdaq: CRCM), the largest online marketplace for finding and managing family care, received the second-most VC funding this year when Google Capital invested $46.35 million in the company in June.

In-home care provider Honor, meanwhile, received the third-highest amount of VC funding due to a $42 million round led by Thrive Capital.

Investors and venture capitalists are attracted to the home care market because it shows major growth potential and has experienced “relatively minimal technological disruption,” the Forbes article says. Scalability, however, could prove an issue, as some home care startups—like Honor and New York-based Hometeam—currently only do business in select states or metropolitan areas.

There’s proof that scalable models can produce high, growing revenue while also turning a profit, the article adds. After Google Capital’s $46.35 million investment, Care.com’s revenue increased by double digits to reach almost $80 million in the first half of the year; the company also reported a small profit.

Read the article at Forbes.

Written by Mary Kate Nelson

The post Forbes: Venture Capitalists Eye Home Care Opportunities appeared first on Home Health Care News.

The alliance with San Francisco-based Stride Health Inc. is designed to enable independent caregivers to enroll in the health plan that best suits their needs—in as few as 10 minutes.

Using the new “Care.com Benefits,” caregivers registered on Care.com can now access Stride’s financial guidance, personalized recommendations and year-round navigation support for dental and medical insurance plans in time to meet the Jan. 31 deadline to enroll in health plans for 2016.

“Caregivers are professionals doing one of the most important jobs imaginable; yet, because their workplace is frequently in someone’s home, they often don’t have access to the same benefits other professionals take for granted. In teaming up with Stride Health, we hope to change that,” said Sheila Lirio Marcelo, founder, chairwoman and CEO of Care.com, in a prepared statement. “Care.com Benefits delivers easy, personalized access to health care and coverage for U.S. care providers registered on Care.com, regardless of how many hours they work. We expect to expand upon the benefits offering later this year.”

Through Care.com Benefits, each Care.com caregiver registered in the United States is set to receive personalized health plan recommendations that optimize total cost of care and coverage every year, comparing 38 factors across thousands of plans to keep preferred doctors, determine the most cost-effective plan and guarantee affordable prescription drug coverage, according to the company.

Caregivers are also set to receive customized care plans that take maximum advantage of preventive care included free of charge with selected health insurance. Caregivers can also utilize Care.com Benefits to find in-network physicians and get exclusive access to deals on prescriptions at 70,000 pharmacies across the country.

Additionally, advisors will be made available to caregivers year-round to navigate their health plans and understand how to utilize their plans to save money on health care.

Care.com’s 7.7 million caregivers serve 10.1 million families across 16 countries, including the United States, Canada, the UK and parts of Western Europe. About 500,000 employees of corporate clients have access to Care.com’s services.

Written by Mary Kate Nelson

The post Care.com to Help Caregivers Score Affordable Insurance appeared first on Home Health Care News.

But there may be some relief for those who are employed and are seeking elder care for a loved one, writes The Washington Post.

The share of employers providing information about elder care services to their employees has risen from 31% in 2008 to 43% in 2014, according to the 2014 Families and Work Institute’s National Study of Employers.

Additionally, three-fourths of employers say they offer time off for elder care, though few offer paid leave. The share of companies allowing workers to pay for some elder care with pre-tax dollars has nearly doubled since 2008 to 41%, however, only 7% offer short-term respite care to give working caregivers a break.

Some companies, such as Fannie Mae in the Washington D.C. area, are offering not only flexibility for their employees, but also benefits like emergency backup adult care, geriatric assessments, social workers to assist with referrals for adult day care programs, along with legal, financial and emotional counseling.

“We’re starting to see pockets of innovation,” Drew Holzapfel, who heads ReACT (Respect a Caregiver’s Time), told the Washington Post. ReACT is a network of more than 75 firms, academic institutions and nonprofit groups that are looking to change workplace culture to help people better manage work and elder care. “But with elder care, we’re finding that if you haven’t experienced it, you have a hard time understanding it,” he said.

For those who “don’t get it,” the consequences of failing to support employees who have elder care responsibilities are multi-faceted.

MetLife estimates such negligence can cost companies as much as $34 billion a year in lost productivity, absenteeism, disengagement, turnover and higher health care costs, as it is suggested that workers stressed with elder care duties are sicker, writes The Washington Post.

But with most elder care being performed by family members—more than 80%, according to Care.com— a number of employers have recognized the need to provide resources to their employees.

In recent years, the number of companies seeking elder care benefits through Care.com has risen by 50%, said Jody Gastfriend, senior vice president of Care.com, in the article.

“Universities have been at the head of the pack thinking about elder care, because their workforces tend to skew older, as do health-care, law and financial services companies,” Gastfriend said. “But now, as industries and companies look at what their competitors are offering, it’s becoming more of an expectation.”

Read more at The Washington Post.

Written by Jason Oliva

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For senior care, demand jumped 100% between December 2012 and January 2013, according to data compiled by Care.com. The company anticipates this year’s surge in caregiving services will mirror that of last year. 

“Timing plays a big role when pursuing a new job,” said Donna Levin, co-founder and VP of Operations, Care.com. “According to our data, caregivers are in great demand beginning at the holidays and continuing on well into the New Year, as both families and businesses are in search of care.”

Other specific caregiving segments saw similar surges with child care spiking 104% during the holiday period and demand for caregivers overall up 99% during the peak time. 

On an annual basis, care providers report the time period from Thanksgiving through January as the most popular time for families to seek solutions for loved ones who may require home or community based care. 

To aid caregivers who are seeking new jobs, Care.com has launched a “31 Days to a New Job” campaign to assist them in securing new employment during the holiday rush.

Written by Elizabeth Ecker

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Through the acquisition of Brookline, Massachusetts-based Parents in a Pinch, announced Tuesday, the company is expanding its services for employers and individuals. 

Parents in a Pinch, which employs a team of 15, brings more than 60 corporate clients who use the service to provide back-up care for those who use home care providers including child care and adult care. 

“Through our existing business serving employers, we are acutely aware of the needs companies face in addressing the growing care challenges faced by their employees and their desire to do so via one provider who can offer a full scope of services,” said Sheila Lirio Marcelo, founder and CEO of Care.com. “Back-up care is a critical component in that mix and with Parents in a Pinch, Care.com is now uniquely positioned to provide professional in-home back-up care assistance as an adjacency to our existing services.”

Parents in a Pinch will relocate to Care.com’s Waltham, Massachusetts offices and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Care.com. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Written by Elizabeth Ecker

The post Care.com Expands Services Through Acquisition of Back-Up Care Specialist appeared first on Home Health Care News.