That said, only 43.8% of home-based care staff and 55% of home health and hospice staff feel prepared to care for new clients, according to the 2024 Activated Insights Benchmarking Report. As a possible result, the annual care staff turnover rate has climbed 14% in the last two years to almost 80%.

Organizations demonstrating a commitment to continuing education improve employee satisfaction by allowing caregivers to hone their skills and grow in their careers. Investing in employees’ long-term success will impart a sense of purpose and possibility within a role known for turnover and burnout.

Empowering caregivers with professional development opportunities translates to better patient care, while continuous learning boosts caregiver confidence, competence and overall sense of achievement.

However, according to the report, while establishing a clear career path is one of the top strategies for retaining long-term employees, only 39.9% of providers have one.

“Helping that caregiver feel supported and knowing what they need to do when they get to that client’s home the first time is so important,” Carla Zak, director of organizational learning at Right at Home, said during an Activated Insights webinar.

Founded in 1995, Right at Home is a franchise that offers home care to seniors and adults with disabilities. It is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, with over 700 independently operated locations in the U.S. and five other countries.

Investing in professional training gives caregivers the confidence to care for patients and boosts client trust. According to the report, caregiver’ abilities ranked at the top in terms of customer satisfaction for 2024. Those who train their staff to provide patient-centered care are seeing the highest employee and customer satisfaction levels in years.

“It’s not just learning the content, it’s being able to share stories,” Zak said. “Caregivers live in an isolated world. They go to a client’s home; sometimes, it’s just them and the client. So, to have the ability to interact with other caregivers and talk about what’s working or not working provides not only the training they need, but the support they probably don’t even realize they need.”

Currently, 83.1% of organizations offer specialty training, with 96.4% offering dementia training to tailor to the industry’s growing needs.

Quality training boosts ROI

In-person training from a professional vendor is the most expensive employee acquisition method, costing approximately $470 per caregiver. However, the benchmarking report said it generates the highest caregiver revenue, at roughly $17,071.

While 61.6% of providers bill solely based on the length of visits, only 29% bill for a combination of visit duration and skill level. This provides most home care organizations the opportunity for additional revenue growth based on training and empowering employees.

“The average home-based care provider offers five hours of orientation and eight hours of ongoing training,” the report read. “Those who offer at least eight orientation hours and 12 hours of ongoing training see an increase of $1,103,291 in revenue. However, while establishing a clear path is one of the top strategies to retaining long-term employees, only 39% of providers have one.”

The post Sophisticated Caregiver Training Remains An Underutilized Retention, ROI Tool  appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Home care agencies that are part of larger franchise networks get to reap the benefits of operating under established names and reputations. But that doesn’t stop franchise owners from thinking up various ways to stand out in the crowd. 

Franchise owners at companies like Always Best Care, Right at Home and Griswold Home Care are doing this by offering services that fall outside of the norm.

At Griswold Twin Cities, this means incorporating therapy dogs, Scout and Ruby, into their care services.

The idea to bring therapy dogs into the mix started because of Griswold Twin Cities Owner Nicole Myhre’s love of dogs. She began working with Canine Inspired Change — a Saint Paul, Minnesota-based non-profit organization — to put Scout and Ruby through therapy dog training.

“Most people, I know, like animals,” Nicole told Home Health Care News. “It really was just a matter of wanting to have animals around us, and then the support that they bring to our team.”

The Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based Griswold is a home care franchise. It provides personal care services in 30 states. Nicole co-owns Griswold Twin Cities with her husband Brett Myhre.

The agency brings therapy dogs into initial assessments and bi-weekly hospital visits. Brett noted that feedback from Griswold’s clients has been extremely positive.

“Some of these people no longer have a dog, whether because of where they live, or because they’re not able to care for an animal anymore, but they are still animal lovers,” he told HHCN. “We’ll get calls from some of our clients, wondering if we can come out and just do a quick home visit. We’ll bring the dogs out to do visits with people that don’t have the opportunity to have an animal anymore, and it just brightens their day.”

Brett and Nicole have also seen the advantages of having Scout and Ruby when trying to connect with the community.

“When we’re at community events, and we have a booth, or something like that set up, it’s definitely a good icebreaker to get people to come up and talk to us,” Brett said.

Parkinson’s support

Always Best Care of Central Connecticut has separated itself by getting heavily involved in the Parkinson’s disease community. The company has leaned into educating people about what to expect with a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis.

Taylor Lajeunesse — the director of operations at Always Best Care of Central Connecticut — began working with the American Parkinson’s Disease Association (APDA) in 2022.

Always Best Care of Central Connecticut decided to lean into Parkinson’s as an area of focus when the company started seeing an increase in clients coming in with the disease.

“A lot of our clients that have Parkinson’s are actually our VA clients, through their community care network,” Lajeunesse said. “These are mostly Vietnam veterans, because they were exposed to Agent Orange and different toxins that they think are associated with Parkinson’s. I’d say about 10% of our clients are VA, and maybe about 25% of them have Parkinson’s.”

Roseville, California-based Always Best Care is a home care franchise company that operates across 225 territories in 30 states and Canada.

Though the New Haven area has a lot of these different Parkinson’s programs through Yale University, areas like Hartford and Tolland did not, according to Lajeunesse.

“For somebody that’s coming from our area, that can be anywhere from a 45-minute drive to an hour and a half drive,” she said. “For somebody with Parkinson’s, it’s not practical to be taking an entire day to go for a doctor’s appointment or an hour-long program. We’re really trying to bring that up this way, with the help of the APDA and their program coordinator.”

Last year, the Central Connecticut location rolled out a web page that shared information about what to expect at each stage of Parkinson’s disease, as well as what services the agency suggested. The site also includes video content.

Lajeunesse is also in the process of starting a new support group in town.

Plus, the agency talks to clients and their families about the APDA and all the resources the organization offers.

“A lot of our families don’t really know where to start,” Lajeunesse said. “I think in being able to be that guide, we’ve had families that are really appreciative of those connections we can make.”

Avoiding scams

Scams and scammers have become a popular topic for documentaries and true crime podcasts, but Right at Home Orlando wants to ensure that its clients aren’t targeted.

Seniors are often targeted by scammers. In 2022, there were 88,262 fraud complaints which led to $3.1 billion in losses from individuals aged 60 and older, according to the National Council on Aging.

Though Right at Home Orlando doesn’t have a formal scam prevention program, the agency helps educate its clients in order to protect its clients from financial fraud and other scams.

“As a home care agency, we’re very opposed to elder abuse and people taking advantage of seniors, so all of our caregivers have always been trained to look for the signs of any of those situations,” Nikki Magyar, owner and president of Right at Home Orlando, told HHCN.

For example, during past tax seasons, the agency has been able to spot when people who were meant to help their clients file were taking advantage and charging exorbitant fees.

“They think that the elderly person is not going to balk at it because they’re more polite, or that they’re not tech savvy, so they won’t even notice,” Magyar said.

Magyar has also seen situations where people have entered their client’s life for nefarious reasons.

“We’ve had a few cases, sadly, where people have a boyfriend that is asking them to wire money, or brings into the bank a lot — we’ve had to advise the family that this person has become part of [our client’s] life,” she said.

Caregivers at the agency have also been trained to screen suspicious phone calls where the person on the line is claiming to be someone who they’re not, such as IRS agents.

Ultimately, it’s important for individual franchise locations to live up to the company’s standards while also going above and beyond.

“You want to make sure that you’re following the franchise’s lead, but then you also want to make sure you’re doing the most dynamic thing you can and taking it up a notch,” Magyar said. “You want to make sure that you’re doing your part for the community around you.”

The post Scam Prevention And Therapy Dogs: How Franchise Owners Are Setting Their Home Care Agencies Apart appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Amid a persistently challenging labor market, home care companies are still constantly working on configuring the best possible employee benefits package for caregivers. Companies like Right at Home San Gabriel Valley, Devoted Guardians and Family Tree Private Care have emerged as standouts when it comes to crafting impressive benefits packages.

At Devoted Guardians — a home-based care company that operates in the Phoenix metropolitan area — the caregiver benefits package includes health care insurance to those who qualify as full-time employees, 401(k) and bonuses based on reaching certain milestones.

The company also offers dental, vision, disability insurance, life insurance, accident insurance and cancer insurance.

Plus, Devoted Guardians implemented a star system for its caregivers. The company’s star system has categories of points that caregivers are able to accumulate weekly. For example, caregivers can earn points for how many hours they’re working weekly or how well they’re adhering to a plan of care.

“We have an automated AI recognition system, which is combing through our EHR software and pulling all of these data points out and assigning a value, and then communicating that out to our caregivers weekly,” Aaron Sinykin, founder and CEO of Devoted Guardians, told Home Health Care News. “Those points roll up to a star rating, and that has a financial benefit.”

Devoted Guardians’ star system came as a result of trying to find a benefit that would appeal to a wide-ranging demographic of caregivers.

“When I started to develop our star system, I was really trying to figure out what would be the one or two benefits that everyone would love, and that would motivate them,” Sinykin said. “I just could not figure it out. I have such a spectrum in our workforce of ages and demographics, and there’s no singular benefit that’s going to mean something to everyone. It really hit home with me that I needed a platform where I can give a monetary benefit and allow our employees to apply that to whatever benefit was meaningful to them.”

Right at Home San Gabriel Valley has a caregiver benefits package that includes 40 hours of sick pay, performance-based recognition bonuses, health care insurance, dental, vision and chiropractic care.

The company also offers retirement benefits, paid training, flexible work schedules and much more.

Right at Home San Gabriel Valley Owner Renee Concialdi believes that flexibility around work schedules, in particular, is an offering that caregivers appreciate.

A recent Care.com study found that one in five employees left their companies because their employer didn’t offer family care benefits. A lack of child care benefits was one of the top reasons people sought employment elsewhere.

“When we hire someone and they tell us, ‘I can only work these hours because I have child care needs,’ we hire them and customize their hours based on their family situation,” Concialdi told HHCN.

Right at Home San Gabriel Valley also helps caregivers navigate state child care benefits, according to Concialdi.

“We have an HR team who are experts in helping them find the state benefits that will be geared toward what they need, whether it’s transportation, childcare, or maybe a Medi-Cal supplement or policy for their health care,” she said. “We’ve even helped when they need to fill out state forms. When they have needs that don’t even fit our employment, they can come in and we will try to help guide them through the various systems.”

Family Tree Private Care — a company that offers concierge-level caregiving, private nursing and care management services in Texas and Colorado — offers a minimum essential coverage health care plan, an employee assistance program, dental, life insurance coverage and a 401(k).

The company’s employee assistance program offers access to child and elder care services.

In addition to family care services, the employee assistance program includes counseling and legal will drafting services.

Still, formulating a comprehensive benefits package doesn’t always translate into immediate results. Family Tree Private Care’s employee assistance program wasn’t immediately popular with caregivers, despite its many offerings, according to Ana M. Diaz​​​​, vice president of human resources at Family Tree Private Care.

“I thought that after COVID, and the industry we’re in, the benefit would be utilized, especially since it was employer paid and free,” she told HHCN. “The biggest lesson was that care providers didn’t really understand what the program was, and so they didn’t see it as a benefit.”

One of the ways that Family Tree Private Care got caregivers to see the advantages of the program was by stepping in and finding multiple ways to apply services.

“If a care provider has been with a client for three or four years and that client passes away, let’s make sure we set them up with the employee assistance program and get them grief counseling,” Diaz said. “Nobody thinks of it that way. They thought of it more along the lines of, ‘If my father passes away, I’ll use it for grief counseling.’ We just needed to go beyond what they realized the program could be used for.”

Managing logistics

Aside from the possibility that caregivers might not immediately take advantage of a benefit, offering a great benefits package isn’t always easy for small businesses.

“We’re still a small business, and we don’t command the heavy discounts that the large corporations have, so we don’t get the best pricing and that’s really sad,” Concialdi said. “I know our franchisors are working on this for us, but we have to really work hard and we use our internal system network of other owners in our local area to bounce off each other.”

Despite these challenges, home care companies are often seeing positive returns for having strong benefits packages in place.

For instance, Right at Home San Gabriel Valley turnover rate is at just 48%, well below the industry average. .

Devoted Guardians has also seen a number of gains since enhancing its benefits package.

“We were able to land in the top one 100 category for Home Care Pulse, driven highly by our caregiver scores,” Sinykin said. “We’re seeing our annual retention improved from the lowest point in the 30s and 40s into the 60s and 70s now. We’re feeling it just in the overall growth of our agency, we’re seeing double-digit growth year-over-year.”

What’s more, Family Tree Private Care has been able to gauge how good its employee benefits are compared to other companies.

“We acquire a lot of home care agencies, and every time we compare benefits to other home care companies, ours are roughly 20% to 30% cheaper, with better deductibles and network providers and coverage,” Diaz said. “When we acquire companies, it’s usually always a benefit for the employees, because they end up saving money.”

The post Home Care Providers’ Creative Benefit Packages Are Paying Off appeared first on Home Health Care News.

The impetus behind Right at Home’s hiring initiative was the increased growth in client populations that the company was seeing, Nikki Holles, vice president of people strategy for Right at Home, told Home Health Care News. 

“The world is continuing to age, and not only are we continuing to age, but we’re continuing to see people who, otherwise, would have gone into a facility realizing that their options include home care,” she said. “With that population continuing to grow, we know there’s an average number of hours that are generally used by clients. As our clients grow, we’re going to have to continue to increase the number of caregivers available to take care of those clients.”

Based in Omaha, Nebraska, Right at Home has more than 700 home care franchise locations across the U.S. and six other countries. The company recently earned a spot on Entrepreneur’s annual Franchise 500 list.

In addition to hiring to meet the care services needs of the senior population, Right at Home is also hoping to get ahead of turnover associated with the caregiver role.

“We also recognize that there are a lot of people who take caregiver roles while they’re in nursing school, or while studying to be a doctor or what have you,” Holles said. “There’s a little bit of a transient nature of this role. We also recognize that we have to continue to increase the number of people that we are hiring, because we know there’s kind of an organic cycle that happens based on the lives of the caregivers.”

Right at Home will be utilizing several strategies to reach 26,000 hires this year.

The company has formed preferred partnerships with a few job boards. These collaborations will allow Right at Home franchise owners to work with both local and national job board platforms, according to Holles.

Right at Home is also implementing different technology solutions across the franchise network.

“With different technology, it allows them to create efficiencies in their office and allow them to continue to hire more,” Holles said. “It gives their office staff the time and energy to be able to go through the mechanics that they have to go through to bring on a caregiver. Those pieces are things like electronic onboarding resources, or workflows that can help automate communications through an applicant tracking system, or engagement platforms to reward and recognize the caregivers.”

The strategies in place for Right at Home’s current hiring initiative fall in line with the company’s larger efforts around cultivating an appealing culture for caregivers, Right at Home CEO Margaret Hayes told HHCN.

“We want to be that employer of choice,” she said. “That [term] might be overused, but at the end of the day, we really focus on creating a culture and encouraging our franchise owners, and helping them develop a culture where they are the employer of choice in their local markets. We break down the elements of the caregiver experience into micro elements so that we can make it a great experience.”

The post How Right at Home Plans To Up Its Caregiver Count By Over 50% In 2024 appeared first on Home Health Care News.

In order to be ranked on the list, a franchise company needs to be courting new franchisees in the U.S. or Canada. Companies that made the list also need to have had at least 10 units open and operating as of July 31, 2023, with at least one U.S.-based franchise.

Factors such as franchise cost and fees, size and growth, network support and brand strength determined each company’s evaluation.

Companies like Interim HealthCare, Home Instead and Senior Helpers ranked the highest of the home-based care franchises that managed to grab a spot on the list.

Interim HealthCare

— Rank: 59

— 2023 Rank: 55

— Units: 655

— Based in Sunrise, Florida, and a part of Caring Brands National, Interim is a franchise that provides home health, hospice, palliative care and other services across locations in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

Home Instead

— Rank: 149

— 2023 Rank: 155

— Units: 1,217

— Home Instead is a Omaha, Nebraska-based personal care franchise company that has locations in over a dozen countries. In 2021, the home care technology company Honor acquired Home Instead.

Senior Helpers

— Rank: 172

— 2023 Rank: 172

— Units: 361

— Maryland-based Senior Helpers has a national personal care network, as well as adult day centers. The company was acquired by Advocate Health Enterprises in 2021.

Homewatch CareGivers

— Rank: 222

— 2023 Rank: 208

— Units: 222

— Denver-based Homewatch CareGivers is a home care franchise company that operates in over 30 states and seven countries. The franchise employs over 4,500 caregivers.

Griswold Home Care

— Rank: 252

— 2023 Rank: 267

— Units: 186

— The Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based Griswold is also a home care franchise. It provides personal care services in 30 states.

ComForCare

— Rank: 254

— 2023 Rank: 402

— Units: 229

— ComForCare is a home care franchise organization that has hundreds of territories independently-owned and operated in Canada and the U.S. ComForCare operates as At Your Side in Houston, Texas. ComForCare operates under parent company Best Life Brands. Another Best Life Brands company, Blue Moon Estate Sales, also ranked on the Franchise 500 list.

BrightStar Care

— Rank: 279

— 2023 Rank: 141

— Units: 373

— Chicago-based BrightStar is a provider of home care, senior living and supplemental staffing. The organization has been deliberately increasing its company-owned footprint of late.

Assisting Hands Home Care

— Rank: 280

— 2023 Rank: 229

— Units: 193

— Assisting Hands Home Care offers both medical and non-medical assistance for seniors, including meal preparation, companionship, chores and more.

HomeWell Care Services

— Rank: 283

— 2023 Rank: 347

— Units: 136

— HomeWell is a Burkburnett, Texas-based home care franchise that operates across the U.S. The company offers companion care, personal care, as well as specialty care.

Right at Home

— Rank: 318

— 2023 Rank: 260

— Units: 716

— Omaha, Nebraska-based Right at Home is a home care franchise company with locations in the U.S. and six other countries.

Nurse Next Door

— Rank: 418

— 2023 Rank: N/A

— Units: 183

— Vancouver, Canada-based Nurse Next Door is a home care franchise system that operates in the U.S., Canada and Australia. As an organization, the company provides personal care, companionship care, homemaking services, dementia care and more.

FirstLight Home Care

— Rank: 438

— 2023 Rank: 327

— Units: 197

— Cincinnati-based FirstLight Home Care is a provider of non-medical home care. The company also has a specialized care program aimed at seniors with dementia.

Synergy HomeCare

— Rank: 449

— 2023 Rank: 483

— Units: 453

— Synergy is a Gilbert, Arizona-based non-medical home care franchise. The company offers companionship services, in addition to personal assistance, housekeeping, live-in care and 24-hour home care services.

Home Helpers

— Rank: 475

— 2023 Rank: 396

— Units: 308

— The Cincinnati-based Home Helpers is a home care franchise that provides personal care, nutrition and companionship services, among others. It serves over 1,000 communities in the U.S.

Visiting Angels

— Rank: 479

— 2023 Rank: N/A

— Units: 692

— Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania-based Visiting Angels is an in-home senior care company that provides companion care, personal care services and more.

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In 2023, Right at Home closed the year with 24 signings and 17 openings. The company attributes that growth to its strong lead generation and marketing strategy.

“We’ve only got so many open and available territories left in the United States, so it’s all about smart marketing and advertising, and looking for people to work franchises in markets that we have open and available,” Jennifer Chaney, vice president of franchise development at Right at Home, told Home Health Care News.

Based in Omaha, Nebraska, Right at Home has more than 700 franchise locations across the U.S. and six other countries.

The company’s successful expansion should come as no surprise to those who have been watching closely. Last year, the company ranked 100 on the Franchise Times’ top 400 list, which ranks the largest franchise systems in the country annually.

Chaney pointed out that there are roughly 300 territories left to sell in the United States. All of these territories are an opportunity for Right at Home to reach more seniors across the country.

“All 300 of those territories have seniors and adults with disabilities that need care,” she said. “We just laser focus on those open and available territories, and we continue to see that growth.”

Even with Right at Home’s “laser focus,” barriers to home care franchise growth still exist.

One barrier that is top of mind is a crowded and competitive senior care market.

“I think that this is the case with any franchise concept,” Chaney said. “Our business model is senior care. It’s no secret that there are a lot of senior care options to choose from. One of the challenges of that growth is when people are looking at joining a franchise, specifically a home care franchise, they’re shopping around with multiple brands. They’re comparing us to others, and they have lots of options to choose from. Our goal is just to shine brighter than the rest and show them what we have to offer.”

One of the ways that Right at Home does so is by focusing on franchisee validation. This means giving potential new owners access to all of the company’s current franchise owners.

This gives potential owners the opportunity to connect with current owners and learn more about the Right at Home franchise network, as well as all of the support and resources the company offers, according to Chaney.

“It’s in the name, franchisee validation,” she said. “These franchise owners are validating everything that we have educated these prospects on, everything that they’ve read about online. For us, franchisee validation is where we really shine because this is direct feedback from our franchise owners, who are running these businesses day in and day out.”

With 2023 in the rearview, Right at Home is focused on strategies for 2024. The company has a footprint goal of 24 new territories this year.

“We have the same aggressive goal as we had last year, but we’re doing things with a little bit more experience,” Chaney said. “We tried a lot of things last year. It was a learning year for us.”

Right at Home also earmarked markets that it is interested in growing in. Those include: Sierra Vista-Douglas, Arizona; Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Johnstown, Pennsylvania; Warner Robins, Georgia; Sebastian-Vero Beach, Florida; Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Iowa; Bangor, Maine; Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Gainesville, Florida; Yuma, Arizona; Amarillo, Texas; and Barnstable Town, Massachusetts.

The post Unlocking Growth: Right at Home Targets 300 Untapped Territories appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Around 2019, Medicare Advantage (MA) was all the rave among home care providers.

That’s because, in 2018 and 2019, two pathways opened for MA plans to provide more benefits to beneficiaries: the primarily health-related benefit pathway and the Special Supplemental Benefits for the Chronically Ill (SSBCI) pathway.

Included in those were plenty of areas of opportunity for personal home care providers to step in and become more involved with the Medicare dollar. In-home support services (IHSS), namely, were a popular benefit that providers theoretically stood to benefit from.

But, since 2019, that optimism around MA has waned for most. The return on the investment has largely not been there.

For one, providers that generally dealt with private-pay clients were met with less favorable rates in MA, plus less reliable scheduling for their caregivers. Then, particularly recently, the growth in plans’ adoption of SSBCI and primarily-health related benefits has slowed.

This year, for instance, 867 plans are offering IHSS as a supplemental benefit, according to the research and advisory firm ATI Advisory. That’s a significant drop off from 2023, when 1,308 plans were offering the benefit.

Lingering optimism

By 2022, providers were already backing off the idea that significant MA investments were worth their time.

“We’re sitting on the sidelines and watching,” Right at Home CEO Margaret Haynes told Home Health Care News in late 2022. “We certainly are dabbling in a couple areas where it makes sense, but it really does come down to the reimbursement rate.”

Many of the larger home care companies were beginning to feel that way, and have since become more entrenched in that thinking.

But BrightStar Care – and its CEO, Shelly Sun – were going the opposite way. Sun felt that digging into MA was more than worth it, given how many seniors would be enrolled in a plan in the next few years. It was a way, from Sun’s perspective, to diversify revenue while also planning for the future.

Also in late 2022, Sun told HHCN that BrightStar was converting 5% to 10% of its MA clients to private-pay clients down the line.

In early 2024, she remains optimistic, albeit with some caveats.

“I still am very bullish on Medicare Advantage, because the mission for BrightStar has always been taking care of moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas,” Sun recently told HHCN. “And if 50% of those seniors are likely to have Medicare Advantage, not being there to help them use a government benefit to make their dollars work further to help keep them at home, that would be contrary to our mission.”

The Chicago-based BrightStar Care has more than 380 home care locations nationwide. It also has a senior living portfolio and provides supplemental staffing. Overall, the company has 15,000 caregivers and 5,700 registered nurses on staff.

Because it is a franchise, the entrance into MA business required convincing. After all, the margins that come with MA beneficiary hours are much more slim than the traditional private-pay hours franchisees are used to servicing.

To combat that issue, BrightStar has also increased its company-owned footprint, which allows it to test out the best way to handle MA cases, alternative models and new technologies.

Sun also does not think that the fewer plans offering personal care benefits will negatively impact business for her company, however.

“Not every Medicare Advantage plan offers supplemental benefits,” she said. “And not every set of supplemental benefits offers personal care, but I believe we should be able to take it when they do. And I think there’s a similar number of hours that will be covered in 2024 compared to 2023, even though fewer plans are offering them. The ones that offer them are increasing their volume.”

For the ones pulling away, Sun believes that’s due to the difficulty that came with managing networks of home care providers in given markets.

The ones that still offer the benefits may face similar struggles, but Sun believes the data is showing those plans that offering personal care is extremely beneficial to their members.

“It improves their loss ratios because home care is the lowest cost of care, and it helps avoid some hospitalizations that are more expensive,” Sun said.

If anything has tapered Sun’s bullishness on MA, however, it’s how plans are handling the benefits.

“In 2024, most of [the plans] will have moved to conveners,” she said. “I think that’s dangerous, because unless they have SLAs in place, from our experience, conveners are not making sure that the customers that had benefits last year – and had a specific caregiver last year – that they end up with the same agency the next year.”

Sun has been reaching out to health plans directly to make sure they’re aware of that problem, which she believes is a big one given the amount of weight “customer satisfaction” will hold on STAR ratings for MA plans.

That is where there needs to be a “wake up call” for plans, according to Sun.

Still, she is sticking with the strategy. Not only does she believe her initial thesis will be proven correct, but also, she believes that the seniors underneath MA plans are in need of this type of care.

“Obviously, it’s not about profitability in the short term. The plans don’t pay well,” Sun said. “But it’s the right thing to do. And it’s going to be a horrific experience for these seniors, which is what I’m trying to get with the plans on to avoid.”

Working through it

FirstLight Home Care, like most home care providers, is also focused on expanding further into alternative payer sources. That effort has mostly included Medicaid and the VA, but it also still does include MA.

The company’s CEO, Glee McAnanly, also recently expressed some concerns to HHCN over how the plans were administering benefits.

“We’re struggling with some of the payer groups with reimbursement rates,” McAnanly said. “We’re working through that to see what happens. I am concerned with margin compression. And we’re going to have to figure out how to make things work [with those plans].”

Despite frustrations, home care provider leaders aren’t blind to the trends.

Yes, MA plans’ investment in personal care may be waning slightly in the short term, but more than 50% of seniors covered by Medicare are now under a MA plan.

That, plus billing rates skyrocketing in private-pay home care over the last three years, is enough for providers like BrightStar and FirstLight to keep trying to make things work.

“We can say all we want, but the margins are always going to be tight,” Kristen Duell, the VP of experience and innovation at FirstLight, told HHCN. “We have to execute around how we’re able to reduce the costs in other areas from an operational perspective.”

The post For Home Care Providers Still Invested In Medicare Advantage Business, Patience Is Wearing Thin appeared first on Home Health Care News.

The list is based on last year’s global systemwide sales — total sales for both franchise and company units — performance.

In order to earn a spot on the list, a company needs to be a legal U.S. franchise. It should also own at least 10% of the company’s total units.

At-home care franchise companies Home Instead Senior Care, Right at Home and Interim HealthCare managed to crack the top 100 portion of the list, alongside big name companies like McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD), Dunkin’ (Nasdaq:DNKN) and The UPS Store (UPS:NYSE).

Home Instead Senior Care

— Rank: 44

— System Sales: $2,400,000,000

— Total Locations: 1,217

— Home Instead is a Omaha, Nebraska-based personal care franchise company that has locations in over a dozen countries. In 2021, the home care technology company Honor acquired Home Instead.

Interim HealthCare

— Rank: 65

— System Sales: $1,288,000,000

— Total Locations: 655

— The Sunrise, Florida-based company – a part of Caring Brands International — provides personal care, hospice care, palliative care, pediatric care and staffing services.

Visiting Angels

— Rank: 90

— System Sales: $900,000,000

— Total Locations: 697

— Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania-based Visiting Angels is an in-home senior care company that provides companion care, personal care services and more.

Right at Home

— Rank: 100

— System Sales: $778,386,711

— Total Locations: 712

— Omaha, Nebraska-based Right at Home is a home care franchise company with locations in the U.S. and six other countries.

BrightStar Care

— Rank: 117

— System Sales: $653,907,370

— Total Locations: 370

— Chicago-based BrightStar is a provider of home care, senior living and supplemental staffing. The organization has been deliberately increasing its company-owned footprint of late.

Comfort Keepers

— Rank: 124

— System Sales: $625,000,000*

— Total Locations: 645

— Irvine, California-based Comfort Keepers is one of the largest personal home care providers in the U.S. It recently was acquired by The Halifax Group.

Senior Helpers

— Rank: 176

— System Sales: $387,243,000

— Total Locations: 327

— Maryland-based Senior Helpers has a national personal care network, as well as adult day centers. The company was acquired by Advocate Health Enterprises in 2021.

ComForCare Home Care

— Rank: 225

— System Sales: $238,000,000

— Total Locations: 223

— ComForCare is a home care franchise organization that has 270 territories independently-owned and operated in Canada and the U.S. ComForCare operates as At Your Side in Houston, Texas.

Home Helpers Home Care

— Rank: 230

— System Sales: $231,856,454

— Total Locations: 304

— The Cincinnati-based Home Helpers is a home care franchise that provides personal care, nutrition and companionship services, among others. It serves over 1,000 communities in the U.S.

Synergy HomeCare

— Rank: 236

— System Sales: $223,257,894

— Total Locations: 417

— Synergy is a Gilbert, Arizona-based non-medical home care franchise. The company offers companionship services, in addition to personal assistance, housekeeping, live-in care and 24-hour home care services.

Always Best Care

— Rank: 245

— System Sales: $212,591,506

— Total Locations: 232

— Roseville, California-based Always Best Care is a home care franchise company that operates across 225 territories in 30 states and Canada.

Homewatch CareGivers

— Rank: 246

— System Sales: $211,550,548

— Total Locations: 224

— Denver-based Homewatch CareGivers is a home care franchise company that operates in over 30 states and seven countries. The franchise employs over 4,500 caregivers.

Griswold

— Rank: 251

— System Sales: $199,100,000

— Total Locations: 178

— The Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based Griswold is also a home care franchise. It provides personal care services in 30 states.

FirstLight Home Care

— Rank: 257

— System Sales: $188,207,247

— Total Locations: 195

— Cincinnati-based FirstLight Home Care is a provider of non-medical home care. The company also has a specialized care program aimed at seniors with dementia.

Assisting Hands Home Care

— Rank: 299

— System Sales: $124,305,162

— Total Locations: 175

— Assisting Hands Home Care offers both medical and non-medical assistance for seniors, including meal preparation, companionship, chores and more.

Caring Senior Service

— Rank: 475

— System Sales: $35,050,000

— Total Locations: 51

— San Antonio, Texas-based home care franchise company Caring Senior Service offers personal care, meal preparation, transportation, companionship, housekeeping and more.

The post 16 Home-Based Care Companies Earn Spots On The Franchise Times’ Top 400 List appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Emily Undajon, the senior vice president of strategic operations at Right at Home, has been named a 2023 Future Leader by Home Health Care News.

To become a Future Leader, an individual is nominated by their peers. The candidate must be a high-performing employee who is 40 years old or younger, a passionate worker who knows how to put vision into action, an advocate for seniors and a committed professional who ensures their well-being.

Undajon sat down with HHCN to talk about the worth of a good caregiver, how education and advocacy will play a role in the future of home care and more.

HHCN: What drew you to this industry?

Undajon: I was inspired to join the home care industry after serving as a family caregiver for my late grandmother. I took care of her a few days a week, helping my grandfather.

Toward the end of her life, we brought in home care. Just seeing the difference it not only made in my grandma’s life but also how it offset the family caregiver burden, inspired me to want to be able to deliver that vision and mission to others across the globe.

What’s your biggest lesson learned since starting to work in this industry?

I would say one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned being in home care for 10 years now is the education and advocacy we still need to do. I think a lot of people understand home health and hospice, but don’t realize home care can collaborate with both of those business partners or referrals to provide holistic care to an individual.

I think what stood out to me is the opportunities we have in front of us to better educate families and payer sources on all care models that can help that person-centered care in the home.

If you could change one thing with an eye toward the future of home-based care, what would it be?

Professionalizing the caregiver role and showcasing young individuals — and even people who may be early retirees — that caregiving can still be a role for them. And truly highlighting it.

Unless you’ve experienced being a family caregiver, I don’t know that everyone truly sees it as a profession.

I’d also like to see how we best leverage technology in the home to offset some of the burden on the caregiver model. With the demand we’re seeing in the aging industry, how do we make sure that we’re still able to deliver care in the home — but maybe in a more efficient manner than the traditional care model.

What do you foresee as being different about the industry looking ahead to 2024?

I think we’ll continue to see regulatory changes and pressures put on the industry. But I see that as an opportunity. How do we continue to stay nimble amongst the regulatory pressures?

Thinking about it from the franchisor’s perspective: continuing to provide the resources so that our franchisees can deliver the mission in a market and still make a profitable business. So that there aren’t too many pressures that squeeze the model so that it’s not profitable.

In a word, how would you describe the future of home-based care?

Opportunistic is the first word that came to mind.

There’s so much opportunity for us to continue to pave the way in the home care industry and elevate the overall quality experience. We have an opportunity to help people gracefully age wherever they call home.

Looking back to your first day in the industry, if you could give yourself advice, what would it be and why?

If I could give myself advice 10 years ago, it would be to not underestimate the value of walking in the shoes of a caregiver.

I had an opportunity to serve as a family caregiver, but my family dynamics don’t do it justice for all that the caregivers endure on a day-to-day basis in this line of profession. Caregivers are the product in this industry, and without them, we wouldn’t be successful.

To learn more about the Future Leaders program, visit https://futureleaders.agingmedia.com/.

The post Future Leader: Emily Undajon, Senior Vice President Of Strategic Operations, Right at Home appeared first on Home Health Care News.

The Series A-3 investment was co-led by SV Health Investors’ Medtech Convergence Fund and Aspire Healthtech Partners.

One of the company’s largest goals after the funding round is to connect with more home-based care providers. It already partners with home care companies like Griswold, Right at Home and BrightStar Care. It wants to expand those partnerships, but also form more partnerships with home health providers.

Satish Movva, the CEO and founder of CarePredict, is a home-based care veteran. He previously served as chief information officer for Interim HealthCare before starting his own company. CarePredict is his second startup.

While caring for his parents, Movva found it overwhelming and nearly impossible to monitor their conditions in between his visits with them. He started CarePredict to find a solution to that problem.

“I was the primary caregiver for them,” Movva told Home Health Care News. “I used to talk to them every day. But when I showed up in person, I would find new things about them that either caused me to take them to the ER that day or to specialist appointments the following week. It was highly disruptive and unpredictable. They needed something that would give me some indication about what’s really going on with my parents without having to rely on self reporting, because as we age, self reporting becomes very unreliable.”

Based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and originally founded in 2013, CarePredict identifies those changes in a senior’s conditions autonomously. Specifically, it is able to track urinary tract infections, fall risk, malnutrition and depression. Doing so has allowed it to reduce hospitalizations for patients by 39% and falls by 69%. It also is able to increase length of stay in lower care settings by 67%, according to the company.

Fundraising for digital health companies has been incredibly challenging of late, making the $29 million raise for CarePredict all that more impressive.

It wasn’t easy, though. External economic factors forced the company to pause fundraising at times or rely on individual or inside investors. Eventually, the money came through.

“We persevered, and finally found folks that were much more strategic in nature versus just venture capital,” Movva said. “That is really what made the breakthrough happen for us. I think in tough times like this, a company’s value is better discerned by a strategic investor than by a purely financial investment.”

CarePredict is paid for mostly by operators, such as the aforementioned home care companies, senior living companies and assisted living facilities.

The company also works with health plans, namely Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. In some instances, it’s able to work with plans and providers in shared savings programs.

As home-based care providers work more with MA plans – and shift more toward value-based care in general – Movva sees CarePredict as the perfect platform to augment their care plans.

“We plan to be very active in home care and in home health,” Movva said. “Those home care companies [that use] our solution have found that it has immense value for their business. Once you have this level of predictive capability and understand what’s going on with a client, you can be the one to react and not necessarily have to put the the family in the way of reacting.”

Greg Madden, managing partner at SV Health Investors, added that he believes CarePredict is “well positioned to expand into the aging-in-place segment.”

“Aging has become a black box in between medical encounters,” Movva said. “If we can have this observation model when there’s nobody around, we should be able to find the same predictors in that [home] setting as well.”

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