Any money in Non Medical Senior Care?

Discussion in 'Home Healthcare Reps - General Discussion' started by Anonymous, Nov 15, 2014 at 5:41 PM.

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  1. anonymous

    anonymous Guest


    Hello, I think you overlooked these questions. Could you please help answer them? Thanks.
     

  2. KCH

    KCH Guest

    How many total staff did you employee during those years that you've detailed in para #2 above? Were there other positions besides you and the hired caregivers? If so, can you give a breakdown of the staff positions?
     
  3. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Sorry for overlooking these earlier.
    1. As far as the billing software, you might be able to track it with a spreadsheet and then use Quickbooks for invoicing, especially when just starting out. I used the billing software from the beginning but I did not use the Telephony system. I had the caregivers call my cell phone from the client home phone and tracked their hours manually. As I grew though, that system became obsolete quickly so I added Telephony to my billing software. DADS will never look at your software other than to ask you to pull up a list of clients. You could also keep these in a spreadsheet and DADS may ask you to do this. It all depends on your surveyor. As I say, you could get around it for a little while, but please know that you really need it as you expand because it becomes way to much to track manually.

    2. I was able to penetrate Methodist Sugarland hospital but it was difficult. Hospitals are mini Fort Knox's as they have 1000's of vendors trying to reach them. You will be targeting case management and it may have as many as 25 people that you need to see. At that location, they allowed you to bring lunch as long as you brought a CEU (Continuing Education Unit). That helps them collect hours to keep their credentials. Sometimes when you went to schedule a lunch, it might be a year before you can get in. In that case, talk to the scheduler to get put on the cancellation list and/or ask them who has upcoming lunches. If they will tell you, then you can contact those people and offer to pay for lunch if they let you tag along. Or you will bring the CEU if they are bringing lunch. Some sort of partnership. Memorial Hermann is very difficult. I'm not sure about MD Anderson as I didn't go to the Med Center. There was a location that opened just before I sold but I didn't try to get in there.

    3. As far as networking groups, BNI has groups all over town. I tried this initially but I found BNI to be too rigid. I couldn't always get there due to emergency calls or whatever so I opted not to officially join. West Houston has the Continuity of Care group as does Katy. These are geared toward senior care so you will make lots of connections in the industry at these groups. Also, some of the Assisted Living communities will have monthly networking meetings so you can find them by visiting a few communities. These typically start out good and then it turns into the same people chasing the same referrals month after month after month. The continuity of care groups are much better in my opinion. Caution: there will be several home care companies at these meetings. You might feel a little overwhelmed by the number of reps just for home care. Don't let that intimidate you.

    4. Churches can be a good place to market. The bigger churches might have a ministry geared toward seniors. I got some referrals from Second Baptist however I was friends with a high up person over there so she pretty much directed them to me. You may know some people in churches though that can help you. Also, some churches put on caregiver seminars and those can be good places to do a booth.

    5. Genworth I believe is the largest LTC company out there. They use a program called Care Scout that matches up their clients with care companies. The client will call Genworth wanting to use their policy and Care Scout helps them find companies in their area that accept the Genworth policy and have been vetted by Genworth. I signed up for this about 3 months after I got started. It took maybe 6 months to get my first client and it provided maybe 3-5 clients a year but the good news is that you knew going in that they had insurance so it was a pretty easy close.

    6. As far as how I billed, it was only hourly and if the job entailed transportation, there was a mileage charge if the caregiver used their car. You could also do live-in cases which bill by the day but I stopped doing those when the overtime laws changed due to the documentation required. Otherwise, it's all billed by the hour. To secret shop, simply call some agencies in your area and tell them you have a parent with alzheimers who needs assistance with bathing, dressing, toileting and meal prep for 4 hours a day. They may want to set up an assessment or they may just give you a range of hourly rates. In Houston, they will tell you somewhere between $18 and $24 per hour. Depends on who you call and what side of town you are on.

    Hope that helps. I posted a phone number where you can call me earlier in this thread if you want to talk live.
     
  4. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Hello, could you please tell me the best place to get a list of all the necessary contracts and forms and the best place to get them. Thank you.
     
  5. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Ok, here is the kicker and part of what caused me to sell my company. I did everything by myself except for providing care. I had a staff of approximately 40 caregivers who did the actual care. I did the scheduling, billing, hiring, bill pay. Everything that has to be done. Once I got too big, it became more than I cared to continue doing. I could have hired someone but working from home makes this a challenge. In an ideal world, an office would have a scheduler, a marketer/care coordinator and an office manager. That would be the ideal set up however keep in mind, when you are starting out, you can do all of this by yourself. As you grow though, this would be a good set up to strive for. I would start with a scheduler first assuming I was handling marketing/care coordination. An ideal scheduler would be an actual caregiver who understands the importance of getting people where they need to be. Also, in a pinch if someone calls out, the scheduler could actually go fill in on cases until a replacement can arrive. The office manager would be second as this person could handle hiring, firing, and do all required paperwork to keep you in compliance. Again, I'm assuming that I'm handling marketing. When/if you finally get tired of marketing, then you hire a marketer to replace what you are doing. The order is not mandatory but in my opinion, this would be ideal.
     
  6. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Hi,
    I was reading the forum and wanted to say, great information and thanks for sharing.
    I have an independently veteran owned agency down south. and I have a few questions I would like to ask you. Is there anyway I can contact you offline?
    Thanks,
     
  7. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Call 346-707-8168 and ask for Chris. Usually after 3 pm CST is best.
     
  8. Lvs23

    Lvs23 Guest

     
  9. Lvs23

    Lvs23 Guest

    hello,

    I came across this form. I am in New Mexico and I own a non medical home care company (starting out). Is there anyway I could speak with you off line for a few questions or mentoring?

    Thank you.
     
  10. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Call 346-707-8168 and ask for Chris.
     
  11. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Hello, did you end up going into this business or not? If yes, did you go with 21st Century and how is that working out for you? Please give us the low down - the good, the bad and the ugly. Thanks.
     
  12. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Hello:
    I am going to be opening a Home care company in TN and doing my research and business plan. I was wondering about private pay which most of my clients will be. Do you have the client or care taker sign a contract for services?? And do you have them set up pay on a credit card or ACH banking that you just run from week to week or get a deposit first or how is this usually done. Also are you billing the client every week?? Thank you for your help.
     
  13. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Fuck off you fat lonely ass eating troll from the cellar
     
  14. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Hello Again:

    I would also like to ask since you were working from your home how did you provide training to your staff and also did you have a payroll company to do your payroll? Did you have their checks direct deposit?? and what about employees' that have no bank account??? Also I wouldn't want all of these people in and out of my home that would be disruptive to my family so that's why I was wondering. Thanks.
     
  15. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Sorry I've been away for a while guys. For the TN person, as far as billing goes, I billed weekly just to keep cash coming in. You can choose to bill however you want but weekly keeps the bills paid and yes you will have slow paying customers. I always took either a two week deposit or had a credit card on file as a back up in case they weren't paying. Some customers used a credit card to pay their bill which was fast and easy while some chose to send in checks. I didn't do any ACH but that is another option. The key is to not let customers get too far behind in payments. I did have one that got behind and I had a credit card on file but it was maxed out so I couldn't even charge that. It took about 7 months to get paid and I was forced to stop providing service which can be difficult in this business. The senior needs help but sometimes the kids who are paying the bills get behind and it's kind of hard to walk away leaving a senior in need. But we were not a non-profit so we had to get paid.
     
  16. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    As far as working from home, I never had employees come to my house. I did all training at a local library that gave us a meeting room for free. Interviews were all done a coffee shops. I handled my own payroll thru Quick books. Very easy. Direct deposit was an option that some took advantage. If they needed a check, I mailed them out. I also let the employees know that if they choose to have a paper check, they were at the mercy of the post office. Once I dropped it in the mail, I no longer controlled how long it took to reach them. I made them sign a document around this because inevitably, some of the checks would get lost in the mail and the employee would call me complaining. I would tell them to set up direct deposit and this won't happen. You will be dealing with lower educated people who don't understand some of these things. If someone didn't have a bank account, they would get a check and could go to Chase (my bank) to cash or a check cashing store. I also told them that I am not responsible for any fees incurred for cashing checks. One thing to be aware of is you will constantly be asked for an advance. I did this for my employees and got burned a few times so I always made sure that in order to get an advance, they had to have hours worked and it could only be up to those hours. It got to a point though that the same 5 or 6 people were asking every week and by the time the actual payday came around, they were getting almost no check. This was taking up a lot of my time having to stop everything and runs checks. So I instituted a new policy to slow the advances. I essentially became a loan shark. I told them they could have an advance however due to fee from payroll company and the cost of my time to stop everything to run a check, I charged them $50 for every $100 they wanted in advance. A $600 check becomes $300 with me keeping the other $300. Some of them still continued to take advances even after this policy. Again, lower educated people. I actually made quite a bit of money just from this. For the ones who didn't like it, I simply told them to go to the bank and ask for a loan and see what the bank tells them. I know it sounds harsh but your time is valuable in this business and they need to be taught to live within their means and you are not bank that they can just pull from whenever they get into a crisis which is a pretty regular occurrence with some of these people. I hope that helps.
     
  17. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Thank you so much for you reply. May I contact you by email??
    Thanks. Crystal
     
  18. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

     
  19. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Thanks for your insight. Do u mind sharing what it is that you do now?
     
  20. Linda thao

    Linda thao Guest

    Hi I just found this thread while searching the net on home care. I’ll be starting a home care soon and was wondering about how to approach nursing homes for referrals. Do I just go in and introduce myself to everyone. Will anybody even want to see or talk to me. What was your approach if you could share.