Ever wanted to expand your home care agency’s service offerings? You found the right place.
There are more than 400,000 home care agencies across the country. The opportunity and promise is only going to continue with demographic shifts and more. Safeguard your business through expansion.
In this article, we’ll be sharing some tips and guidance from a recent webinar we did with our partner, Polsinelli. Then, you’ll get some insights on how to get started offering multiple service lines.
What is a dual-model home care agency?
This is a home care agency that offers multiple “types” of care, which could include:
- Home care agency
- Caregiver registry
- Consumer directed home care
A home care agency is the type of care that most families and owners are familiar with. This is the “traditional,” model, if you will. A client or family member will reach out to an agency and inquire about care, and following an assessment, a client will be assigned a caregiver that is employed by the agency. The agency manages the care.
A caregiver registry is different from a home care agency, in that the registry acts as a matchmaker for clients and caregivers. The caregivers—and this could include nurses—are 1099 independent contractors, negotiate rates and other care information with their clients directly. A registry is solely responsible for collecting an upfront fee upon making a match, and their involvement in the relationship concludes.
Consumer directed home care is a third model of home care, that is driven by state payer sources, like Managed Care Organizations (MCOs). Consumers direct the care that they receive, and they have the right to choose who provides the care. Oftentimes, they may select a family member or friend. The home care provider, in this case, would act as a fiscal intermediary to the state, instead of supervising the care.
Which model of the three sounds the most interesting to you? Let us know.
The basics of running a dual model
There are a lot of details that we could mention here, and we’ll keep it brief. If you want to watch the full webinar recording, click here.
A dual model is a combination of two or more of the models we talked about earlier. Let’s discuss what that looks like in practice:
You need to establish separate businesses. For example, if you want a home care agency and a caregiver registry, each business needs a:
- Separate name
- Separate address
- Separate LLC
- Separate bank account information
- Separate home care software
What this does is keep each entity clean and allows you the control to maintain each model in a compliant way. Each model of care has a different set of regulations and rules that oversee it, and it’s important to separate each for that reason and more.
What about staff? You should use different caregivers for each model, especially when you talk about employment laws. In terms of admin staff, you should use different staff, but you may be able to use both, as long as they understand the differences between each model well.
Benefits of running a dual model
There are many reasons to expand your business, and offering a dual model of care can help you accomplish that.
- Work with a wider variety of clientele: Some clients may be able to use consumer directed home care, but are unable to afford traditional home care agency services. This gives you multiple ways to help older adults in your community without worrying about cutting prices.
- Assist more referral sources: When your community partners know that you’re offering multiple models of care, they’ll keep you top of mind for opportunities that arise.
- Find new caregivers: Some caregivers appreciate the flexibility of self-employment over working for an agency, and this gives you ways to help caregivers secure more favorable employment. This gives you and them choices.
With the right business structures and foundation in place, you can remain compliant while optimizing your business’ earnings.
What you may not like about running a dual model
A dual model of care is not for everyone, and here are a few reasons:
- Regulations for each model of care is different. This means that you have to become knowledgeable in both models of care.
- Consult with an attorney who is fluent in both models of care. Legal advice can vary widely in home care, especially across disciplines. There’s the business component, there’s the compliance component, and the employment law side. If you don’t have business counsel at this point in time, we highly recommend that you check out our partner, Polsinelli for more information.
Ally is here to support your business growth
If you’re considering running a dual model of care, our platform and our team, are here to support you every step of the way. From resources on the benefits of owning a home care registry to home care marketing tools, we’ve got you covered.
