When most families reach out for home care, they're already in crisis mode. They need help immediately, but have no idea what services actually cost or why. This fundamental disconnect has plagued the home care industry for years – until now.
Valerie Darling, owner of Home Care Matters in Georgia, developed an innovative solution called "Home Care Quote" that's revolutionizing how agencies price services and communicate with families. Born from necessity during COVID when in-home assessments became impossible, this data-driven tool creates transparent, customized quotes based on specific care needs rather than vague hourly rates.
What makes this approach truly transformative is the visual "care spectrum" that shows families exactly where their loved one's needs fall on a continuum from basic/independent to acute care. "When you're helping your mom out of the car, that's just you helping your mom. When we do it, that's a transfer assist – that's personal care," explains Darling. This visualization bridges the terminology gap between professionals and families while justifying why certain care costs more.
But pricing transparency is just the beginning. Darling leveraged the data collected through Home Care Quote to create meaningful career pathways for caregivers – addressing the industry's persistent recruitment and retention challenges. By developing training modules for specific conditions like dementia or stroke care, caregivers can earn certification "stars" that increase their base pay rate. The company recognizes "learning leaders" with incentives and advancement opportunities, acknowledging that caregivers are "the face of my company."
As the tool evolves to integrate with major scheduling software platforms, it's becoming a comprehensive system for agencies to manage leads, create service plans, coordinate with other providers, and protect margins. In an increasingly competitive market, Home Care Quote offers agencies a way to differentiate through professionalism, transparency, and data-driven operations – while giving families the education and clarity they desperately need during difficult transitions. Isn't it time we transformed how we approach pricing and staffing in home care?
View More at HomeCareMarketingNews.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Valerie Darling.
I'm the owner and managingdirector I guess operator for
Home Care Matters in FloweryBranch, georgia, which is a
little sleepy lake suburbnortheast of Atlanta, are an
(00:29):
active agency and are in thethroes of everyday clients and
calls and intakes and care andrecruiting, which is a big one
these days.
That's pretty much how we gotstarted.
How it got started was justlike most people have a story
which was taking care of my momand that kind of led me down
this path from a corporatecareer and pivoted and got into
this and it's probably thehardest job I've ever had but
the most rewarding job I've everhad.
(00:51):
And I really don't think of itas a job.
I say job because that's whateverybody knows, but it's really
.
It really is a, I think, acalling and you have to have a
special heart and temperamentand soul to be able to do it and
do it for a long time and stickwith it because it's hard.
It's heart and temperament andsoul to be able to do it and do
it for a long time and stickwith it because it's hard, it's
a hard, it's a hard industry.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yes, I would agree.
A lot of people say that and Iwould agree All of you.
We talk to pretty mucheverybody, not only because they
have a story, but because theystay with it, because it's it
feeds their soul and otherwisethe hard days would have had
them out of here a long time ago.
Yeah true, really hard, andthere's all kinds of any job you
(01:31):
have.
There can be hard things, butwe're also talking about a very
emotional job or business to bein dealing with families who are
overwhelmed.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, usually you get them in a 911, in a crisis mode
, because one of the challengesthat we have as an industry is
obviously education and gettingpeople to recognize that one day
, sooner or later, that day willcome when somebody in their
family or themselves are goingto need help, and they're
usually not educated on it andreally don't know that any of
(02:05):
the different entities whetherit's home health or hospice or
home care.
We get them and it's quiteemotional and it's very they're
tired and they're afraid andthey really don't know what they
need.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I see a lot of consumers and families out there
who are searching around.
They're looking at stuff becausethey know, yeah, maybe
something's up, something'scoming, things aren't going
quite as well as they werebefore.
We just saw mom at Easter, orwe just saw her on the 4th of
July or Christmas, and the housewasn't the way we thought it
was going to be, or maybe thebills haven't been paid or
(02:46):
something is not quite right,the yard's not being taken care
of, and then there's what wecall the straw that breaks the
camel's back, and that's usuallysome hospitalization or an
ambulance issue or a fall orjust getting forgetting to turn
off the stove, forgetting towhere you parked the car.
Yeah, it is an emotional timeand a lot of education, and
(03:11):
you've done a great job with allof this, with Home Care Matters
, and I want to also talk to youabout something that is unique
to you guys.
It's not just to you, but youdeveloped and you use in your
business that I think not onlyconsumers can really benefit
from, but also other home careagencies.
(03:32):
So let's talk about that.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Okay, thank you, and it is a.
It has been a journey, for sure, and one of the things, as you
were saying, when people come tous and they're overwhelmed and
you start talking to them aboutcare needs, they are usually in
complete denial about what carethey really need or their loved
one needs, and they don't reallythink of it in terms like we do
(03:56):
.
When you're helping your momout of the car, that's you
helping your mom out of the car.
When it's us helping your momout of the car, that's a
transfer assist, so that's anambulation assist, so that's
personal care.
To try and explain thoseterminologies and the acronyms
that we use in the industry, itbecomes just very abstract to
(04:18):
people and they have a very hardtime comprehending what that
means or how it affects them, orhow do we derive at a price,
right?
So COVID was the turning pointfor us, especially because we
couldn't go into somebody'sliving room.
Nobody was allowing anybody togo outside their own homes alone
coming into theirs, andespecially if they had somebody
(04:41):
that they didn't, it was maybecompromised or could be, and
especially if they had somebodythat they didn't, it was maybe
compromised or could be.
So we had this on the drawingboard for a while and it was
just that was the moment thatmade us birth it.
So we have a product that wecall Home Care Quote, and what
that product does is it allowsus to do a very individualized,
(05:01):
custom and personalized quote onthe care needs for that
particular person, and we askvery specific questions about
the care, the transfers and theassisting and the bathing and
all those types of questionsthat usually, yes, they can walk
.
All of a sudden you get thereand they have to be hoisted up
(05:22):
and they have to use a walker orwheelchair, depending on how
far it is.
So this gets very specific intothe detail and then, once we
get all that information, we useAI A lot of it's AI.
It helps us with pricing and aswell as care rates, because we
have labor factors and laborrates based on where it's being
(05:43):
applied in the country and thenit calculates a quote and on
that quote it's a PDF and it'sshareable and it's a breakdown
of all the information thatfamily or person has given us
and it also includes acolor-coded care spectrum.
We call it the care spectrumand basically it's like a
(06:05):
weather map.
It's a pie chart weather mapthat has percentages where the
needs are, if they're basic orindependent, getting into
caution care, notable care oracute care, and that is a really
it's a very impactful visualtool.
So two things you're givingthem a quote, a written quote,
which has never really been donebefore that we know of.
(06:27):
We didn't do it and then it hasall the information that they
provided us.
It's not guessing, it's notjust we think it'll be this or
it's a range.
We start at this rate and we goup to here.
How do you change and how do youexpress those changes when you
do a reassessment or ifsomething notable happens or
maybe even something slight?
And then you have the carespectrum, which we give
(06:50):
definitions of what that meansin relative to the care
community.
So you're basic.
You pretty much can do a lot ofyour stuff.
You're pretty independent.
You're in a caution care.
You're going in, you'retrending to notable care and
trending to maybe acute care.
Our goal is to focus on thatcare spectrum and help that
family understand that our goal.
(07:10):
They're not probably going tobe independent again, but we can
keep them in that caution carewith a lot of help from us,
support from the family orwhatever other support they have
and that person needs.
Whatever the recommended numberof hours are Maybe it's a six
hour minimum or 12 hours, ormaybe it's constant care.
If there's somebody that hassevere dementia, with some other
(07:31):
things, maybe they wander, sothey've got to have somebody
taking care of them.
So we started using that andthat is for us, it's a
differentiator, it's a gamechanger, and there's been a lot
of talk and I know this is anold subject, but it's been
revisited again.
I just was speaking to anindustry icon, aaron Markham,
(07:52):
not too long ago, and he's doingthe red ocean blue oceans
comparisons and tryingespecially home care.
Home care is a big red ocean.
It's a big competitivedog-eat-dog kind of market.
Right and creating a blue oceanwhere you're a different type
of agency and a different kindof business.
It doesn't have to be home care, but it really is.
(08:13):
How are you going todifferentiate yourself in a
market that's become socompetitive and that we all do
the same thing?
We all have to probably havelicense, we all have to have
background checks and we onlyhire the best.
Hospitals are hiring those samepeople, and so our hospice and
home health has been.
We all know that help is in acritical mode.
(08:34):
We all have to be certified andwe all have to do certain
things to keep our licensing.
Most of us use schedulingsoftware and there's some really
good ones out there.
So what else can we do?
What else can we do todifferentiate and help ourselves
, educate clients, educatefamilies and keep everybody in
the know about what's going onwith that care and I think that
(08:59):
we've done a pretty darn goodjob of doing that.
And that quote stays with thatclient for the life of that
client, with our agency, fromthe initial quote to every
reassessment quote that we do.
We're a licensed state here inGeorgia so we're very regulated.
We have to redo those every 90days, so we're doing a new quote
(09:19):
.
Sometimes it doesn't change atall, sometimes it goes down and
sometimes it will go up, but itshows us the comparison of what
changed in that care and thoseneeds so that I can physically
and visually show a family.
This is why the price changedand this is what it's going to
be from this point on for thenext 90 days at least, unless
(09:40):
some life event or somethingelse changes.
So it's been received.
At first people were like I justgot a call down the street for
$2 cheaper an hour and I'm likelet's go through their quote.
We'll go through my quote andwe'll see where those
differences are.
And they're like I don't have awritten quote for them and I
said I can't really talk to that.
I can only talk to you aboutwhat we've done and what we have
(10:01):
here and and what your specific, actual individualized custom
care is and what it's going tocost.
And with that price I base whatI can pay my caregiver on.
I know that the higher the cost, the higher the care.
So then the higher the rate.
So I can't pay a caregiver thesame rate for companion that I'm
(10:25):
going to for somebody who maybe bedbound and has a lot of
care needs.
They're not going to take thosecases and that's what we were
running into as well.
So this has allowed us to beable to price and pay based on
the needs of that specificperson.
And we've pivoted a little bit.
(10:47):
We don't we do companion care,but mostly we do the higher
acuity type cases because wehave the care staff that is
accredited and credentialed inthat and we've used home care
quote to help us identify thetypes of cases that we get that
we've gotten for the last fouryears by type top diagnosis, and
(11:11):
where our care inquiries arecoming from, who's the number
one caller, what those zip codesare, what our referral sources
are.
So we've been able to use theanalytics from the quote and
help us create career pathwaysfor our caregivers that help
them get credentialed to thetypes of cases that we
specifically attract.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
And to the caregiver incentive which you hit on here.
They can you have a nice careerladder that they can work their
way through and get those moredifficult cases and get paid
more.
And I think a lot of home careagencies are missing that.
Everybody gets paid the same,no matter what case they get, no
(11:55):
matter what, how hard it is.
They aren't provided perhapsthey're not provided training
for that higher acuity.
It's just like a on-the-jobkind of training maybe, but you
have a different way ofapproaching that, where folks
that really want to move up inthat career ladder can get the
training that they need to takethose cases where they get paid
(12:16):
more.
I think that's a huge incentivefor caregivers.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
It is and it's helped us with recruiting and
retention.
Our best caregivers that we getare from the referrals of our
current caregivers.
So our pool of caregivers arepeople that have come to us,
have either been with us for awhile or have come to us by ways
of other caregivers tellingthem about it.
And what we've done is wecreated the career pathway and
(12:43):
each year we come out with amodule that has at least 30 to
40 hours of continuing ed inspecific types of diagnosis,
whether it's diabetes or strokeor CHF or dementia, and it could
be just ways to prepare food,it could be being able to
(13:04):
communicate effectively withsomebody who has dementia, how
to deactivate a highly agitatedperson with dementia there's all
kinds.
The curriculum is prettyintense and they have to go
through about 30 to 40 hours.
What we've done the first yearwe did it.
We created five modules.
It was about 40 hours and eachmodule that got completed was
(13:27):
eight hours each.
They got a 25 cent an hour bumpin their base rate.
So say they were 14, they'd get14.25 at the end of that year,
or however long it took them tocomplete those courses.
They were at 15.25 an hour, say.
They would never make less thanthat on any case that they took
for us.
But the potential for makingmore and earning more was
(13:49):
because they had certificationsand credentialing for other
types of care.
We created care levels andthere's you can do stars or ones
or whatever.
Ours were stars, one star, twostars, so you start out as a one
star and you create, youcomplete these modules and then,
once you get to a five startype caregiver, care
(14:11):
professional, you can be aleader, a trainer, a mentor, a
care coordinator, a scheduler orsome other staff position.
So there are other seats thatyou can now, as you progress
through the company and I hopethat they stay with me so far
they have and as opportunitiesin the company become available.
(14:33):
Those are the first people thatI'm going to look at because
those are people that have beenwith me.
They understand, you know whatour, you know what our focus is
and that's on quality care andcustomer service and a really I
like to say a hospice-centeredenvironment because it's all
about the care of that personfor as long as they're in our
(14:53):
care.
Hopefully it's a long time, butit's really.
It's so important and I'vereally been, and we have a
newsletter, we have an employeenewsletter that we send out
every month and it highlightsthe leading learners or learning
leaders we talk about.
They get a gift card.
They get paid for the stuffthat they do, all the modules
(15:14):
they go through.
They get a bump in their hourlybase rate.
They get mentioned in thenewsletter.
They get a gift card for beingthat learning leader for that
month.
And this year we addedattendance.
We have perfect attendance andno call outs and kind of thing,
and then they get a littlemonthly bonus for that and the
person that is, or the peoplethat are, the best attendance
(15:37):
and no call outs or whatever atthe end of the year will get a
bigger bonus or check and justtrying to create different
opportunities for them torealize that they're a huge part
of the organization.
They're the face of my business.
Basically.
They're out there every day,thousands of hours a week, and
they have to be the bestrepresentation of who we have in
(16:01):
our company.
It's not just walking in theoffice or listening to somebody
on the phone.
That's the face of my companyare those caregivers and they
are very special and I love themall.
I know them all.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
So it sounds to me like if an organization wanted
to use Home Care Quote, they canmake it just the quote engine.
They can do it online, they cando it in the living room, they
can do it wherever they want todo it.
Or they can also take that astep further and take that
information from home care quoteand change some of their
(16:34):
operations for the better.
So how caregivers get paid, howto incentivize, how to add, so
you can take home care quote anduse it strictly as a quote
engine.
In fact, if a consumer goes toyour website, they can get their
own quote right away.
That's right.
But if they want to take moretime to make it part of their
(16:56):
operations, they can add a lotmore to that with the caregivers
.
And there's a whole suite ofthings that happen when you're
paying accurately and you'recharging accurately.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
That's right.
That's right and, like I said,the tool I've said I've called
it for years the Swiss Armyknife for home care of a tool
because there are a lot ofdifferent things that you can
use it for.
It just depends on how you oryour agency want to use it and
it can be there's a ton of stuffin it.
You can get, from just a fewquotes a month, all your
(17:28):
reassessments.
It does couples.
It's service branded, it'sbranded to every agency, so it's
customized to your agency withlogo, friendly stuff.
It's date and time stamped.
It helps you identify yourideal client.
People talk about ideal clients, right, maybe it's the type of
clients that you want, maybeit's just a certain number of
(17:48):
hours, or maybe it's the payersource, right.
So it identifies all that.
On that inquiry and intake.
And people don't put enoughemphasis on how important a
phone call is because basicallythat's the first introduction to
your company.
Is that phone call and how it'shandled?
It might, it could be somebodywalking in, it's the same thing.
(18:09):
That person walking in is rightthere in front of you, so you
know you making eye contact andyou're able to engage with them
in a on a different level.
A phone takes a little bit more.
That's somebody who hasdeliberately picked up the phone
from whatever they've seen andcalled you and now do you want
to just vomit all over themabout everything that you've
done for 14 years or 15 years orfive years, or do you want to
(18:30):
listen to them a little bit andsay I understand you're in a
critical situation and what'sgoing on?
What I'd like to do, if it's OKwith you, is take a few minutes
and let's get this, let's getdialed in so that we make sure,
one, we're the right resource.
Two, we can identify what thosecare needs are and that we have
the care professional that'savailable to help you and maybe
(18:52):
some other referral sources thatyou might need.
Maybe they need they're cominghome.
They don't know that they needthey can get a bed, a hospital
bed or a wheelchair or oxygen orwhatever.
Maybe they need home health,whatever that is.
So we're identifying all that.
All the questions are allcompiled in a data repository.
It's all HIPAA compliant,obviously, all that stuff, but
(19:14):
it that data is there.
You can make it however, you canuse it for however you want.
If you don't want to givesomebody a quote, you want to do
it in the living room, make theliving room visit.
You can do that too.
It's just, and you cancustomize your speech to get
into that living room any wayyou want it.
However, it works for you.
We're going to come in andwe're going to meet with you in
your living room and we're goingto talk about your
(19:36):
individualized and customizedcare with our company and you
bring that tool in and you thenyou go through it and you print
it off or you email it to themright there and they have it to
share with.
Maybe they have siblingsthey've got to talk to that are
in other states and instead oftrying to remember everything
that I'm telling you what'sgoing on with your loved one,
they can see it written and theyhave a color-coded visual map
(19:57):
for it, and we can do couples.
It can do all the reassessments.
It's a pretty powerful tool.
One of the really excitingthings, val, that you probably
don't know, is that we'regetting ready to integrate with
one of the major softwarecompanies home care scheduling
software companies so that willbe huge.
Yeah, because it'll beintegrated.
(20:18):
You can create your.
If it's an inquiry or somebodydoes it off of your website,
does a quote in the middle ofthe night, which happens a lot
for us.
Website does a quote in themiddle of the night, which
happens a lot for us.
We come in and we have a quotethere.
It will create our potentialclient a lead.
We can create drip campaignsbased on wherever they are in
their search.
(20:38):
It's a huge tool.
It gives us all thisinformation.
So it's a mailing Now you canadd them to whatever mailing
list that you want.
So the tool itself is prettypowerful and very effective.
We have some agencies that areusing it.
Now I have a couple, a few ofthem that are like I don't know
how we even did this before.
(20:59):
How?
Speaker 2 (20:59):
we operated without it.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
And it's a good training tool.
It not only educates the client, but it educates your staff too
.
So if you have brand new people, they're answering the phone,
they, but it educates your stafftoo.
So if you have brand new people, they're answering the phone,
they can just come up with theirown little spiel.
They can walk through the quote.
You don't have to act likeyou're reading anything and it
will deliver a price and aprintout and a lead and all the
(21:21):
stuff.
And it's huge.
It's just it's.
I think it's a game changer.
I really I'm excited about it.
I love using it.
I wish other people not maybein my territory would use it,
but across the US would use it.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
So, yeah, I think the getting the word out and I know
you've been doing this for afew years now it's not like this
is a brand new tool and it hasevolved, it's become.
I've watched it change over theyears and I know that it's
definitely evolved.
And if you're able to connectthe software with other
scheduling softwares, that ishuge, because a lot of folks
(21:59):
will say I don't want to addanother software to my thing or
I don't want it to have to gofrom here to there or whatever.
Totally get that If it willintegrate and send the
information to the primarysoftware that you use in your
home care agency.
That takes a lot of hasslefactor out of trying to move
data from one place to another.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
So that's excellent it does, and that having
multiple CRMs is always clumsy.
But the CRM that we have forhome care quote it'll allow you
to take that quote.
You can build a service planfrom that.
It takes all that information.
We've already that's aniteration that we did several
months ago.
Even without the integration tothe software, you're able to
(22:38):
create your service plan andtake the data you've already
entered and put it on a serviceplan and then your nurse can go
in and fill out the daily tasksas to what is needed on that
in-home assessment.
But yeah, the data, the abilityto have and create so much
information on an initial calland having it in software is, I
(23:01):
think it's going to be reallybig.
Because that's what a lot ofpeople say.
Can I integrate it right now?
And it's coming, but hopefullysometime June we'll have that.
We're working on it.
Now.
There's all the APIs and theintegration.
You know how that is.
I know you're a tech geek, soyou get that.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Yeah, I understand all that.
It becomes not understandableat some point.
It goes woo.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
But I do get it.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
It's a programmer kind of thing, so it takes a
minute to get all the parts andpieces talking to each other
correctly.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Yeah, and with our home care agency we're the lab
for the testing and we have anamazing web hosting company you
probably are familiar with themProof Senior Network.
They do a lot of our websitestuff, and what we did late last
year, early this year I can'tremember was people were like,
(23:52):
wow, we don't want to do thewhole quote, I want to wait till
I get to living room.
What do we do then?
So we created you can get aprice, you get your whole quote,
you can do an inquiry, and wehave an opportunity on the
inquiry.
Or you can get started, whichis a contact form.
We put all that wherever itsays on our website get a quote,
get started, whatever.
So it's three different forms.
They're all very consistent inthe logic, but they all add to
(24:12):
our mailing list.
They create documents for us.
So if it's an inquiry, we'llhave.
It has the quote, which is dateand timestamp, so it has a
unique quote ID and then it hasINQ in it.
So that tells us it was just aninquiry.
So they just got a base whatare our ranges, or where we
start, and so with a lot ofdisclaimers on the email that
goes to them.
(24:33):
But from there then we now wecan follow up as a lead and we
can say forever, however long.
We're just starting becausethey're in the hospital or
they're in rehab for six weeks,whatever.
So we can take that and thenwhen they're ready to come home,
we can take the inquiry andconvert it to a real quote.
Then we take the quote andconvert it to the service plan.
Eventually, once we have it inthe software, that's already
(24:55):
going to all be in there and wejust convert it.
We convert it to a client froma lead and then all those
documents stay with that clientnow and every time you update it
it'll update it in the system.
So it's a game changer.
It's a very professional,elevated way to conduct business
.
And if I have a referral, if Ido take an intake, and I see
(25:16):
that somebody needs a DME orhome health or a PT referral, I
take that quote.
I ask the client is it okay ifyou're going to need this, is it
okay if I call or have somebodycall you that we are partners
with?
And when they say yes, I sayI'm going to send them the
information.
And here's a call, here'ssomebody you can expect a call
from and I fax them over oremail them over the quote and
(25:39):
they have all the where theservice is going to take place,
who the contact is, what they'relooking at, all the needs.
It's a pretty professional wayto.
It's almost like going into thebig hospital systems now where
they have all the stuff in thereand it's very operates on the
same principle the Epic systemor whatever one they're at the
(26:00):
hospital but a little moreconsumer-friendly.
We made it veryconsumer-friendly because we
know that they don't know allour acronyms or what something
might mean.
So there's hovers anddefinitions and then the care
spectrum.
That is, I think, one of themost underrated tools on the
whole thing.
Personally, because that's thefirst thing I do when I see a
quote come through, I look atthat care spectrum and see what
(26:22):
colors are most visible, andthen I know I see the price and
then I see that and I know thatit's going to be more of a less
care or it's going to be reallya high care case and that's
amazing.
Yeah, it's very yeah we'll make.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
I'll make sure that we have.
I'll do a, I'll do a home carequote for me or for, like, my
dad or whatever, and then putthat up there so everybody can
see when we get done here.
Everybody can see as we'retalking, as you're talking.
I'll just put those those upthere.
That's really cool.
Yeah, that would be great, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
And if anybody wants more information they can let
you know and then you can get incontact with me.
I'll be glad to help anybody,even in the agency profile,
because every agency is set upindividually.
It's not a, it's not a one sizeone model fits all your agency.
You put in your agency specificinformation that has margin
protection, because that'ssomething that we really don't
(27:15):
think about a lot either is howmany times your staff has to
touch something in the officeeats at your margin.
So if you're constantly callingsomebody and re-engaging or
you're having to keep faxingover to the long-term care
insurance company the tasksheets or the invoice or the
assessment or whatever, thereare factors that we can build in
(27:35):
to help you offset some ofthose costs and those.
You don't realize how expensivethat is sending somebody to
somebody's home not knowing ifyou're going to really get the
business or what, maybe evenwhat the care might be, going
back and forth a couple times orkeep touching the same piece of
paper over and over again.
Or somebody who only wants onehour a week of service.
(27:56):
You can't.
That's not almost non-existencyanymore.
Maybe there's somebody that cando it, in a building maybe, but
not in a large community likewe have.
We're pretty spread out.
Yeah, is it yeah?
the dry, yeah, for in a largecommunity like we have are
pretty spread out.
Yeah, is it?
Speaker 2 (28:07):
yeah the drive, yeah for in a rural, more rural
community, yeah, it's.
Even in in the city there arevery few hunger agencies that
have, uh, less than a four hourminimum.
Just to drive from point a topoint b is 25 minutes perhaps,
or whatever.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
So, yeah, we really spread out to you but you're not
going to pay somebody 12, 14,15, 20 dollars now, whatever
you're paying them for them.
To pay somebody 12, 14, 15, $20an hour, whatever you're paying
them for them to drive one hourone way, to work two hours or an
hour and then drive anotherhour home, when you know between
gas and time and traffic, andthey make $20 or $30 and they've
spent 15 of it getting thereand going home.
(28:43):
It just it doesn't, it's justcost prohibitive and that's what
we, that, that's what we tellpeople and that's why the care
spectrum has definitions ofwhere people are and what you
put those in.
If your hours are four hourminimums, then you can put that
in and you can set thoseparameters to help people offset
what the care needs actuallyare and how they can benefit
(29:03):
from that.
So it's, it really does take alot of people.
It takes us, and if you don'twant to hire us for all the
hours, that's fine.
But here's what you need to do,because this person needs help.
It's whether it's family or youhire private babysitters or
care staff or whatever you do,you have to have care in place
Big eye opener.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Big eye opener for the family, I'm sure yeah, in
many cases.
I want to thank you for beingon Care Across America and
telling us all about home carequote and home care matters.
Thank you, thank you, and we'llmake sure this gets out to as
many people as possible, thankyou.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
I appreciate it.
Thanks for your time and allyour efforts in helping home
care agencies help our seniors,because there's a bunch of them
coming for the next 10 years.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, it's not going to end right now.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
All right, all right.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
All.
My name is Valerie Darling.
I'm the owner and managingdirector I guess operator for
Home Care Matters in FloweryBranch, georgia, which is a
little sleepy lake suburbnortheast of Atlanta, are an
(00:29):
active agency and are in thethroes of everyday clients and
calls and intakes and care andrecruiting, which is a big one
these days.
That's pretty much how we gotstarted.
How it got started was justlike most people have a story
which was taking care of my momand that kind of led me down
this path from a corporatecareer and pivoted and got into
this and it's probably thehardest job I've ever had but
the most rewarding job I've everhad.
(00:51):
And I really don't think of itas a job.
I say job because that's whateverybody knows, but it's really
.
It really is a, I think, acalling and you have to have a
special heart and temperamentand soul to be able to do it and
do it for a long time and stickwith it because it's hard.
It's heart and temperament andsoul to be able to do it and do
it for a long time and stickwith it because it's hard, it's
a hard, it's a hard industry.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yes, I would agree.
A lot of people say that and Iwould agree All of you.
We talk to pretty mucheverybody, not only because they
have a story, but because theystay with it, because it's it
feeds their soul and otherwisethe hard days would have had
them out of here a long time ago.
Yeah true, really hard, andthere's all kinds of any job you
(01:31):
have.
There can be hard things, butwe're also talking about a very
emotional job or business to bein dealing with families who are
overwhelmed.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, usually you get them in a 911, in a crisis mode
, because one of the challengesthat we have as an industry is
obviously education and gettingpeople to recognize that one day
, sooner or later, that day willcome when somebody in their
family or themselves are goingto need help, and they're
usually not educated on it andreally don't know that any of
(02:05):
the different entities whetherit's home health or hospice or
home care.
We get them and it's quiteemotional and it's very they're
tired and they're afraid andthey really don't know what they
need.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I see a lot of consumers and families out there
who are searching around.
They're looking at stuff becausethey know, yeah, maybe
something's up, something'scoming, things aren't going
quite as well as they werebefore.
We just saw mom at Easter, orwe just saw her on the 4th of
July or Christmas, and the housewasn't the way we thought it
was going to be, or maybe thebills haven't been paid or
(02:46):
something is not quite right,the yard's not being taken care
of, and then there's what wecall the straw that breaks the
camel's back, and that's usuallysome hospitalization or an
ambulance issue or a fall orjust getting forgetting to turn
off the stove, forgetting towhere you parked the car.
Yeah, it is an emotional timeand a lot of education, and
(03:11):
you've done a great job with allof this, with Home Care Matters
, and I want to also talk to youabout something that is unique
to you guys.
It's not just to you, but youdeveloped and you use in your
business that I think not onlyconsumers can really benefit
from, but also other home careagencies.
(03:32):
So let's talk about that.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Okay, thank you, and it is a.
It has been a journey, for sure, and one of the things, as you
were saying, when people come tous and they're overwhelmed and
you start talking to them aboutcare needs, they are usually in
complete denial about what carethey really need or their loved
one needs, and they don't reallythink of it in terms like we do
(03:56):
.
When you're helping your momout of the car, that's you
helping your mom out of the car.
When it's us helping your momout of the car, that's a
transfer assist, so that's anambulation assist, so that's
personal care.
To try and explain thoseterminologies and the acronyms
that we use in the industry, itbecomes just very abstract to
(04:18):
people and they have a very hardtime comprehending what that
means or how it affects them, orhow do we derive at a price,
right?
So COVID was the turning pointfor us, especially because we
couldn't go into somebody'sliving room.
Nobody was allowing anybody togo outside their own homes alone
coming into theirs, andespecially if they had somebody
(04:41):
that they didn't, it was maybecompromised or could be, and
especially if they had somebodythat they didn't, it was maybe
compromised or could be.
So we had this on the drawingboard for a while and it was
just that was the moment thatmade us birth it.
So we have a product that wecall Home Care Quote, and what
that product does is it allowsus to do a very individualized,
(05:01):
custom and personalized quote onthe care needs for that
particular person, and we askvery specific questions about
the care, the transfers and theassisting and the bathing and
all those types of questionsthat usually, yes, they can walk
.
All of a sudden you get thereand they have to be hoisted up
(05:22):
and they have to use a walker orwheelchair, depending on how
far it is.
So this gets very specific intothe detail and then, once we
get all that information, we useAI A lot of it's AI.
It helps us with pricing and aswell as care rates, because we
have labor factors and laborrates based on where it's being
(05:43):
applied in the country and thenit calculates a quote and on
that quote it's a PDF and it'sshareable and it's a breakdown
of all the information thatfamily or person has given us
and it also includes acolor-coded care spectrum.
We call it the care spectrumand basically it's like a
(06:05):
weather map.
It's a pie chart weather mapthat has percentages where the
needs are, if they're basic orindependent, getting into
caution care, notable care oracute care, and that is a really
it's a very impactful visualtool.
So two things you're givingthem a quote, a written quote,
which has never really been donebefore that we know of.
(06:27):
We didn't do it and then it hasall the information that they
provided us.
It's not guessing, it's notjust we think it'll be this or
it's a range.
We start at this rate and we goup to here.
How do you change and how do youexpress those changes when you
do a reassessment or ifsomething notable happens or
maybe even something slight?
And then you have the carespectrum, which we give
(06:50):
definitions of what that meansin relative to the care
community.
So you're basic.
You pretty much can do a lot ofyour stuff.
You're pretty independent.
You're in a caution care.
You're going in, you'retrending to notable care and
trending to maybe acute care.
Our goal is to focus on thatcare spectrum and help that
family understand that our goal.
(07:10):
They're not probably going tobe independent again, but we can
keep them in that caution carewith a lot of help from us,
support from the family orwhatever other support they have
and that person needs.
Whatever the recommended numberof hours are Maybe it's a six
hour minimum or 12 hours, ormaybe it's constant care.
If there's somebody that hassevere dementia, with some other
(07:31):
things, maybe they wander, sothey've got to have somebody
taking care of them.
So we started using that andthat is for us, it's a
differentiator, it's a gamechanger, and there's been a lot
of talk and I know this is anold subject, but it's been
revisited again.
I just was speaking to anindustry icon, aaron Markham,
(07:52):
not too long ago, and he's doingthe red ocean blue oceans
comparisons and tryingespecially home care.
Home care is a big red ocean.
It's a big competitivedog-eat-dog kind of market.
Right and creating a blue oceanwhere you're a different type
of agency and a different kindof business.
It doesn't have to be home care, but it really is.
(08:13):
How are you going todifferentiate yourself in a
market that's become socompetitive and that we all do
the same thing?
We all have to probably havelicense, we all have to have
background checks and we onlyhire the best.
Hospitals are hiring those samepeople, and so our hospice and
home health has been.
We all know that help is in acritical mode.
(08:34):
We all have to be certified andwe all have to do certain
things to keep our licensing.
Most of us use schedulingsoftware and there's some really
good ones out there.
So what else can we do?
What else can we do todifferentiate and help ourselves
, educate clients, educatefamilies and keep everybody in
the know about what's going onwith that care and I think that
(08:59):
we've done a pretty darn goodjob of doing that.
And that quote stays with thatclient for the life of that
client, with our agency, fromthe initial quote to every
reassessment quote that we do.
We're a licensed state here inGeorgia so we're very regulated.
We have to redo those every 90days, so we're doing a new quote
(09:19):
.
Sometimes it doesn't change atall, sometimes it goes down and
sometimes it will go up, but itshows us the comparison of what
changed in that care and thoseneeds so that I can physically
and visually show a family.
This is why the price changedand this is what it's going to
be from this point on for thenext 90 days at least, unless
(09:40):
some life event or somethingelse changes.
So it's been received.
At first people were like I justgot a call down the street for
$2 cheaper an hour and I'm likelet's go through their quote.
We'll go through my quote andwe'll see where those
differences are.
And they're like I don't have awritten quote for them and I
said I can't really talk to that.
I can only talk to you aboutwhat we've done and what we have
(10:01):
here and and what your specific, actual individualized custom
care is and what it's going tocost.
And with that price I base whatI can pay my caregiver on.
I know that the higher the cost, the higher the care.
So then the higher the rate.
So I can't pay a caregiver thesame rate for companion that I'm
(10:25):
going to for somebody who maybe bedbound and has a lot of
care needs.
They're not going to take thosecases and that's what we were
running into as well.
So this has allowed us to beable to price and pay based on
the needs of that specificperson.
And we've pivoted a little bit.
(10:47):
We don't we do companion care,but mostly we do the higher
acuity type cases because wehave the care staff that is
accredited and credentialed inthat and we've used home care
quote to help us identify thetypes of cases that we get that
we've gotten for the last fouryears by type top diagnosis, and
(11:11):
where our care inquiries arecoming from, who's the number
one caller, what those zip codesare, what our referral sources
are.
So we've been able to use theanalytics from the quote and
help us create career pathwaysfor our caregivers that help
them get credentialed to thetypes of cases that we
specifically attract.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
And to the caregiver incentive which you hit on here.
They can you have a nice careerladder that they can work their
way through and get those moredifficult cases and get paid
more.
And I think a lot of home careagencies are missing that.
Everybody gets paid the same,no matter what case they get, no
(11:55):
matter what, how hard it is.
They aren't provided perhapsthey're not provided training
for that higher acuity.
It's just like a on-the-jobkind of training maybe, but you
have a different way ofapproaching that, where folks
that really want to move up inthat career ladder can get the
training that they need to takethose cases where they get paid
(12:16):
more.
I think that's a huge incentivefor caregivers.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
It is and it's helped us with recruiting and
retention.
Our best caregivers that we getare from the referrals of our
current caregivers.
So our pool of caregivers arepeople that have come to us,
have either been with us for awhile or have come to us by ways
of other caregivers tellingthem about it.
And what we've done is wecreated the career pathway and
(12:43):
each year we come out with amodule that has at least 30 to
40 hours of continuing ed inspecific types of diagnosis,
whether it's diabetes or strokeor CHF or dementia, and it could
be just ways to prepare food,it could be being able to
(13:04):
communicate effectively withsomebody who has dementia, how
to deactivate a highly agitatedperson with dementia there's all
kinds.
The curriculum is prettyintense and they have to go
through about 30 to 40 hours.
What we've done the first yearwe did it.
We created five modules.
It was about 40 hours and eachmodule that got completed was
(13:27):
eight hours each.
They got a 25 cent an hour bumpin their base rate.
So say they were 14, they'd get14.25 at the end of that year,
or however long it took them tocomplete those courses.
They were at 15.25 an hour, say.
They would never make less thanthat on any case that they took
for us.
But the potential for makingmore and earning more was
(13:49):
because they had certificationsand credentialing for other
types of care.
We created care levels andthere's you can do stars or ones
or whatever.
Ours were stars, one star, twostars, so you start out as a one
star and you create, youcomplete these modules and then,
once you get to a five startype caregiver, care
(14:11):
professional, you can be aleader, a trainer, a mentor, a
care coordinator, a scheduler orsome other staff position.
So there are other seats thatyou can now, as you progress
through the company and I hopethat they stay with me so far
they have and as opportunitiesin the company become available.
(14:33):
Those are the first people thatI'm going to look at because
those are people that have beenwith me.
They understand, you know whatour, you know what our focus is
and that's on quality care andcustomer service and a really I
like to say a hospice-centeredenvironment because it's all
about the care of that personfor as long as they're in our
(14:53):
care.
Hopefully it's a long time, butit's really.
It's so important and I'vereally been, and we have a
newsletter, we have an employeenewsletter that we send out
every month and it highlightsthe leading learners or learning
leaders we talk about.
They get a gift card.
They get paid for the stuffthat they do, all the modules
(15:14):
they go through.
They get a bump in their hourlybase rate.
They get mentioned in thenewsletter.
They get a gift card for beingthat learning leader for that
month.
And this year we addedattendance.
We have perfect attendance andno call outs and kind of thing,
and then they get a littlemonthly bonus for that and the
person that is, or the peoplethat are, the best attendance
(15:37):
and no call outs or whatever atthe end of the year will get a
bigger bonus or check and justtrying to create different
opportunities for them torealize that they're a huge part
of the organization.
They're the face of my business.
Basically.
They're out there every day,thousands of hours a week, and
they have to be the bestrepresentation of who we have in
(16:01):
our company.
It's not just walking in theoffice or listening to somebody
on the phone.
That's the face of my companyare those caregivers and they
are very special and I love themall.
I know them all.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
So it sounds to me like if an organization wanted
to use Home Care Quote, they canmake it just the quote engine.
They can do it online, they cando it in the living room, they
can do it wherever they want todo it.
Or they can also take that astep further and take that
information from home care quoteand change some of their
(16:34):
operations for the better.
So how caregivers get paid, howto incentivize, how to add, so
you can take home care quote anduse it strictly as a quote
engine.
In fact, if a consumer goes toyour website, they can get their
own quote right away.
That's right.
But if they want to take moretime to make it part of their
(16:56):
operations, they can add a lotmore to that with the caregivers
.
And there's a whole suite ofthings that happen when you're
paying accurately and you'recharging accurately.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
That's right.
That's right and, like I said,the tool I've said I've called
it for years the Swiss Armyknife for home care of a tool
because there are a lot ofdifferent things that you can
use it for.
It just depends on how you oryour agency want to use it and
it can be there's a ton of stuffin it.
You can get, from just a fewquotes a month, all your
(17:28):
reassessments.
It does couples.
It's service branded, it'sbranded to every agency, so it's
customized to your agency withlogo, friendly stuff.
It's date and time stamped.
It helps you identify yourideal client.
People talk about ideal clients, right, maybe it's the type of
clients that you want, maybeit's just a certain number of
(17:48):
hours, or maybe it's the payersource, right.
So it identifies all that.
On that inquiry and intake.
And people don't put enoughemphasis on how important a
phone call is because basicallythat's the first introduction to
your company.
Is that phone call and how it'shandled?
It might, it could be somebodywalking in, it's the same thing.
(18:09):
That person walking in is rightthere in front of you, so you
know you making eye contact andyou're able to engage with them
in a on a different level.
A phone takes a little bit more.
That's somebody who hasdeliberately picked up the phone
from whatever they've seen andcalled you and now do you want
to just vomit all over themabout everything that you've
done for 14 years or 15 years orfive years, or do you want to
(18:30):
listen to them a little bit andsay I understand you're in a
critical situation and what'sgoing on?
What I'd like to do, if it's OKwith you, is take a few minutes
and let's get this, let's getdialed in so that we make sure,
one, we're the right resource.
Two, we can identify what thosecare needs are and that we have
the care professional that'savailable to help you and maybe
(18:52):
some other referral sources thatyou might need.
Maybe they need they're cominghome.
They don't know that they needthey can get a bed, a hospital
bed or a wheelchair or oxygen orwhatever.
Maybe they need home health,whatever that is.
So we're identifying all that.
All the questions are allcompiled in a data repository.
It's all HIPAA compliant,obviously, all that stuff, but
(19:14):
it that data is there.
You can make it however, you canuse it for however you want.
If you don't want to givesomebody a quote, you want to do
it in the living room, make theliving room visit.
You can do that too.
It's just, and you cancustomize your speech to get
into that living room any wayyou want it.
However, it works for you.
We're going to come in andwe're going to meet with you in
your living room and we're goingto talk about your
(19:36):
individualized and customizedcare with our company and you
bring that tool in and you thenyou go through it and you print
it off or you email it to themright there and they have it to
share with.
Maybe they have siblingsthey've got to talk to that are
in other states and instead oftrying to remember everything
that I'm telling you what'sgoing on with your loved one,
they can see it written and theyhave a color-coded visual map
(19:57):
for it, and we can do couples.
It can do all the reassessments.
It's a pretty powerful tool.
One of the really excitingthings, val, that you probably
don't know, is that we'regetting ready to integrate with
one of the major softwarecompanies home care scheduling
software companies so that willbe huge.
Yeah, because it'll beintegrated.
(20:18):
You can create your.
If it's an inquiry or somebodydoes it off of your website,
does a quote in the middle ofthe night, which happens a lot
for us.
Website does a quote in themiddle of the night, which
happens a lot for us.
We come in and we have a quotethere.
It will create our potentialclient a lead.
We can create drip campaignsbased on wherever they are in
their search.
(20:38):
It's a huge tool.
It gives us all thisinformation.
So it's a mailing Now you canadd them to whatever mailing
list that you want.
So the tool itself is prettypowerful and very effective.
We have some agencies that areusing it.
Now I have a couple, a few ofthem that are like I don't know
how we even did this before.
(20:59):
How?
Speaker 2 (20:59):
we operated without it.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
And it's a good training tool.
It not only educates the client, but it educates your staff too
.
So if you have brand new people, they're answering the phone,
they, but it educates your stafftoo.
So if you have brand new people, they're answering the phone,
they can just come up with theirown little spiel.
They can walk through the quote.
You don't have to act likeyou're reading anything and it
will deliver a price and aprintout and a lead and all the
(21:21):
stuff.
And it's huge.
It's just it's.
I think it's a game changer.
I really I'm excited about it.
I love using it.
I wish other people not maybein my territory would use it,
but across the US would use it.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
So, yeah, I think the getting the word out and I know
you've been doing this for afew years now it's not like this
is a brand new tool and it hasevolved, it's become.
I've watched it change over theyears and I know that it's
definitely evolved.
And if you're able to connectthe software with other
scheduling softwares, that ishuge, because a lot of folks
(21:59):
will say I don't want to addanother software to my thing or
I don't want it to have to gofrom here to there or whatever.
Totally get that If it willintegrate and send the
information to the primarysoftware that you use in your
home care agency.
That takes a lot of hasslefactor out of trying to move
data from one place to another.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
So that's excellent it does, and that having
multiple CRMs is always clumsy.
But the CRM that we have forhome care quote it'll allow you
to take that quote.
You can build a service planfrom that.
It takes all that information.
We've already that's aniteration that we did several
months ago.
Even without the integration tothe software, you're able to
(22:38):
create your service plan andtake the data you've already
entered and put it on a serviceplan and then your nurse can go
in and fill out the daily tasksas to what is needed on that
in-home assessment.
But yeah, the data, the abilityto have and create so much
information on an initial calland having it in software is, I
(23:01):
think it's going to be reallybig.
Because that's what a lot ofpeople say.
Can I integrate it right now?
And it's coming, but hopefullysometime June we'll have that.
We're working on it.
Now.
There's all the APIs and theintegration.
You know how that is.
I know you're a tech geek, soyou get that.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Yeah, I understand all that.
It becomes not understandableat some point.
It goes woo.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
But I do get it.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
It's a programmer kind of thing, so it takes a
minute to get all the parts andpieces talking to each other
correctly.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Yeah, and with our home care agency we're the lab
for the testing and we have anamazing web hosting company you
probably are familiar with themProof Senior Network.
They do a lot of our websitestuff, and what we did late last
year, early this year I can'tremember was people were like,
(23:52):
wow, we don't want to do thewhole quote, I want to wait till
I get to living room.
What do we do then?
So we created you can get aprice, you get your whole quote,
you can do an inquiry, and wehave an opportunity on the
inquiry.
Or you can get started, whichis a contact form.
We put all that wherever itsays on our website get a quote,
get started, whatever.
So it's three different forms.
They're all very consistent inthe logic, but they all add to
(24:12):
our mailing list.
They create documents for us.
So if it's an inquiry, we'llhave.
It has the quote, which is dateand timestamp, so it has a
unique quote ID and then it hasINQ in it.
So that tells us it was just aninquiry.
So they just got a base whatare our ranges, or where we
start, and so with a lot ofdisclaimers on the email that
goes to them.
(24:33):
But from there then we now wecan follow up as a lead and we
can say forever, however long.
We're just starting becausethey're in the hospital or
they're in rehab for six weeks,whatever.
So we can take that and thenwhen they're ready to come home,
we can take the inquiry andconvert it to a real quote.
Then we take the quote andconvert it to the service plan.
Eventually, once we have it inthe software, that's already
(24:55):
going to all be in there and wejust convert it.
We convert it to a client froma lead and then all those
documents stay with that clientnow and every time you update it
it'll update it in the system.
So it's a game changer.
It's a very professional,elevated way to conduct business
.
And if I have a referral, if Ido take an intake, and I see
(25:16):
that somebody needs a DME orhome health or a PT referral, I
take that quote.
I ask the client is it okay ifyou're going to need this, is it
okay if I call or have somebodycall you that we are partners
with?
And when they say yes, I sayI'm going to send them the
information.
And here's a call, here'ssomebody you can expect a call
from and I fax them over oremail them over the quote and
(25:39):
they have all the where theservice is going to take place,
who the contact is, what they'relooking at, all the needs.
It's a pretty professional wayto.
It's almost like going into thebig hospital systems now where
they have all the stuff in thereand it's very operates on the
same principle the Epic systemor whatever one they're at the
(26:00):
hospital but a little moreconsumer-friendly.
We made it veryconsumer-friendly because we
know that they don't know allour acronyms or what something
might mean.
So there's hovers anddefinitions and then the care
spectrum.
That is, I think, one of themost underrated tools on the
whole thing.
Personally, because that's thefirst thing I do when I see a
quote come through, I look atthat care spectrum and see what
(26:22):
colors are most visible, andthen I know I see the price and
then I see that and I know thatit's going to be more of a less
care or it's going to be reallya high care case and that's
amazing.
Yeah, it's very yeah we'll make.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
I'll make sure that we have.
I'll do a, I'll do a home carequote for me or for, like, my
dad or whatever, and then putthat up there so everybody can
see when we get done here.
Everybody can see as we'retalking, as you're talking.
I'll just put those those upthere.
That's really cool.
Yeah, that would be great, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
And if anybody wants more information they can let
you know and then you can get incontact with me.
I'll be glad to help anybody,even in the agency profile,
because every agency is set upindividually.
It's not a, it's not a one sizeone model fits all your agency.
You put in your agency specificinformation that has margin
protection, because that'ssomething that we really don't
(27:15):
think about a lot either is howmany times your staff has to
touch something in the officeeats at your margin.
So if you're constantly callingsomebody and re-engaging or
you're having to keep faxingover to the long-term care
insurance company the tasksheets or the invoice or the
assessment or whatever, thereare factors that we can build in
(27:35):
to help you offset some ofthose costs and those.
You don't realize how expensivethat is sending somebody to
somebody's home not knowing ifyou're going to really get the
business or what, maybe evenwhat the care might be, going
back and forth a couple times orkeep touching the same piece of
paper over and over again.
Or somebody who only wants onehour a week of service.
(27:56):
You can't.
That's not almost non-existencyanymore.
Maybe there's somebody that cando it, in a building maybe, but
not in a large community likewe have.
We're pretty spread out.
Yeah, is it yeah?
the dry, yeah, for in a largecommunity like we have are
pretty spread out.
Yeah, is it?
Speaker 2 (28:07):
yeah the drive, yeah for in a rural, more rural
community, yeah, it's.
Even in in the city there arevery few hunger agencies that
have, uh, less than a four hourminimum.
Just to drive from point a topoint b is 25 minutes perhaps,
or whatever.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
So, yeah, we really spread out to you but you're not
going to pay somebody 12, 14,15, 20 dollars now, whatever
you're paying them for them.
To pay somebody 12, 14, 15, $20an hour, whatever you're paying
them for them to drive one hourone way, to work two hours or an
hour and then drive anotherhour home, when you know between
gas and time and traffic, andthey make $20 or $30 and they've
spent 15 of it getting thereand going home.
(28:43):
It just it doesn't, it's justcost prohibitive and that's what
we, that, that's what we tellpeople and that's why the care
spectrum has definitions ofwhere people are and what you
put those in.
If your hours are four hourminimums, then you can put that
in and you can set thoseparameters to help people offset
what the care needs actuallyare and how they can benefit
(29:03):
from that.
So it's, it really does take alot of people.
It takes us, and if you don'twant to hire us for all the
hours, that's fine.
But here's what you need to do,because this person needs help.
It's whether it's family or youhire private babysitters or
care staff or whatever you do,you have to have care in place
Big eye opener.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Big eye opener for the family, I'm sure yeah, in
many cases.
I want to thank you for beingon Care Across America and
telling us all about home carequote and home care matters.
Thank you, thank you, and we'llmake sure this gets out to as
many people as possible, thankyou.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
I appreciate it.
Thanks for your time and allyour efforts in helping home
care agencies help our seniors,because there's a bunch of them
coming for the next 10 years.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, it's not going to end right now.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
All right, all right.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
All.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.