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Want to Start a Home Health Care Business? Here’s How.

December 24, 2021
By Elizabeth Choice

Starting a home health care business is not as easy as it sounds. One of the most common mistakes people make when they start their first home health care company is that they don’t have any experience in starting up such an enterprise and do so without proper planning or preparation.

The “home health care business plan pdf” is a document that helps people who want to start their own home health care business. It includes information about the different types of services, how much it will cost, and what you need in order to get started.

Do you find yourself to be motivated by both business and humanitarian concerns? Is it vital to you to establish a company you can be proud of, knowing you’re helping people?

If any of this resonates with you, you could be a good fit for starting a home health care company. There has never been a better moment to start—home health care is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the world, not just in North America.

Table of Contents

What exactly do we mean when we say “home health care”?

Home health care is a large sector with many varied definitions for various individuals. Some people use the phrase to refer to both skilled and non-medical home health care.

Non-medical home health care is often provided to older persons who want to stay in their homes for as long as possible. Meal preparation, housekeeping, and transportation are examples of these services.

Skilled home health care, on the other hand, entails nursing or therapy services that would normally be offered at a hospital or medical clinic being administered in the patient’s own home.

This post is meant to be a step-by-step tutorial for anybody thinking about beginning a skilled home health care company. The emphasis of this essay will be on a firm that provides skilled home health care services, the most popular of which are:

Nursing expertise
assistant to a nurse
Work in the social sector
Occupational, physical, and speech therapy are all available.

To support this information, I spoke with an expert in the area of home health care: Carol Byrne is the National Sales Director for 21st Century Health Care Consultants, a corporation that provides consulting services to home health care organizations throughout the country.

The current situation of the global home health care industry:

The home health care sector in the United States is a $84 billion monster that shows no signs of slowing down.

From 2010 to 2015, the industry grew at a modest but consistent 4% annual pace. A substantial portion of this rise may be attributed to the United States’ aging population. By 2030, the number of people aged 65 and over is predicted to rise from 12.4 percent in 2000 to 19.6 percent.

There are also sociological and political variables at play, such as a rising acceptance of home care by doctors, pressure to relieve hospital overcrowding, and a general desire to discover cost-cutting opportunities in the health-care system.

“Because of all the baby boomers streaming into the marketplace, there’s been a tremendous upswing in the business in the previous several years.” People prefer to be at home rather than in a nursing home. Carol Byrne says that in-home care helps people to remain at home and have more freedom in their everyday life.

There are now about 386,000 home health care enterprises in the United States, employing over 1.7 million people. This encapsulates both the benefits and drawbacks of stepping into these waters. It is an enticing company for enthusiastic entrepreneurs since it has a low barrier to entry and an increasing demand. However, because of this, there is frequently fierce regional rivalry, which must be anticipated if a new company is to succeed.

North America has led the worldwide home health care industry to far, owing to a more advanced health-care infrastructure and greater resources dedicated to research and development. North America accounted for slightly over 40% of worldwide home health-care sales in 2013.

Across the northern border, the movement toward home health care is just as strong. According to the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), by 2020, two-thirds of nurses in Canada will be working in the community, up from 30% in 2006.

While North America is the current hub for home health care enterprises, Asia-Pacific is the fastest expanding area, with markets anticipating a compound annual growth rate of 9.7% from 2014 to 2020. This is due to improvements in India’s and China’s health-care facilities, as well as a rapidly aging Japanese population.

Consider the following factors before launching a home health care business:

While there is a lot of room for expansion in this field, it isn’t for everyone. The nature of the industry lends itself to tremendous pressure and might result in a high-stress atmosphere.

According to Carol Byrne, there is a personality type that is best suited to this sort of activity. “This sector attracts those who are motivated by compassion and a desire to help others. It’s a terrific business with enough of money to be earned, but you must have the desire to serve others. “This is not the business for you if you don’t have that compassion,” she adds.

The following are some of the difficulties that come with operating a home health care business:

If you plan on being a primary service provider as well as a company owner, there are certain special hurdles to delivering home health care that should be carefully considered before joining the area.

Traveling across long distances

The patient, not the caregiver, benefits from home health care.

Most home health care professionals visit six to eight patients each day; if the area is big, this might result in a lot of travel, which can be stressful and exhausting. If you are someone who finds travel difficult, this is something to think about before starting a home health care company.

Upkeep and repair of technology

One of the reasons why home health care has grown so popular in the past decade is due to technical advancements that have enabled the use of high-tech equipment in the house. This device was previously only available in a hospital or clinic.

However, since so much of current home health care depends on high-tech equipment, a company owner will need to be familiar with keeping up with the newest technology and maintaining this equipment.

In other words, if you are a genuine technophobe, this is not the career for you.

Working alone is difficult.

One of the major benefits of working at a hospital or clinic is that you have colleagues with whom you may discuss or seek advice. Without that support network, home health care professionals nearly entirely labor on their own. In order to accomplish the job well, one must feel at ease in this sort of work setting.

If you’ve done your homework on the industry, examined the market potential, considered the particular hurdles, and are ready to go ahead, the steps below may assist you in navigating this sometimes difficult process.

Step 1: Come up with a business strategy.

In many respects, home health care is unique, but one thing it has in common with every other new business initiative is that a lack of sufficient planning and forecasting is a definite way to sabotage its chances of success. You’ll want to make sure you plan out every part of the logistics in order to get the company off the ground and through the difficult initial few years.

Carol Byrne emphasizes the significance of having a strong business sense in order to achieve long-term success. “It’s necessary to have clinical expertise, but it’s also vital to have business acumen, because it’s still a company at the end of the day, and it has to be operated like a business to be successful at creating a profit. It necessitates a delicate balancing of abilities.”

If you’ve never developed a business plan before, Bplans can walk you through the process. If you need to get up and running quickly or just want to validate your concept, start with a minimal strategy. A standard business plan should work for you whether you’re looking for finance or just want to go through the basics.

What should your business strategy include?

There are a few things to bear in mind when you write, regardless of the format you pick. These are some of them:

Start-up costs and equipment

Providing top-notch home health care necessitates the use of sophisticated and costly medical equipment. You’ll need a precise list of everything you’ll need to get started.

The following are some of the most important initial costs:

Growth of the company
Expenses for renting
Equipment for the workplace
Supplies for the office
Supplies for nurses

Cash flow and financing

After you’ve compiled your list of initial costs, you’ll need a strategy for raising funds. Bank financing, small company loans, and angel investors are the most common options. There may also be funds available at the state level for new health-care firms.

For the first three to six months, your firm will almost certainly lose money while your customer base increases and you establish a regular billing cycle with Medicare and Medicaid. This means you’ll need a well-thought-out cash flow management strategy to get through these crucial initial few months.

Additional resources to aid in the preparation of the financial component of your plan include:

Your competitive landscape and market research

When it comes to raising financing, the most powerful weapon you can have is a bullet-proof analysis that yours is a solid local market for this sort of company and that you can meet a demand that is presently unfilled by rivals.

On a national and global level, there is no doubt that this is a booming market; yet, if your neighborhood is now saturated with home health care firms, you will have a difficult time making it work.

Also, when you determine where others have failed in their efforts to reach the market, a good competition analysis can assist you focus your marketing and recruiting initiatives.

The following are some other market research resources:

Step 2: Certification by the state and Medicare/Medicaid.

The first stage in the certification procedure in the United States is to complete your state’s home care licensing application as well as all of the relevant home care business license papers.

For your home health care company, this entails incorporating it and acquiring a Tax ID and NPI number. The rules and standards for obtaining a home care license and operating a business differ by state. Contacting your state’s Department of Health for help is the best approach to ensure you’ve covered all of your bases.

A patient’s qualified home health services, such as skilled nursing care, physical therapy, speech-language pathology services, occupational services, and others, will be covered by Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance) and/or Medicare Part B (Medical Insurance).

Medicare and Medicaid will be your principal sources of income unless you have a unique business plan. It’s crucial that your company get all of the necessary Medicare and Medicaid certifications.

Accreditation by Medicare:

You must complete a three-day Medicare survey, which is an evaluation of your business’s operations and patient clinical records, to complete the Medicare accreditation process. Carol Byrne warns aspiring entrepreneurs that this stage of the trip might be lengthy.

“In the United States, becoming a fully licensed and certified company might take a year or more. “It may be a lengthy journey,” she admits.

The patient must fulfill the following requirements in order to be covered by Medicare for home care services:

They must be under the supervision of a physician and get the therapies as part of a treatment plan that the physician has recommended and evaluated.
The physician must certify that at least one of the following services is required by the patient:
- Occupational Therapy Continued
- Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) is a kind of therapy that helps people
- Physical Therapy is a kind of treatment that is used
- Skilled Nursing Care on an As-Need Basis (more than drawing blood)
The home health agency in charge of their care must be Medicare-certified.
The patient’s condition must be determined as “homebound” by the physician.
Part-time or intermittent nursing care may be sufficient for the patient.

Before obtaining a license to operate, some states may need a prospective home health care company owner to pass a state jurisprudence test, so be sure to conduct more study for your local state.

Step 3: Organizational structure and staffing

Unlike most other companies, where your workers sell or facilitate your product, your staff is your product in a home health care firm.

Building a reputation for offering high-quality professional medical services in a friendly manner is the greatest approach to keep customers and acquire recommendations for others. This entails attracting the very finest of the best to work for you and represent your organization on the front lines.

“The most difficult aspect of our company is personnel,” Carol Byrne explains. “Finding the appropriate employees is crucial since the person who enters into your house is ultimately your representative and the face of your company. Finding competent employees is by far the most difficult task a home care company will encounter.”

What type of personnel will you require?

If you are not a physician or medical professional, a certified clinical supervisor will be your first hiring. A clinical supervisor must be a physician or a registered nurse with more than one year of experience, as required by Medicare (and most states). The supervisor must be accessible to the front-line staff delivering home health care services in patients’ homes at all times as a resource. Most states additionally need the presence of a certified administrator, however if the clinical supervisor is certified in both positions, this function may be duplicated.

There are two paths you may take when it comes to front-line service providers. If you have the means to begin with, you may simply recruit and retain your employees in-house. This will need a large capital injection right away, since your compensation demands will overwhelm your earnings in the first several months.

Another alternative is to hire another agency or organization of professional physiotherapists, occupational therapists, or competent nurses to do the task. The most frequent technique is to specialize with one or two in-house specialists (e.g., a trained nurse and a physiotherapist) and contract out the other professions as required.

Make sure you do a comprehensive background check on everyone you employ. If it is revealed that the treatment provided by someone who has been sanctioned or suspended for comparable malpractice concerns in a prior position, your company might face debilitating legal action. It should go without saying that in this profession, this is more crucial than most.

Step 4: Create a marketing plan.

You’ve created a foolproof business strategy, mastered the arduous process of state and Medicare certification, and assembled a top-notch professional team.

“How do I obtain my first clients?” is now the only question that remains.

This is where the home health care company begins to resemble many other businesses: success will be determined by strong marketing methods and a little old-fashioned hustling.

Home health care marketing methods include:

Some of the most successful tactics for attracting customers for a new home health care company are as follows:

Create a website: Although your customer base may not be as computer-savvy as the general public, their relatives and loved ones will most likely utilize the internet to identify a competent company.
To find potential customers, seek out to area doctors, elder centers, long-term care institutions, hospital discharge social workers, and rehab outpatient programs.
Make a name for yourself: To set yourself apart from the competitors, establish specialist credentials in certain areas of service.
Become a member of a local business group or organization: Agencies may reach out to decision makers in the home health care industry via organizations like local Chamber of Commerce or the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC).
Attend as many events and trade exhibits as possible: Physicians, nurses, social workers, distributors of home health products, and owners of similar companies who may have their own network of individuals in need of your services may all be found at events like these.

Resources:

You’ll find a list of resources below that will help you learn more about what it takes to start a home health care company.

Websites:

21st Century Health Care Consultants is a consulting organization in the United States that focuses in aiding new home health business operations. The website has a wealth of information to assist with licensing, certification, staffing concerns, and much more.

The Home Care Group of America (HCAOA) is the nation’s first association for private duty home care providers, which includes non-medical home care. The HCAOA is a well-known source of information and definitions for private duty home care.

The National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC) is a non-profit organization that represents the 33,000 home care and hospice organizations in the United States. The NAHC also fights for the more than two million nurses, therapists, aides, and other caregivers hired by such organizations to offer in-home services to more than 12 million infirm, chronically sick, and handicapped Americans each year.

The Canadian Home Care Association (CHCA) is primarily a professional development and political organization as a national organization. It has a large resource library that might be beneficial to new or aspiring company owners.

Additional resources include:

Traditional publishing: A quick trip to Amazon or your local bookstore will provide a plethora of published manuals on how to establish a home health care company.

Among the titles you’ll come across are:

Watch This Video-

In this article, you will learn about the requirements for starting a home health care business. You will also learn what are some of the best ways to market your company and how much it costs to start a non-medical home care business plan. Reference: non-medical home care business plan pdf.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much profit can you make starting a home health care business?

A: This is a difficult question for me to answer. I am not an expert on this topic and cannot give you specific numbers, but if you want more information please contact the BBB.