Starting a Home Health Care Business: 5 Tips for Starting your Home Health Care Business
1. Define the Home Health Care Business and Create the Business Plan for your Home Health Care Agency
A business plan is a blueprint for the formation of any company or organization. This document will help you secure funding, expand, and set goals to achieve.
The critical components of every business plan include the following:
- Company description
- Executive summary
- Marketing
- Structure
- Financials
- Operational plan
An executive summary provides the vision and explanation of services your home health care agency will execute.
It’s crucial to have a marketing plan in place once you start the company. There is a lot of competition in the industry, and your marketing will help separate you from the rest.
If you’re starting a home health care business, then the organization will start small. Have a management structure in place once hiring begins. Let the employees know the people who are making decisions and policies are supporting them.
The business plan should have an outline explaining where funding will come from and projections for the future. Your operational plan should contain the appropriate flow of operations and the tangible needs of the business. Theoretically, a person could read the operational plan and run the business.
2. Home Health Care Business Licensure and Registration
Home health care businesses receive a bulk of their revenue from patients paying with Medicaid or Medicare. To accept Medicaid and Medicare, your business must meet a few requirements.
You can apply for a home health care license to effectively certify the business.
Additionally, you’ll need to incorporate or file an LLC with the state. Any business that makes money has to pay taxes. By forming an official business, you’ll receive a tax identification number.
Some states require that you register for a National Provider Identification (NPI) number. Make sure you look up all local and state requirements to become an official home health care agency.
3. Medicare and Medicaid Certification for Home Health Care
A majority of your clients will not private pay or use long-term care insurance to pay for services. Medicare and Medicaid plans will pay for therapy, nursing care, rehab, and other health services.
If you want to become an accredited home health care business, then the application process can take a calendar year. You can start early or rely on private pay patients to help float the organization until accreditation.
After the business is accredited, a Medicare patient’s payment can take up to six months to process and land in your account. A business owner may have to take out a business loan to cover operating expenses until revenues arrive.
Mitigate problems by hiring an administrator who has experience with Medicare and Medicaid payments.
4. Starting a Home Health Care Business with Staffing
When a home health care business takes on a client, a trained professional needs to be hired to provide services. Ideally, the business owner will be the first employee to help the customer.
If a business owner is performing professional medical services, they must be trained and licensed. An unlicensed and untrained caregiver can work with customers receiving non-medical treatment.
Once you receive accreditation to accept Medicare patients, you’ll need to hire a nurse, physical therapist, and other licensed professionals.
Some businesses choose to hire medical personnel as 1099 contractors. This helps mitigate risk and save on payroll taxes.
Support Staff
As the business expands, it becomes vital to hire office staff and administrators to support the caregivers and nurses. Here are a few positions to hire:- HR manager
- Payroll specialist
- Scheduler
- Business development manager
- Managing director
The payroll specialist will enter payroll, handle adjustments, and deal with garnishments.
No home health care business is complete without a scheduler. One of the most difficult and stressful tasks is scheduling workers.
Employees call off, have specific availability, and need time away from work to recharge their batteries. A scheduler will also answer after-hour calls and handle emergencies.
A business development manager has one job – bring in sales. The only way the home health care business thrives and expands is by consistently getting new clients.
The managing director can oversee all functions and roles. Their responsibility is to create a company culture and be accountable for everyone’s performance.
5. Your First Home Health Care Clients
Getting your first clients will mark the official beginning of your operations. The marketing plan outlined in the business plan will come into play.
You will need to target churches, grocery stores, senior citizen centers, and any place that allows flyers or marketing campaigns.
One of the best ways to obtain customers early is by offering discounts. Examine your markup on services and see how much of a deal you can offer to people. Give cheaper services in exchange for the names and numbers of three referrals.
Some of your first clients will become loyal patrons of your business. They will also be the first people to speak about the quality of service.
Take the time to get real feedback from those first clients. Learning from them will allow you to reward the caregivers and change things that aren’t working.
Support the Elderly
Starting a home health care business is a great way to make money and support the aging population in your community.
Take advantage of a growing elderly demographic in the country by providing much-needed services.
If you are ready to start your home health care business, then contact us today.
