Home Health Care, Inc. was started with the ideal that we would make a difference in the care of the person who wanted to stay at home as long as they could. Thirty years have passed and we were able to manage our patients with loving care and maintain our caregivers with jobs that they enjoyed and were proud of doing. There never seemed to be a problem with pay rate or conditions as all were working together for the greater good.
Since Home care seemed to be recession proof, being a home care giver was a job that anyone who wanted to be in the profession could always find a job. This is still true, but the face of Home Care Companies has changed. They are going through changes, they is acquisition, mergers and now more than ever there are franchises.
The Board and care facilities are growing and offering much more as far as activities, care and expensive looking buildings to house the many people who have chose that life style. The people that live in those facilities live as though they are on a stationary cruise. Diet, rooms, maid service, and activities and they also provide stages of care. A person can go from an apartment to assisted living, to Dementia ward to Skilled Nursing. These facilities are also growing and filling up with like minded people.
The expenses in these facilities continues to go up. There is the basic cost then they charge for incontent care, bathing and dressing care, medication distribution. There are even charge for bringing meals to patients rooms. Everything extra has a charge.
Home care and facility care are both in competition for caregivers. Many care givers go from one facility to home care and back to a facility. They are like a nomadic tribe going from place to place. They often quit a job and go somewhere else, its all about money and benefits. The benefits that we must pay to keep care givers is never enough. The government has also ham strung us when it comes to even more benefits. Medical insurance, paid time off, new overtime rules along with a 30-hour workweek. Since it is an election year base pay is constantly going up due to the fact that the minimum wage is constantly going up. Holiday pay, overtime, and government intervention is causing us independent agencies to suffer as no one can afford us any more. Hilary Clinton has proposed a $6,000 deductible from taxes for people who are caring for someone at home. Home care should be totally tax deductible. The care for someone in a Retirement Facility should be tax deductible. When a person has spent down their monies the only thing left is to go on Medicaid and then the state will have to care for these people.
It’s a sad day when the people who built this country, fought in its wars and paid their taxes has to worry about who is going to help out in their older years. Monies that have been set aside will only go so far. Anyone who has an idea as to how to keep the expenses down please send us your ideas.