Is working with seniors your passion? Do you enjoy providing seniors the homecare assistance that they require as they age? The country currently has a demand for home healthcare workers and businesses. There are an increasing number of seniors choosing to stay home, despite chronic medical conditions. Seniors are able to make this decision because of home care workers. If you are considering starting your own home healthcare agency, you will want to consider the following business requirements.
Your current business skills
Just as with any other business, you will require business skills. Having a passion to help seniors is not enough. You will also have to deal with payroll, business marketing, and home healthcare insurance needs. In fact, you may not actually get very much time working with the seniors. Instead, you will have to hire qualified employees to do this side of the business, while you focus on the other side of it. It may even be helpful to outsource your business needs, before officially establishing your home healthcare business.
The type of employees you will hire
Hiring is an important part of business ownership, especially when you are caring for someone?s medical needs. The specific employees that you choose to hire will have a direct effect on the reputation of your business. The hiring process for home healthcare needs to be extremely in depth. You should look at experienced and compassionate employees. You will also want to look at employee candidates previous work history. If they have a good record of home healthcare, they may be a good option. However, if they made numerous insurance claims at their previous caretaking position, they may actually harm your business.
Workman?s compensation and other liability protection
Accidents can happen in any work industry, making it very important to carry workman?s compensation at all times. Workman?s compensation protects the business in the event that an employee is harmed on the job. Car accidents are the number one loss category in claims dollars paid for home care agencies. There is generally an increase in the number of auto accidents, because home healthcare employees are constantly on the road. They are driving from the office to the customer?s home and then back to the office. They may even be responsible for transporting clients from one location to another.
Home healthcare insurance
You will also want to carry a home healthcare insurance policy over the entire business. This home care liability insurance protects the business from many different possibilities, including client injury, employee injury, home fire or theft, and other business legalities. However, it is important to know that home health business insurance is just one of the areas of insurance coverage. There are five types of insurance a home health care business should know about, General and Professional Liability Insurance, Non owned Automobile Liability Insurance, Commercial Crime Coverage (Bonding), Content and Building Insurance, and home health care workers compensation insurance.
While some home health care agencies may put off this insurance policy for budgeting reasons, this can actually be a terrible mistake. If you are not properly covered and are hit with a claim, you could potentially lose your business. Additionally, depending on how the business is set up legally, your personal property items could also be at risk, including your house, car, and any liquid assets. Home healthcare agency insurance is very important and should be purchased before providing any home care or hiring any home health care workers.
By the year of 2050, the number of people in the U.S. over the age of 65 will nearly double, from 47.8 million to 88 million. This will also increase the need for senior home healthcare. It is a great time to be in business for home healthcare agencies. However, starting a home healthcare agency requires business knowledge and the home healthcare insurance coverage is going to be one of the most important parts of the business.