Fighting the Growing Care Gap in Home Healthcare

Home healthcare is a booming industry. Nationally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ranks it among the top 10 occupations expected to see the most rapid job growth through 2026. Since this is the case, why have wages for home care workers hardly risen in a decade?

This rising demand and the limited supply of workers is making employee retention a chief concern for home care agencies. Even so, it is estimated that 24% of these workers live in poverty. A recent PHI report showed that the median hourly wage of a home healthcare worker was $11.03, with a median income of $13,300. This has resulted in the following:

• Over 50% of home care workers rely on some form of public assistance
• The uninsured rate among home care workers is 26%

This issue is compounded by a shrinking labor force. While the population of adults over the age of 65 is expected to almost double to 88 million by 2050, the amount of workers in home healthcare is only expected to grow by 2 million in the next decade. With a clear demand for home care workers today and in the years ahead, how can employers best position themselves to fight the growing care gap?

It begins with better wages. If the home care workforce is to grow, jobs will need to be more competitive, and offer higher wages. But better wages cannot be enabled until operational expenses are managed better, and travel expenses are among the top line items for any health care agency. A study performed by the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, for example, estimated that mobile home care workers drove an estimated 7.88 billion miles in 2013 alone.

Between inadequate reimbursement policies, poor expense visibility, inefficient processes, delayed reimbursements and an inability to discern expense trends, meeting these challenges requires a tool designed to solve problems inherent in managing mobile. Across the nation, home health care and hospice companies have selected SureMileage, from CompanyMileage, to manage their entire reimbursement process, which provides significant savings on mileage costs. Its automated mileage tracking virtually eliminates the inflated estimates commonly seen with odometer readings, and provides point-to-point calculations, third-party integrations and, most importantly, HIPAA compliance.

As long-term services continue shifting from nursing homes to the homes of patients, managing your organization’s growth is more important than ever. CompanyMileage helps automates the management of one of the highest costs for home healthcare workers, allowing employers to regain control and opening the door for better employee benefits.