Home Health Business Briefs: Homecare Homebase Expands, Strong Almost Family Earnings

From new hires and partnerships to office relocations, here’s a round-up of the latest home health care news:

Homecare Homebase Moves Offices to Expand

Homecare Homebase is planning to move its existing Louisville office to a new location and add to its current staff. The hospice and home care software provided plans to add 71 new jobs over the next decade.

Advertisement

Homecare Homebase has committed $7.8 million for its relocation and staff expansion. The average hourly wage for the new jobs is $49.

Chief Financial Officer Matt Posey tells Home Health Care News the business is not moving significant operations to Louisville from its Dallas headquarters, as some reports may have suggested. The Louisville office is relocating to expand another 71 people to the current staff. Posey noted that the company has recently expanded in Dallas as well.

Homecare Homebase has recently had a “tremendous amount of growth” with several new clients added to its roster, including Amedisys. Posey says one reason for Homecare Homebase’s expansion is due to its work with Amedisys.

Advertisement

“We kept acquiring more and more space,” says Posey. “We’ve been growing steadily for 10-plus years, plus Amedisys, [we] finally burst at the seams.”

Almost Family Presents Strong Second Quarter Earnings

Home health nursing and personal care services provider Almost Family, Inc. reported strong financial results for the three-month period ending on July 3, 2015.

The company reported net services revenues of approximately $127 million for the second quarter of 2015. Most notably, Almost Family reduced $8.2 million of debt during that period and expects to acquire WillCare by the end of the third quarter in 2015.

Revenues in the visiting nurse segment rose to $97.7 million, up from $96.8 million during the same period the previous year, marking the second highest quarterly revenues in the segment for the company. Personal care segment revenues increase to a record $29.5 million in 2015, up 4.7% from $28.2 million in 2014.

“We are pleased with our overall results and look forward to further progress as we move through the balance of the year and into 2016,” said William Yarmuth, Almost Family CEO and chairman. “We are excited about the work in our Healthcare Innovations segment with the addition of Ingenios and its management team as well as the upcoming addition of WillCare to our family of providers.”

Comfort Keepers Partners With ClearCare System for Modern Home Care

Comfort Keepers, an international in-home care network with more than 700 locations, has partnered with software solutions company ClearCare to help deliver the best home health care technology to caregivers.

ClearCare’s system provides agencies with a cloud-based web and mobile offering for scheduling, recruiting caregivers and marketing. The technology aims to allow for a more streamlined home care operation and transparency for families.

“Our partnership with ClearCare advances an important initiative within our strategic plan to invest in technology and innovation that helps propel our unique approach to interactive caregiving,” Comfort Keepers COO Carl McManus said in a statement.

ClearCare has more than 2,000 local and national home care companies that use its system for modern delivery of care to seniors. Comfort Keepers non-franchised operations piloted ClearCare’s system for six months before announcing the partnership. Comfort Keepers noted that ClearCare’s system will integrate easily with its Quality of Life program, which includes personal care and companion care services.

PlayMaker CRM Hires Thad Parker as VP of Engineering

PlayMaker CRM has welcomed Thad Parker to serve as the company’s vice president of engineering, the cloud-based customer relations management software company announced. PlayMaker, which specializes in the post-acute care industry, revealed Parker will manage all web and mobile application development and integrations.

Parker, who received his Bachelor of Music degree from James Madison University, joins PlayMaker CRM after serving as director of software development for Allscripts, a founder for TheraSim, Inc., vice president of product development for UltraLinq Healthcare Solutions, Inc., and director of engineering/CTO with Bronto Software.

“Thad brings more than 15 years of software engineering management, software architect and product management to the team,” John Griscavage, CEO of PlayMaker CRM, said in a statement. “His experience architecting enterprise software and providing strong leadership in high-growth technology companies will help the PlayMaker CRM team as we continue to provide cutting-edge solutions for our clients.”

Amada Senior Care Opens Boston MetroWest Site

Amada Senior Care, a provider of non-medical in-home care and placement advisory services, expanded to the Boston area with their new Boston MetroWest site. The location officially opened on July 23, 2015 by Amada partner Colin Preis.

The San Clemente, California-based company specializes in providing guidance for families to find the best senior housing options for older adults, including tackling long-term care insurance claims, Attendance Aid and government aid and Veterans Aid. Amada is currently assembling a franchise team to expand its national presence.

Fries said in a statement that the new Boston facility caters to the specific needs of this aging generation.

“Unlike previous generations, today’s seniors have access to senior-focused technology, a proliferation of wonderful senior-dedicated housing, long-term care insurance and other products and services that can help enrich their lives,” he said.

Amada offers in-home care services like bathing, dressing, meal preparation, medication reminders light housekeeping and grocery shopping, but also provides expert advice when it comes to learning about other senior living options.

HealthCare Chaplaincy Network Adds Spiritual Care for Palliative Patients

As demand for telehealth services is growing, HealthCare Chaplaincy Network has added spiritual care services to its registry of traditional chaplaincy services in a technology-driven roll-out to comfort and help adults facing serious illness and grief. The company has announced two pilot programs to connect patients with serious illnesses via computer, tablet or mobile phones to spiritual care resources.

“For the growing population in need of palliative care, telehealth technologies are filling an increasing, and often unmet, need for individuals in crisis – whether physical, social, emotional, psychological or spiritual,” HCCN stated.

Instead of traditional bedside chaplaincy that is typically face-to-face for end-of-life care, HCCN is bringing this spiritual care to the home setting. Telehealth and spiritual care services are cost effective care options, and the need for these services continues to grow, the company says.

HCCN made the move after seeing an increase in the number of palliative care patients and seeing greater benefits from such services, including shorter hospital stays and increased outpatient delivery of services. HCCN also noted that the growing trend of people utilizing home care and the opinion that more Americans want alternative health care treatments as part of their overall care.

“Studies show that 70% of Americans believe some form of spirituality should be part of their health care,” HCCN authors wrote in a statement.

Of those surveyed, 72% responded that their spiritual needs were only minimally met or not supported by the medical system. HCCN noted that this increasing interest in whole-person care, including body, mind and spirit, supports the cost-effectiveness of new technology for this type of care for patients and their families.

HCCN has collaborated with VOX and invested in two new telepath services in addition to its chaplaincy services: Palliative Connect and Spiritual Care Connect to digitally connect seriously ill patients in need of “skillful, compassionate end-of-life care.” HCCN found success with ChaplainsOnHand.org for helping patients deal with emotional and spiritual distress and has created two more sites tailored to specific patients, CantBelieveIHaveCancer.org and ChaplainCareforVeterans.org. Patients with all spiritual backgrounds are welcome to HCCN’s latest health care services.

HCCN-TV is another portal with 10 programs for spiritual care-related topics for outpatient and long-term care settings. HCCN plans to soon have these programs available as downloads for private viewing. Program topics cover “big issues” and range from prayers, inspirational quotes, palliative and hospice care, grief, critical conversations to have with a loved one who is seriously ill and legal and financial planning.

Written by Amy Baxter

Companies featured in this article:

, , , , , ,