CareBuilders at Home — the non-medical home care division of ATC Healthcare — has announced a strategic growth plan across the U.S.
The Lake Success, New York-based franchise currently has 13 locations. It is targeting to add more in Michigan, Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and California, specifically in the Bay Area.
The vast majority of the company’s revenue comes from its private-pay home care line. Generally, its offerings include those related to activities of daily living (ADLs), such as errand support, light housekeeping, medication compliance and other services.
CareBuilders at Home decided to grow amid the ongoing public health crisis because of the increasing demand for home care. Additionally, the target locations are all places that have the demographics that will be in need of in-home care services moving forward, CEO David Savitsky told Home Health Care News.
“We think that those areas are particularly good areas for us to be in because we feel that there are a lot of cities that have large populations — and large populations of people who are aging in place,” Savitsky said.
The company is also looking forward to eventually expanding to Florida, Arizona and elsewhere in California in the future. First, though, the franchiser is looking for the right franchisees.
CareBuilders at Home takes care of the full back-office needs for each of its franchisees, which differentiates it from some of its competitors, according to the company. One of its main appeals is allowing the franchise owners to focus on growing their own businesses and meeting client needs.
Those back-office functions include client credit checks, invoicing, payroll for health care associates and receivables.
The company does business with a few payers, but the vast majority is private pay. That’s an intentional strategy due to the relatively straightforward relationship between provider and client, Savitsky noted.
Historically, the home care space as a whole has been mostly built on private-pay relationships.
In 2019, for example, 67.5% of home care agency revenue came from private pay, according to the 2020 Home Care Benchmarking Study by market research and education firm Home Care Pulse. The next closest revenue sources were long-term care insurance and veterans assistance, at 11.4% and 3.6%, respectively.
In 2018, 72.1% of home care agency revenue came from private-pay sources, according to Home Care Pulse.
“Our primary means of having our services paid for is through private pay, and we think that is a good place to be,” Savitsky said. “Because we think the majority of home care that’s going to be delivered will be through private pay because there are no gatekeepers. There are no restrictions.”
Private-pay home care restrictions and state licensure requirements vary by state, but it is true that they have less to abide by than, say, Medicaid or Medicare providers.
While out-of-pocket costs are less reliable during a recession, Savitsky isn’t worried.
Business has been good for CareBuilders at Home during the COVID-19 crisis, and its leaders don’t think that it’ll be affected much by the economic downturn.
“I think that there’s no such thing as a business that’s totally recession proof,” Savitsky said. “But I would say that we’re a very recession-resilient business. Our offices have continued to thrive during COVID-19. We’ve continued to bring new people into the business — and it’s larger today than it was six months ago.
Several other in-home care franchise companies have also achieved solid growth during the last few months.
Home Instead Senior Care, for instance, hit an organizational high-water mark in January in terms of revenue and hours of care provided, CEO Jeff Huber recently told HHCN. After initial COVID-19 disruption, it then saw even stronger business numbers in July.
That steady success is mostly due to the practicality and importance of in-home care, Savitsky added.
“We’re not providing a luxury service,” he said. “We’re providing services that allow someone to live at home.”
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