Growth Post-Pandemic: How Home-Based Care can Diversify

Like providers in all health care settings, the COVID-19 pandemic has not been kind to home-based care professionals. Yet the pandemic is also unlocking major growth opportunities for home-based care agencies in the form of revenue diversification.

That’s because in dealing with the pandemic’s myriad challenges, home-based care providers found more partnership, acquisition and growth opportunities than ever before. Patients have always preferred receiving care in their own homes, which is now increasing in availability for a variety of reasons, including payers and health systems better understanding the advantages.

“We’re at a moment in history where a lot of public funding is now heading toward the home,” says Adrian Schauer, CEO of Montreal-based home care software solution AlayaCare. “Even for providers that were predominantly private pay, there’s a big opportunity as funding increases. From the other side, for providers who do the bulk of their work in a third-party payer scenario, the market opportunity is significant as many families have come to the conclusion that if they can avoid long-term care in a congregate care setting, the home is the safer choice for their loved ones.”

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Agencies targeting growth will be well served to focus on what they can do internally to grow their own businesses, including expanding their service offerings and diversifying their revenue sources.

“Diversification is always good,” says Schauer. “You may be investing in two or more markets that have their own volatility, so [operating] across those different payer sources is a good way to balance out a business.”

Many home care and home health agencies will pursue revenue diversification in the near-term future. Some will do so for the first time ever. Before these operators are able to stabilize across new business channels, they may want to consider new ways to support growth, both internally and through new pursuits. They should:

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  • -Enhance their current service offerings
  • -Add services within their current billing capabilities
  • -Expand their billing capabilities 
  • -Expand their longitudinal care offerings

Enhance current service offerings

Providers preparing for future growth and diversification can first look to enhance their current capabilities, Schauer says. For instance, services such as telehealth and remote patient monitoring are no longer novel concepts. As virtual care becomes imperative for all providers, their investment in that care will matter more.

Optimizing financial performance will also force agencies to shift their focus on different diagnoses, such as focusing more on wound care.

But future-facing organizations will need to think about the service lines that will continue gaining potential specifically due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Providing at-home infusion therapies, for instance, is a great way to expand into Medicare Part B and also capitalize off of trends that have emerged during the public health emergency.

Enhance longitudinal care offerings

Furthermore, increasing longitudinal care capabilities — such as hospital-at-home and SNF-at-home models — will help agencies become active players in the Medicare Advantage space, and also allow them to partner with hospitals that need help reaching patients outside their own walls.

“If you’re a provider that has multiple service lines, you can tailor the right care mix to get the outcomes you’re looking for the client or patient,” says Schauer. “As that becomes more of the norm, being able to leverage your footprint as a multi-service line provider to successfully bid for those value-based, risk-sharing agreements becomes a strategic imperative.”

AlayaCare is well suited for the impending diversification of home-based care agencies in the U.S. Thanks to its Canadian roots, the company is accustomed to supporting providers that have multiple service lines all under one roof, with the difference being that there’s usually a single payer source.

“Our roots in a single payer market have led us to build a platform that is excellent for the delivery of personal care services, nursing and therapy, either in an episodic or a long-term care approach,” says Schauer.

Finding the right technology partner

As a provider, having one third-party platform with multiple service lines allows an agency to reap the benefits that come from that without dealing with the added hassle.

“We have those capabilities, and in the U.S, a lot of our action to date has been in private-pay personal care and Medicaid-funded personal care,” says Schauer. “But we’re now entering the Medicare-certified home health market, and that is really the next step in our journey to support the full spectrum.”

Alayacare will allow home-based care agencies to thrive in a value-based care environment, which is where health care is headed. With information that is updated and viewable for key stakeholders in any office, at any time, AlayaCare allows providers to focus exclusively on the care they are providing and growing their business. 

To learn more about how AlayaCare help your organization ensure operations are consistent across multiple locations with real-time information updates for key stakeholders, visit alayacare.com.

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