By Tom Schramski, PhD

Volume 1 Issue 7, April 29, 2014

Today’s home care marketplace, including private duty, skilled nursing, and non-medical support for people with disabilities, is experiencing rapid growth and change, as well as a dramatic increase in competition.  Public payers view home care as one of the most cost-effective ways to provide necessary services, while customers want to stay in their own homes as late in their life as possible.  In a sense, it’s the perfect intersection of consumer desire and economics.

The challenge of leading a successful home care company requires executives to continually focus on diversifying their base to ensure profitable and quality-driven operations in the future.  I suggest five ways to focus your leadership efforts:

• Look to other populations (e.g. people with intellectual/developmental disabilities) where you can use your same business model with a modest tweaking of your operations.

• Explore other payer sources for your current target market, including private insurance and cash reimbursements.  In some cases, this is a diversification of not only payers but also of positive cash flow sources for your company.

• Consider horizontal acquisition of similar services that you can afford and that offer expansion to new geographical areas and/or to new populations.  Sometimes you will find this is less expensive than trying to do it from the ground up.

• Evaluate vertical opportunities that would complement existing services and help you reach into new markets and/or payer sources.

• Divest yourself of operations and contracts that are dragging down your bottom line, management’s focus, and overall organizational energy.  This is often very tough to do, however, once you accomplish it, you will wonder why it took you so long to act.

As my title suggests, it’s worth it to mix things up from time to time to allow you to see new opportunities for you and your home care company.  By doing so, you increase the likelihood that you will find some new avenues for growth and prosperity.