Private Home Care Agency vs. An Independent Caregiver

At one of our team meetings we have been discussing new ideas for our blog and newsletters. We went over all the medical conditions and how to prevent them, but it sounded way to generic.  So, we have started to ask ourselves what we have learned, that might be useful and helpful information to others. This discussion led us to an idea of creating a series of blogs and newsletters that would talk about things that each and everyone in the company have learned and thinks is useful to others.

As a community outreach specialist, I will go first. My name is Margarita and I am coming from government and high tech background, and the transition into a healthcare industry was quite interesting. Even though I have dealt with health care companies in the past, I didn’t have a clear understanding of what is going on inside the industry in term of rules, structure and regulations. When I have started working for Ezra Home Care I had a lot of questions, not only about marketing and PR, but the basics of the industry. My colleagues were very helpful, but I still had more questions. As a visual person, I remember and understand everything better when I see it in writing. So, as a young professional I went on google.com to find the answers. My biggest question was “Why choose a private elder care agency over direct hiring of an independent caregiver?”

And as a person working for a home care company, I had to know the answer. So after couple of hours of searching and reading I got a pretty clear understanding, but once again it took me couple of hours. Today with such a busy lifestyle, people do not have couple of hours to search for an answer. We are so spoiled by the technology that we no longer go to the library, buy books or newspapers; we are used to the idea that all the information is widely available online. There were lots of information to answer my question, but none of it was well organized and clear. So I have decided to create a table to summarize all the pros and cons of hiring a private elder care agency vs. direct hiring of an independent caregiver. The table below will explain what you are getting when hiring privately or through a private elder care agency, as well as it would explain who would be liable for what, when hiring directly vs. private elder care agency:

The table above is a great representation of what you get for your money. To recap: If you hire a private elder care agency like Ezra Home Care you will get:

• continues coverage,
• caregivers  insured, bonded
• caregivers are matched to the potential client according to the client’s needs and personality

 Private elder care agency would be responsible for:

• payroll
• taxes
• workman’s compensation
• background check of all the caregivers

 When hiring an independent caregiver you are the one who is responsible for payroll, taxes, insurance of the caregiver, replacement in case care giver gets sick or needs a vacation. People often assume that it is cheaper to hire directly, but as you can see from the table above there lots of liabilities and responsibilities that would be upon your shoulder if you choose to hire and independent caregiver. It is stressful as is to realize that you or your love one can’t lead an independently lifestyle, private elder care agencies are here to make sure that the transition between the old life style and the new one is as smooth as possible.