Home for the holidays: it’s more than just a song. One in three Americans are traveling to visit family, commonly leading to the discovery of the change in condition of loved ones that leads to a spike in home care inquiries. Is your agency prepared to handle them? The key is to implement a marketing and sales strategy with touches before, during, and after … Read More
PDGM and the Move from Volume-Driven to Value-Driven Care
The Patient-Driven Groupings Model, or PDGM, will go into effect on January 1, 2020. PDGM is an updated version of the Home Health Groupings Model (HHGM) previously introduced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and then discontinued in 2017. According to CMS, PDGM is an effort to reduce the cost of home healthcare delivery and encourages value over volume, … Read More
The Advantages of Working With A Google Partner
As the owner or manager of a home care agency, your days are probably filled with paperwork, fulfilling staffing needs, and most importantly, providing top-notch care for clients and their families. The last thing you want to think about at the end of the day is search engine optimization (SEO), pay–per–click advertising (PPC), or senior care website updates and analytics. While you are aware of the … Read More
How to Rev Up Visibility of Your Home Care Website
There are two questions we receive regularly from home care agency owners: “How can I attract more customers online?” and “How can I attract more caregivers online?” In this internet-driven world, the answer comes down to two key factors: the quality of your website, and whether or not searchers can find it. With so many home care agencies vying for the top spot in search results, it’s imperative to understand why content is so important and why it needs to … Read More
Extra, Extra, Read All About It! Gain Community Trust Through PR
In an industry like aging care, consumers typically don’t give a thought to such a service until the need arises – and when it does, it’s often a crisis situation that leaves them feeling overwhelmed and unsure where to turn. Trust is paramount, and most effectively gained through third party endorsement: referrals from friends and family, online reviews, and something many … Read More
Creative Recruiting Marketing Ideas for Home Care Agencies: Your Home Care Agency Survival Kit
In the recently released Home Care Pulse 2020 Benchmarking Study, caregiver shortages and turnover were identified as two of the top five threats facing home care providers. According to AARP, more than 21 percent of American adults are currently providing care for an older loved one at home – up from 18% in 2016, an increase of 9.5 million people. This dramatic increase signals the importance … Read More
A Win/Win: Our Award-Winning Marketing Materials Make Your Agency Shine!
We’re delighted to share the news that we’ve been honored by Marketing Healthcare Today Magazine and Creative Images, Inc. with four 2019 Aster Awards: three gold and one silver. The Aster Awards recognize outstanding home health care professionals for excellence in advertising and marketing efforts – the largest, most respected national competition of its kind. Judged on creativity, layout and design, functionality, … Read More
Podcast Series Helps Consumers Choose Home
The demographics, they are a-changin’. According to the Rural Health Information Hub, there are currently more than 46 million adults 65 years of age and older living in the United States. By 2050, that number is expected to grow to nearly 90 million. What does this mean for America? By 2030, one in five Americans is projected to be 65 years of … Read More
SEO and PPC: How Home Care Agencies Are Using Search Strategies to Soar
For the longest time, home care agencies have focused mainly on print and direct mail advertising strategies to generate new business. While these traditional techniques are important and still bring value, many home care agencies are mixing up their overall marketing strategies by implementing SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click). Using both SEO and PPC home care ads can … Read More
How To Emphasize Quality to Overcome Home Care Cost Objections
As consumers, we do whatever we can to ensure we’re getting the best price for our purchases, whether through comparing costs online, clipping coupons, or asking friends and family for recommendations. Yet there are also situations when quality takes a front seat over cost: Choosing an elegant restaurant to celebrate a special occasion. Determining the best surgeon for a heart … Read More
Nurture New Home Health Care Relationships: Campaigns to Share Your Care
The season of love is here, and while we often use this time to show gratitude to our significant others, it’s also a good reminder that you should be showing potential clients and referral sources love as well. In our January newsletter, we discussed the importance of starting with great content that your target consumers find relevant. This month we … Read More
Heat Up Your Content Marketing for a More Profitable 2019
A new year is a good time for a new perspective, particularly if you’re taking a closer look at your home care marketing strategy. For years, we’ve stressed that content is the core of all successful marketing, and that refrain will only get louder in 2019. If you want to heat up your marketing efforts for your home care agency … Read More
It’s Not Just You. Your WordPress Website DID Recently Change!
If you’ve noticed something a little “off” with your WordPress website lately, the good news is it’s not a hack or virus and you’re not the only one. On December 6, 2018, WordPress Version 5.0 was released to the public. While the 5.0 release was initially supposed to come after the holidays in order to give companies a chance to … Read More
Using Time Spent at the Holidays to Evaluate When It’s Time to Look for Care Options
As we enter the holiday season, families will have the opportunity to spend concentrated time visiting aging loved ones. While of course providing the backdrop for quality time together, the holidays also are the prime time to assess how seniors are doing and whether there might be care needs that should be uncovered and addressed. Merrily Orsini, home care marketing … Read More
Hospice Makes a Difference for Families Facing a Life-Limiting Illness
Caring for a loved one and helping that individual age in place, in the comfort of his or her own home, is a gift. But caregiving can also be emotionally and physically draining, especially when a loved one is facing end of life issues. According to Brent Korte, Executive Director of EvergreenHealth Home Care, choosing hospice care for a loved … Read More
Talking Turkey: Five Ways Home Care Agencies Can Get a Leg Up in 2019
As we stand on the brink of that most wonderful time of the year, home care agency owners’ heads are filled less with visions of sugar plums and more with how to juggle time off for caregivers, extra holiday support for clients, year-end reporting, holiday gifts, cards, parties…not to mention the influx of new requests just around the corner as … Read More
What to Consider When Choosing End of Life Care
Imagine a specialized type of care that addresses the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of an individual with a life-limiting illness. Imagine that this care is delivered by a team of compassionate experts, specially trained on end-of-life symptom management, who address the needs not only of the individual, but of the immediate family members. Imagine that this type of care … Read More
Hospice Provides Care for Families and their Loved Ones
While home care options for a terminally ill patient may not seem like a novelty today, this type of care was unusual as recently as the mid-1950s. Dame Cicely Saunders, a British registered nurse, pioneered the notion of caring for terminally ill patients, addressing their pain and symptoms, as well as attending to their emotional and spiritual needs. A key … Read More
Does Your Home Care Website Design Scare Customers Away?
For many older adults and their loved ones, the thought of hiring a home care provider is a scary, but necessary, prospect. And with the heavy competition in the marketplace, it’s vital not to do anything that might further spook potential clients. This may sound like a no brainer, but many home care agencies don’t pay enough attention to, or … Read More
Family Caregivers and Professional Caregivers Unite in Common Care Goals
In the summer of 1994, Gary Barg was a video producer living in Atlanta and preparing for an assignment to cover the Olympic Games. With a few weeks on his hands before his assignment kicked into high gear, Barg traveled to south Florida to support his mother who was caring for her parents. For those two weeks, Barg stepped into … Read More
Factors to Look for When Selecting Quality In-Home Care for Your Senior Loved One
If you’ve decided in-home care is an appropriate solution to help your parent as he or she is aging in place, you’ve probably begun completing your due diligence by asking for recommendations from friends and family members, researching online reviews for local agencies, and possibly even scheduling interviews with prospective home care agencies or individual caregivers in an effort to … Read More
Sherlock Home Care: Benefits of Mystery Shopping Your Agency
The home care industry is at its most competitive, and figuring out how to get ahead can feel like a great mystery. The good news is that you don’t need to hire Sherlock Holmes to get the inside info you need to succeed. Mystery shopping helps companies assess the competition to gain better insight into how other businesses stack up … Read More
In-Home Care Is Critical in the Changing U.S. Health Care Industry
Twenty-five years ago, when Allen Hager, executive chairman of Risemark and founder of Right at Home, first got into home care, 8% of the United States GDP was spent on health care. Today, it’s nearly 18% and expected to hit 20% within the next several years. Hager explains that escalating costs and a societal responsibility to provide long-term care for … Read More
How the Home Care Industry Is Working to Meet the Needs of Today’s Consumers
Choosing a home care agency for a senior loved one can be confusing. There are a number of questions that must be navigated to determine whether home care is covered through Medicare or Medicaid, and if so, how much is covered? There are also questions about the level of care needed. Does the senior need skilled nursing assistance, companionship, or … Read More
In-Home Care Is Preventative Health Care
Historically, health care in the United States has functioned by addressing crisis. For older adults, that may mean hospitalization due to illness, a chronic health condition, or a fall. Unfortunately, once a senior enters the hospital for treatment, a cycle of readmission can ensue, with patients getting better and being discharged, only to return with a complication, or similar issue. … Read More