Standards of Quality Expected for Home Care Agencies

Home care agencies are divided into 2 categories: medical and non-medical home care agencies.  Medical home care agencies employ medically skilled personnel to deal with the medical needs of clients. These medically skilled personnel include physical therapists and registered nurses. Non-medical home care agencies employ home care providers such as companions and home health aides.

The requirements each home care agency should meet differs from state-to-state.  However, there are some general requirements that should be met. These include:

• Acquiring a business license and state licensure
• Paying payroll taxes (unemployment insurance tax, social security tax, Medicare tax and State and Federal withholdings)
• Getting worker’s compensation insurance, professional liability insurance and fidelity bond insurance
• Giving the right people supervisory roles
• Having a consistent care plan
• Performing a criminal background check on all employees
• Train all caregivers

These are standard requirements that protect both the caregiver and the patient. It’s worth highlighting the benefits of the unemployment insurance tax, professional liability insurance, and the right supervisors. All the requirements listed are important, but we’ll focus on the 3 highlighted for the purposes of this article.

Unemployment Insurance Tax

There will be times when your caregivers won’t have any jobs to complete in between assignments.  However, they are a part of your team and would need to be paid. This is where unemployment insurance steps in. These workers can still be paid if they meet the requirements for the insurance.

Professional Liability Insurance

Professional liability insurance protects your homecare agency from claims that your company caused a client to experience financial harm due to mistakes on your part or because you failed to perform some service.  This insurance becomes particularly relevant in lawsuits. Hopefully your company will never be sued, but it’s good to have this cushion just in case.

Supervisors for Employee Performance Appraisals

Regular checks on your employees’ performance are necessary. It’s the only way to truly determine if your team is delivering the quality service promised. Employees should be clear about the performance criteria that will be assessed, and more than one assessment should be done throughout the year.

The supervisor’s assessments should also be accompanied by the client’s feedback on the caregiver’s performance. Both evaluations provide useful information about the employee’s performance.

Your homecare agency should always strive to maintain a high standard of care. Maintaining this high standard means complying with state regulations and ensuring that the general requirements listed in this article are met. All requirements are important. The team at own a Home Care Agency can help you get started. Contact us today.