How Strategic Partnerships Grow Home Care Business

How Strategic Partnerships Grow Home Care Business

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Mike Paladino: Welcome to CareSmartz360 On Air, a home care Podcast.

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Mike Paladino: I’m Mike Paladino, a senior account executive here at Caresmartz.

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Mike Paladino: Strategic partnerships can be a game changer for home care businesses by teaming up with complimentary organizations, you expand your reach and resources while minimizing business risk. Imagine collaborating with a senior living facility to provide transitional home care or even partnering with a physical therapy practice to offer in-home rehab services.

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Mike Paladino: These partnerships create a wider net for potential clients, while also enhancing the range of care you can provide.

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Mike Paladino: It’s a win-win allowing you to better serve your community and establish your home care business as a comprehensive solution.

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Mike Paladino: Today we have Michael Ford, the Vp. Of corporate business development at vital homecare.

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Mike Paladino: Mike is on the panel with us today and over the years Michael has worked exhaustively in the assisted living, skilled nursing, rehabilitation, Homecare, Hospital and Healthcare Industry

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Mike Paladino: Welcome to the podcast Michael.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Thanks Mike for the invite, definitely looking forward to having this conversation.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah. Likewise, I’m sure. Given the laundry list of your experience. You know, we’re gonna learn a lot from you today. And hopefully, our audience, you know, learn something that does peak interest and hopefully changes the way that they go about their day to day in a more positive way, right? That’s really the whole goal of these podcasts. And it’s really to educate and to inform and also to help those you know, think differently.

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Mike Paladino: So with that, said Michael, I’d love to just jump in and ask you a couple of questions pertaining to your experience. That’s really gonna be. You know, some vital information for the audience that we’re gonna have listening in.

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Mike Paladino: Now, the first question is, how can homecare providers identify potential partners who share their values and complement their services.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: So we gotta remember. The most important thing is that the client gets the care that they need. Okay, right now, the company I work for is 2 faceted. We have an agency in New York which is community home healthcare. And then in North Carolina we have vital home care

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: in those 2 entities. We need to be able to partner with multiple different agencies. Okay, we can provide non skilled home care. So we can provide showering, bathing, dressing, medication, reminders, cooking, lice, lighthouse, keeping going along to doctors, appointments going along to family birthday parties, weddings you name it, family events, things like that out in the community and making sure that our clients are safe.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: However, some of our clients, they may need

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: home health services. So some physical therapy, occupational therapy speech. They may even need hospice therapy because of hospice services, because let’s be honest, we do deal with the senior population, and that comes in. And it’s who we partner with who are the right partners with the same type of goals, the same type of keeping the client in their home for as long as possible, and working that so that the client gets the best services that they need.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah, I think it’s beautifully put. I think you know that there’s so many different avenues in our world. And it’s really just finding that solution that works well with what you want to provide, and also how you can support people. Right? That’s really that at the end of the day as you mentioned, it’s making sure people get the care that they need in the context in which they need it, you know, like you mentioned with the aging population. I think it’s important to be able to partner with folks that maybe you work with facilities and events.

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Mike Paladino: Eventually, facilities have people that get discharged. Maybe they want to age in place or have end of life care at home, and in that transitionary period, having those connections and partnerships really help make that part of that process much easier and and hopefully a lot less painful, which it’s obviously a very difficult time for all involved. And you want to try to mitigate that as best we can.

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Mike Paladino: and a lot of the feedback you just provided is kind of one tick on the box to help us get there a bit more seamlessly. So I think that’s just a fantastic way to think about it.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Right, and the key is picking the right strategic partners, you know, who are the ones that are looking out for the exact type client tell we are, you know, like you said, I’ve worked in assisted living. I’ve worked in skilled nursing, sub acute rehab home care, home health hospice. Even Cdp here in New York State. So it’s one of those who are the right partners, and the key is, who can make sure that the clients get the care that they need.

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Mike Paladino: It’s the trust factor, too. Right? It’s so am I. Gonna be confident that when I reach out to X, you know, agency or y. Partner, am I confident that that transitionary period is going to go? Well, cause

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Mike Paladino: no, at the end of the day it’s a lot of reputation on the line. It’s word of mouth travels. People, especially from a referral standpoint. Word of mouth is a very large way, or very popular way to acquire new clients and new partnerships, right? So, having that positive experience and doing things the right way and doing right by the client, it goes a long way for everybody involved. So I think that’s also a pretty big part of it, too.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Yeah, gaining trust of the client. That’s not easy. You have strangers coming into their homes, and that’s a change. They don’t. Sometimes they don’t understand. Why is this stranger here? You know, I’m going through it. In my personal life, we spoke about this before the podcast. It’s getting them to understand that. Hey? We want to keep you on your own. That’s why these caregivers are coming in to provide those services. Now, what we try to teach our caregivers here at Vital, and that community is, look out for, hey?

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Could Jane or Joe? Could they benefit from physical therapy or occupational therapy? Could they benefit from speech? Are they maybe not eating properly? Is there something we can do with letting the family know? They need to talk to their primary care physician, to do some meal, supplements things along those lines. So it’s not just partnering with other home health agencies or hospices. It’s partnering with doctors, facility agencies, doctors, offices, partnering with whoever you can partner with, to make sure that the client gets those services.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah, I think again, it’s such a great way to put it, because, even you know, I have a very elderly grandfather. He’s 95. He’s recently widowed. My grandmother passed away a few years ago, had a beautiful life, and she was very old and kind of unwell, so she passed gracefully. But he is. He’s an old Italian guy straight off the boat from Italy, so if you know anything I’m sure you know a lot, especially being in New York State.

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Mike Paladino: probably have a lot of elderly Italians that you work with and love them to death, but they could be very stubborn right, and they want to stay in their homes that they built through their entire, you know, life here as they moved into and started a new life right? So for him.

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Mike Paladino: going to long term care or going into a shared living facility. Just was not on the cards or in the cards. Rather so for us. It was important to find somebody that we could trust that was gonna provide quality care for him in his home, and he’s still getting it and receiving it beautifully today. But one thing you said really stuck out to me in my personal experience, which was having that feedback from caregiver is saying, hey, you know what he’s not eating his diet, or he’s not

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Mike Paladino: exercising, or we don’t want to go for walks for some reason anymore. For, like, you know, attitude changes that kind of thing and getting that feedback. If we don’t know about these things, we can’t help as a family.

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Mike Paladino: right. So I think just that level of feedback builds trust, and allows that person receiving care to be more comfortable, be more open, and be more communicative with the caregivers that are going there. And that’s just something that I’ve seen with my kind of challenging grandfather. Right? So

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Mike Paladino: I think it’s just a great way to think about it, too. Like you said.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Right and listen.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: All clients have different challenges. Let’s just be truthful. You have good clients, you have average clients, you have difficult clients. It is just what it is. Everybody’s different, and you can’t treat each person the same. So it’s what is best for that client, is it? Hey, Jane or Joe. They need some physical therapy. So that’s partner with an agency to do that, you know, and vice versa. There’s physical therapy, home health agencies that we work with.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: that they don’t have a home care agency. So they reach out to us to be like them. Listen! I was just in Jane’s house. Jaina is doing well with her physical therapy. We’re about to go out, but we don’t feel comfortable with her being there. I talked to the family, gave them your name and number. Please give her daughter, or her son, or her grandson, or niece, or nephew, or whoever the the primary contact is in this, these types of situations a call, because Jane can really benefit from your services, you know, even if it’s just light housekeeping and companion care, you know.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: elderly. Get lonely. Let’s just be honest.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah. Companion cares about what I cause. You know, I work with agencies all over the country, right? Providing our software and companionship seems to be from the nonmedical and home care side of things the most popular service, especially with the aging population.

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Mike Paladino: Because again, people get lonely. They like my grandfather. He’s now widowed so thankfully. He’s got an amazing support group, a lot of family, a lot of sons and daughters plus grandchildren that do call and support and go over there when we can. But that’s not the case for everybody. So that companionship, even if it’s just a quick check in, you know. Hey? Did you take your medications today? How are you feeling? Did you eat? Do you have meals for the week

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Mike Paladino: like these? Things can really affect somebody’s, you know ability to to be happy right? And then that’s really what you want someone to be as best they can be at that stage of their life.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Right, but it’s even a little more than that. It’s taking it to the next level. Maybe playing some chats or some checkers or some cards with that? Do we just have normal social interactions that they can’t get when they’re in their home by themselves?

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Mike Paladino: Yeah.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: You know, even a little social interaction of watching a TV program together and discussing that like.

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Mike Paladino: That I can actually see.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Streamer.

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Mike Paladino: 100%. Yeah, that is honestly so impactful. I saw cause I used to volunteer at an old age facility. And it had different levels of care. There was like, I think, there were 3 floors. Main floor was not as critical. They were still kind of with it, and they just wanted to kind of hang out with people. Second floor. They were a bit more challenging in terms of the severity of their illnesses or their ailments, and the third floor was really challenging. But the most

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Mike Paladino: The fun I saw them having was when we would sit down and just play checkers or play cards, and they would tell stories. Sometimes they would repeat themselves. They had early onset dementia or Alzheimer’s, but you’d entertain them. But then just speaking these stories and doing something like an activity. Oh, my gosh! It’s such a great way for them to to feel interact like, interact with people and just kind of feel happy, and to feel that support right, and they’re

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Mike Paladino: more likely to give feedback when things are bothering them and not hold it in when they feel that level of comfort in their environment right? And that just goes such a long way.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Exactly, and listen to it. The biggest thing is whether you’re a salesperson, a caregiver, a director of patient services, you know.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: the coordinator who’s out there staffing these cases is building that relationship. And how do you do that? You know, we’ve got some really good members of our team who go above and beyond to do that, whether it’s one of the positions we mentioned, or even just us in the upper level management. On how we work together to get that set up and get it going and get that client to be able to stay on their own ideally. Listen. I worked in the nursing home facility. For years I’ve worked at assisted living.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Both of them provide the right amount of services for people that need it. You know there are people that can’t benefit and can’t stay at home. Home. Care isn’t enough to do that. However, in the very near future hospitals at home, assisted living at home. It’s coming. We all know it’s coming. One of the best partnerships with this being A podcast on partnerships that I ever had is in Buffalo, New York. There’s an independent living facility that literally partners with.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Well, in New York State. They call it a chabble. We’ll call it what everybody else around the country calls a home health agency. They partner with a home care agency, and they are literally in their independent living facility, staffing it as if it’s an assisted living, and sometimes a rehabilitation facility, meaning, if Jane or Joe need showering, bathing and dressing assistance.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: you have 2 or 3 caregivers in there, splitting the entire facility up 120 beds and getting the services they need right on property. What that does as an agency, when you can build a partnership like that is, it allows you to keep caregivers

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: longer because they have a set full time shift. They know they are going to be at

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: blank, independent living facility from 8 A. M. To 4 PM.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: 4, 4, or 5 days a week. They know they’re getting their hours. They know where they need to be, and they know they have maybe 5 to 10 clients on that day they need to service, and some of it is just walking the clients down to the dining room, so that they come down for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

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Mike Paladino: You know what? And that’s right in my backyard. I’m right near Buffalo, New York, actually. So it’s cool too.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: That’s a reference.

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Mike Paladino: Point. I’m on the other side. I’m actually in Canada, in Small, just in Niagara Falls, actually right on the border. So I’m in Buffalo, Niagara Falls all the time. I go to A family in Rochester, which is where we’re headquartered, so I go there quite often.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Good.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Okay.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah, so definitely.

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Mike Paladino: I always like to be Co, I always hear that my accent as a Canadian is very Americanized, because we’re right on the border. I go there all the time. So people don’t really know that I’m Canadian. And when I talk to them on podcasts or sales calls.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Well, that’s kind of like me, you know. When you’re 19 years old you go up to Canada. You spend a lot of time in Clifton Hill, not too far from where you live.

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Mike Paladino: That’s so funny. I grew up there, too. That’s a hilarious reference. Wow!

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: You, you, Clifton Hill was the place to go, you know, and Poutine, you know

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Canadian delicacy, that’s all I can say.

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Mike Paladino: Can never get enough of the poutine, you know. They’ve elevated now they have smoked meat poutine. There’s like all buffalo chicken poutines. Yeah, that’s a podcast in and of itself. But that’s cool.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Yes.

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Mike Paladino: That’s a cool sentiment that you’re fairly close to me, and that was not planned. By the way, that’s just.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: No, it was not. It just kind of happened.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah.

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Mike Paladino: That’s hilarious. Well, in any case, you know that first question. Obviously, it kind of sets the stage for the rest of this conversation. But I think those insights are super valuable. So hopefully, those of you that are listening in definitely should be taking notes, because I can definitely learn a thing or 2 from Mike. Here.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Appreciate that.

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Mike Paladino: The second. The second question I have for you today, Mike, is, what type?

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Mike Paladino: What types of organizations have you found to be the most successful partners for home care, businesses?

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Well, I kinda just gave that answer from a home care. Perspective is independent living facilities. You know. Those are from a growth perspective

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: in the home care industry. Those are the greatest opportunity for rapid growth, because if you can go get in a facility whether it’s 20304200200 beds.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Those are clients that are right there at your fingertips every day that you’re able to staff. Now, there’s also multiple other ways that you can also work with agencies. You know. Home health.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: you know. That’s one of the first places I tell our sales reps to go home. Health agencies. They also have sales reps out in the community that are working with different independent living, different assisted living, skilled nursing, subacute rehabs, hospital systems. They have clients that they’re working within their home, that physical therapy, occupational therapy speech therapies, not enough.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: So building those partnerships builds those relationships. And here’s one that will probably surprise you the most

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: working with your competitors.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: You have to work with your competitors. My rule of thumb when I, when I work with our sales reps, and when I used to be a sales rep growing up in my through my career in the industry is you have to work with your competitors. Whether you’re at assisted living. You’re at a home, care, a home health, a hospice, a skill nursing, or a sub acute rehab.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: There’s gonna be a time where you cannot service a client.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: We work in the industry where we need to be able to service clients. So you need to be able to reach out to a competitor that you trust that could potentially staff. And that’s working with all of your competitors because somebody may also not be able to staff it because they don’t have a caregiver.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: I’ve piecemealed calm

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: clients before with other agencies, because, let’s say, it’s a 24 7 case. Okay, those are the most difficult to staff is to get somebody to cover something 24 HA day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Let’s say I can cover

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: 12 HA day, 4 days a week.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Okay.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Agency B can cover 12 HA day, 4 days a week. Great. We got 4 days covered. What do we do in those other 3 days?

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: You know we gotta be able to work with our competitors.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Get that client that care, because if we can’t get that client care that clients are going to be at a nursing home, or a rehab or assisted living when they don’t need to be at.

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Mike Paladino: Everyone suffers right. I think I never really thought about that, even as a possible answer. But you say it and explain it so eloquently just. It makes so much sense, because you can. Only A, you don’t know what you don’t know. And B, you can only do so much. You have only so many people. We all know, staffing and

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Mike Paladino: caregivers and industry that churn and an attrition that, like an all time high, and it has been for years. Seems like it gets worse every year. So, being able to partner with even those you might categorize as your competitors is such a brilliant thing when you really think about it, because at the end of the day, what are we really trying to accomplish? Well, I generally have the same goal. It’s to maintain positive client outcomes, make, maintain happy clients that can continue receiving services, because as long as they can continue receiving them.

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Mike Paladino: We can continue to offer them right. And I think that’s a really great way to think about it. I never would have thought about that. But that’s why we have it here today, because that’s a really great insight to learn something new. And it’s no, I think, more and more especially as the challenges continue to rise in our industry. We have to work together. We have to partner with one another, even if it’s a bit uncomfortable sometimes in terms of being competition.

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Mike Paladino: because again, at the end of the day. We need to service these clients, and we need to make sure they’re now getting what they need.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Let’s be truthful here. I’m a great person. I’m a huge, huge, huge believer in Karma.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Karma comes back to you. So if you’re looking out for a client, even if you can’t service it. But you can get them services from a competitor. It’s gonna come back to you, you know. You put the goodwill out there. We’re already doing a good service with the agencies that we work for and in the industries that we work. You know, you guys are working from a software Emr perspective, we’re working from a direct care perspective.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: How do we get them to be successful and stay in their environment. That means I gotta work with a competitor because I can’t staff it or they can’t staff the case. And they want to refer to me.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Great. Let’s do it, because the idea is that Jane and Joe Smith stay in their home for as long as possible.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah. And you know what? I even look at it from a software perspective, there actually have been cases where I’d be, you know, going through a sales cycle with a prospect who needs software for their homecare business right? And we get to the point where we’re scoping it out. And there are things that come up that I’m like. Hmm! Maybe we can’t fully do what they need. We don’t know. Naturally, we don’t really do that. Well, when it comes to oasis we’re skilled, we can do it. But it’s not really our cup of tea. We’re really focused on nonmedical in-home care. That’s really where we excel, and are probably the best in the industry at.

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Mike Paladino: But if I have clients where it’s like, Hey, we have no 50 clients that are skilled and see no productivity. Skilled nursing. Would you build a medicare

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Mike Paladino: right away? I’m like, you know, we could piecemeal something together. But is that going to be the best solution for you? In fact, talk to this vendor because I know they do that exceptionally well. You talk about non medical. Come to me, but medical. Go to them, and I think you have to be able to have that comfort level, because again, that client immediately builds trust, saying, you know, Mike didn’t try to just sell me something for the sake of it. And that applies to software. It applies to no clinical

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Mike Paladino: and practice things. It really applies to all walks of life. I think when it comes back to the Karma side of things, you do right by someone. It’s likely gonna happen again to you in the future in a hopefully, a positive way.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Exactly. Exactly. And that’s the whole goal.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah, awesome love it? So that said, question number 3, what are the key elements of a successful strategic partnership in the homecare industry?

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Trust Number One.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: You’ve got to be able to trust somebody in a strategic partnership. If you can’t trust somebody, you can’t work with somebody.

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Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: you know, that goes in agency and working with competitors working with strategic partners. You’ve gotta trust that they’re gonna be able to provide the care they tell you you’re gonna provide, and if they can’t, they gotta be willing to communicate with you.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:20:34.900 –> 00:20:50.280
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: You know. Let’s be honest. There’s a national caregiver shortage. It’s hitting every agency across the country and honestly across the world with getting caregivers to be able to provide services for their clients. You know this is a this is an industry that

00:20:51.100 –> 00:20:53.200
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: it’s a specialized person

00:20:53.470 –> 00:20:56.759
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: who chooses to be a caregiver in this.

00:20:56.850 –> 00:20:58.329
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: you know, for someone.

00:20:59.090 –> 00:21:03.585
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: especially with where minimum wages are going across the country. You know.

00:21:05.300 –> 00:21:09.899
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: our caregivers don’t make a lot of money. Unfortunately, you know, we would love to pay them more

00:21:09.910 –> 00:21:12.989
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: reimbursement rates kick up so we can pay our caregivers more.

00:21:12.990 –> 00:21:17.179
Mike Paladino: Yeah, that’s a big topic. That’s a burning platform right now in my mind. Right? It’s.

00:21:17.180 –> 00:21:36.699
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: You know. Let’s be honest. There are some people, there are some things like the Va phenomenal. There are like, if you do private pay great. You can definitely pay caregivers more if you get private pay. But Medicaid, no matter what state you’re in. Some are good, some are bad, some are average. So it’s working within the system that you have to work with to make things

00:21:37.190 –> 00:21:45.839
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: work. Yeah, you know, the most important thing is, I can call a Home Health Agency and be like Hey, Jane needs physical therapy.

00:21:46.020 –> 00:21:49.730
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: and I love honestly. When a Home Health Agency says to me.

00:21:50.040 –> 00:21:51.519
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: I can help her.

00:21:51.770 –> 00:21:53.859
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: but I cannot help her

00:21:53.920 –> 00:21:55.300
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: until next week.

00:21:55.800 –> 00:22:00.669
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: So you go. You can literally go as a client that’s referring to it and go. Hey, Jane has a question for you.

00:22:00.850 –> 00:22:26.409
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: I have this agency that can help you with it. But they can’t help you till next week. Will that be okay for you for physical therapy, or can I? Do you need me to call another strategic partner that can come out sooner? Open, honest communication? You know that that is the most important trust in an open and honest communication. That’s how you get a strategic partnership to work, and if you can’t do something, I will tell you this if I’ve said no to somebody, and I explain why I can’t do something.

00:22:26.530 –> 00:22:28.830
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: actually get more referrals by doing that.

00:22:28.830 –> 00:22:29.450
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:22:29.950 –> 00:22:32.160
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Than by just stringing someone along.

00:22:32.160 –> 00:22:53.980
Mike Paladino: 100%. I’ve seen that in my practice, too. Right? I’ve seen if you’re honest, and you kinda are able to let someone walk away or say like, Hey, we’re not the best fit. They’re likely gonna either come back to you when you’re maybe a better fit, or they’re gonna be like, you know what my product or service didn’t fit with that. But I know somebody who perfectly would use that software, whatever the service might be.

00:22:54.250 –> 00:23:12.219
Mike Paladino: And you said something. And kinda in my mind, when I asked you that question, I kind of knew what the top 3 responses were going to be: trust , honesty and open communication. It’s always, you know. These 3 things are, I think, synonymous with a lot of different engagements I’ve had. I’ve done a lot of podcasts. And we always kind of circle back to the same

13200:23:12.530 –> 00:23:24.309
Mike Paladino: 3 bullet points. And it’s can I trust somebody? Are they being honest with me, and how well do they communicate? Because this is from the top down, from the agency down perspective, and from the client up perspective.

00:23:24.310 –> 00:23:42.859
Mike Paladino: the clients are able to openly communicate what their challenges are. Well, we can best provide service and care for them if we can really hear their challenges. If the agency level is honest with the families and with the clients. And what’s going on? No one’s kind of fudge in the numbers or fudge in the tasks. Right? These things go a long way, and

00:23:42.860 –> 00:23:44.330
Mike Paladino: to your point earlier.

00:23:44.330 –> 00:24:09.089
Mike Paladino: everything. If it’s untruthful, it always comes back around in some way, shape or form, and I think that those things are definitely the key to any strategic partnership and any successful engagement you’re honestly gonna have in this industry and in most industries across the world right? And then, that’s something we can do. Usually we can control those 3 things. Which is why I think it’s so important. You can control your levels of trust and honesty with people, and how well we communicate.

00:24:09.960 –> 00:24:25.640
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: And I can give you an example of this. We had hired a sales rep for our agency down in Nashville, North Carolina. I was out, we were actually at a nursing home and rehab facility, and the social worker discharge. Planner asked this new sales rep. She had never worked in the industry before.

00:24:25.840 –> 00:24:28.400
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: What is your turnaround time on staffing a client?

00:24:29.660 –> 00:24:32.869
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: So here was my answer. It’s gonna sound like the biggest

00:24:34.160 –> 00:24:36.219
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: loud as Bs. But it’s a truthful answer.

00:24:36.750 –> 00:24:52.950
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: The earlier I can get a referral, the quicker my team can work on staffing this case, and the quicker I can let you know when and if I can staff the case, I will never give you an answer that I can staff a case. When you give me a referral, I will only tell you I can staff it when I can actually staff it.

00:24:54.540 –> 00:25:00.320
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: We walked out. My sales rep goes to me. You never answered the question. Oh, actually, I did.

00:25:01.260 –> 00:25:06.659
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: She goes. But you didn’t give a timeframe. I go. You can’t give a timeframe, because every case is different.

00:25:06.864 –> 00:25:07.679
Mike Paladino: Percent. You don’t know.

00:25:07.680 –> 00:25:23.790
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: How many hours it’s going to be. You don’t know the location of it. You don’t know the difficulty of the case, so until it gets to the admissions team desk to the coordinators desk. You can’t tell a social worker. You can staff it or not. What you can say is, I can staff in this area.

00:25:24.490 –> 00:25:30.449
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: So if you have referrals in this area, the quicker I get them I can try to staff them and make sure I have appropriate staff for it.

00:25:30.450 –> 00:25:30.950
Mike Paladino: Go ahead!

00:25:30.950 –> 00:25:39.580
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: So she was like, I still don’t think you gave a good answer. 2 h later we’re still driving around, the same social worker called with a referral for a 24, 7 case.

00:25:40.430 –> 00:26:06.540
Mike Paladino: I love that, and and and not to not to jump in. But the whole point of that story was honesty, and it’s also, you know, if you want an answer to something like that, you gotta give me some information. You gotta give me something to work with and forget that referral. Then. Okay, I can understand the case, and I can place it. And these things you have to be, you know. I mean, I’m in sales, too. So I kinda have that, you know, just like you, that that same knowledge and the kind of same acumen

00:26:06.540 –> 00:26:22.880
Mike Paladino: when it comes to approaching a conversation. You gotta ask questions. You can’t just say you can’t set expectations without knowing the whole story, and if you try to do that, you’re setting yourself up to fail. And that’s exactly what you accomplished in that scenario which hopefully your sales rep. Learned a thing or 2 because that was brilliant. By the way,

00:26:22.880 –> 00:26:36.480
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: She definitely did. She said she uses it now and honestly, in that 24 7 case. We had 12 h staffed in the first 12 by, so we got it at like 2, 3 o’clock in the afternoon we had 12 h staff. By the morning

00:26:36.560 –> 00:26:38.840
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: we had 24 h staff. 2 days later.

00:26:39.250 –> 00:26:41.240
Mike Paladino: Crazy. That’s amazing.

00:26:41.370 –> 00:26:47.029
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Hey? Right? And it worked. You know, the client got the care they needed. We earned that

00:26:47.180 –> 00:26:54.910
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: that referral sources trust, you know they’ve sent us more, and we just keep answering the questions that to me anyone.

00:26:55.740 –> 00:27:09.280
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: I can’t say I’ve done this before, but I’ve learned in my industry when I try to put a timeframe on when I can have a caregiver out there. It always bites me, you know. It always comes when I put my size, 14 shoes in my mouth.

00:27:09.930 –> 00:27:17.610
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Sorry, awful analogy. I was trying to think of a different one, but my size, 14 shoes in my mouth or foot in my mouth says that.

00:27:17.900 –> 00:27:19.009
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Oh, boy.

00:27:19.410 –> 00:27:23.080
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: why did I let that come out? Because I know I don’t know if I can guarantee it.

00:27:23.080 –> 00:27:23.670
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:27:24.420 –> 00:27:46.168
Mike Paladino: Yeah, it’s tough. I think we’ve all been there. I’ve said things like that to where you think you are saying something in a sense of it’s what they want to hear. But it’s not always that. What they want to hear generally isn’t always the best response. It’s more like, how do I get them to the solution they’re looking for? And it might not be obvious, might not be direct. Sometimes it’s mostly indirect, actually right?

00:27:46.650 –> 00:28:00.145
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: And it may not be us. That’s the solution. It may be a competitor. It may be a higher level of care. It may be a strategic partnership that we’ve been talking about this entire. Podcast how we get you to that point where you are safe on your own.

00:28:00.630 –> 00:28:24.949
Mike Paladino: You got it beautifully said, and honestly, I think I’ve even learned something, and how I comply with my day to day, which is even cooler. But yeah, I think that that’s definitely the right outlook. And again, it boils down to just successful partnerships really stem from that trust, honesty and communication. Really, those 3 elements are the key success factors to building those long term successful relationships.

00:28:25.830 –> 00:28:28.390
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Agreed. 100% can’t. Couldn’t have said it any better.

00:28:28.390 –> 00:28:29.020
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:28:29.500 –> 00:28:48.240
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Like. I look at it even with you guys from an Emr standpoint, whether we use you don’t use you whether our competitors use. You don’t use you. What it is all about is knowing every emr that’s out there. What works for one doesn’t work for the other. What works? You know what I mean. So how do you make it work? It’s no different than us as a homecare agency.

00:28:48.410 –> 00:28:59.988
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: What works for Jane may not work for Joe. What works for Joe may work for James, but not for Jane. So how do you work? Each individual case so that everybody gets what they need.

00:29:00.310 –> 00:29:10.130
Mike Paladino: And it’s so true, right? Because it’s not a once. This is probably because I’ve been in a lot of industries. This is definitely the least one size fits all

00:29:10.130 –> 00:29:35.060
Mike Paladino: industry, whereas everything is different almost every time you’re gonna see similarities right? But you’re not only managing the agency level and providing a service, but you’re also managing individuals who each have their own personalities. Each has their own experiences, you know, if they’ve worked with home care in the past and have had bad experiences. They’re now preconditioned to have their guard up most of the time. And these are challenges. You’re gonna see right? There’s also the other end of that coin where they’ve only had positive experience

00:29:35.060 –> 00:30:01.939
Mike Paladino: experiences, and they’re gonna be easier to work with. Or maybe they don’t speak English. Maybe we don’t speak their language. We don’t know their cultural values. So like there’s quite literally so many different challenges that are facing the industry. And I think again, to the point of how it’d be successful with partnerships and clients. It’s to communicate, it’s to be honest, and if you don’t know something, don’t pretend that you do, that’s the number. One problem most salespeople make is they act like, you know, all the answers when in fact.

00:30:02.170 –> 00:30:04.170
Mike Paladino: you don’t right. No.

00:30:04.300 –> 00:30:06.370
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Right, exactly exactly.

00:30:06.630 –> 00:30:17.099
Mike Paladino: Yeah, so kind of moving along here. The next question Mike wanted to ask you, how can homecare providers ensure clear communication and collaboration with their partners?

00:30:19.850 –> 00:30:20.860
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: It’s a great question.

00:30:21.730 –> 00:30:43.990
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: I don’t know if there’s an answer to that question. I think the best is to just be like we’ve talked about, open, honest, and communicate. Build that trust with your partner, build that trust with the clients that you service, you know, work together to make sure everybody gets the care that they need. There really isn’t one. Size fits all answers to that question.

00:30:43.990 –> 00:30:44.590
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:30:44.780 –> 00:30:54.870
Mike Paladino: I think we’ve already touched on this a lot. And this is usually how my podcast is. Goes. We kind of just naturally through the conversation, progress further through the questions, and kind of answer them before I even ask them.

00:30:54.870 –> 00:30:55.240
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Go.

00:30:55.533 –> 00:31:18.239
Mike Paladino: But I think the best way that I would see ensuring clear communication is just being honest about what you can and can’t provide right. I think if you set expectations, and you don’t pretend like you can do more than you are able to. Or maybe you’re, you know, delving into a new area or new niche that you didn’t work in before, like, maybe we just provided companion care and personal care. Now we’re venturing into transportation.

00:31:18.240 –> 00:31:41.299
Mike Paladino: If I have not done that before. Maybe I haven’t done the errand running, or haven’t done a medical visit, no accompaniment, or whatever that might look like. I think, being honest about that is how you maintain that communications like, Hey, you know what you’re my first client that I’m doing this with. How do we? How do you want this to go? What is gonna make you the most comfortable and ask that? Those questions getting that feedback? Because I really in my mind how you can ensure

00:31:41.300 –> 00:31:43.579
Mike Paladino: the communication stays at the forefront right.

181
00:31:43.840 –> 00:32:05.840
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Exactly. That’s one way like, how do you ensure the communication stays at the forefront? How do you ensure that the client gets all the services that you provide in New York and North Carolina. We’re working on some ancillary services that we can provide. Whether that’s ipad in their homes, you know physical therapy, occupational therapy, telemed in their homes, working with different doctors, offices.

00:32:05.840 –> 00:32:19.169
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: How do we work together? How do we make sure that each individual client knows what’s out there for them along with the day to day caregiving services that we can provide with the overall goal of keeping them in their current living environment.

00:32:19.450 –> 00:32:37.979
Mike Paladino: Yeah, yeah 100%. And and again, it all kind of boils down to the same topics of communication, trust and honesty. But I think you can’t really emphasize that enough. Right? I think you have to be comfortable with what you’re good at, and and, you know, be also comfortable with the ideas that you’re not things that you’re not good at right? Because, like we said, even before

00:32:37.980 –> 00:33:01.479
Mike Paladino: being able to partner with your competitors or kind of delineate somebody to somebody else if they maybe are better fit. This is exactly how you can maintain those big, strong, strategic partnerships, and in future that person you referred that client to. Maybe the exact same scenario happens to them, or they’re not maybe excelling in a practice area that you are great at. They’re gonna you know, I’m gonna think about Mike and send him this referral

00:33:01.480 –> 00:33:09.669
Mike Paladino: right? And that’s it. It all works now, together. Kind of like a homeless person, would. It? Works well if it’s like a glove doesn’t always work that way. But that’s kind of the goal right.

00:33:10.100 –> 00:33:35.270
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Right. And I mean, I’ve done day to day business development for 15 of my 18 to 20 plus years I’ve been in this industry. Now I’m doing corporate business development. Some mergers and acquisitions work things along those lines. And we mentioned earlier. I go in. I talk to homecare owners all the time. I don’t think we mentioned on the podcast I think this is precon podcast talk where I need to know what every emr does. I need to know, because

00:33:35.810 –> 00:33:43.670
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: I’m a little different than how other mergers and acquisitions brokers work, where, if somebody tells me no, I sit and try to learn about their company.

00:33:43.670 –> 00:34:07.940
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: because it goes back to Karma, comes back to you. Oh, your Emr, you’re struggling with it. Well, reach out to Karis. March! Re reach out here. Go get a demo, because what fits for 1 one? What glove fits on the right hand doesn’t always fit on the left. So what fits for one agency doesn’t fit for the other, and go find the right one, and I will tell you what has happened with that from a strategic partnership standpoint, and for me, looking at it from a mergers and acquisition standpoint

00:34:08.203 –> 00:34:12.689
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: is, I’ve had them either call me months or years later, saying, Hey, I’m ready to sell.

00:34:12.790 –> 00:34:17.040
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: or I’ve had them go. Hey! My friend is ready to sell. I’m sending him your way.

00:34:17.040 –> 00:34:17.699
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:34:18.620 –> 00:34:23.699
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: You know. So how are you? How do you do that? What do you do differently? How do you stand out?

00:34:23.929 –> 00:34:24.529
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:34:24.709 –> 00:34:53.119
Mike Paladino: I I love that, you know. That’s something that I always try to do is, you know, how do you? How do you stand? How do you think differently? And the way that I’ve always positioned this, it’s actually my tagline on my linkedin page. I made it up when I was just starting my career 12 years ago, and it’s been there ever since I was trying to be cool and creative. And whatever but I’m like, you know. How are you? How do you think they differ? How do you, you know, maintain a certain standard for your clients, and you don’t settle for the status quo. You think differently. You try to go back, you know you, you said

00:34:53.469 –> 00:35:12.419
Mike Paladino: You think differently. You try to just be, you know, strategic in a way that they haven’t seen before. You let them know. Like you said, you research them. You let them know that you actually care about what is important to them, look at their mission, look at their values. Do you align with them? If you don’t align with what they believe in, then maybe they’re not a good ideal target customer, right?

00:35:12.420 –> 00:35:15.210
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Not a target customer. It’s not a strategic partnership.

00:35:15.210 –> 00:35:15.830
Mike Paladino: Respect.

00:35:15.830 –> 00:35:35.919
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: You know, it’s thinking, outside of the box, we live in an industry that if you try to live inside of a box, or you live on a black and white line, it’s not gonna go well for you, you. We work in an industry where those lines get blurred, where you may be in gray, purple, pink, green, blue, whatever you might have to work outside of that box outside of your comfort zone.

00:35:35.990 –> 00:35:38.310
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: That’s what this industry is about, honey.

00:35:38.310 –> 00:35:38.920
Mike Paladino: Percent.

00:35:39.420 –> 00:35:47.759
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: You know, working outside of that comfort zone and figuring out the best way to make someone happy so that they can live a productive life.

00:35:48.080 –> 00:36:02.120
Mike Paladino: Couldn’t have said it better myself, and that truly, is the goal of why we do this, and I always speak. I speak to so many people, and it’s pretty cool to hear the stories of what motivates people to be involved in our industry. 9 times out of 10, if not every single time

00:36:02.120 –> 00:36:18.759
Mike Paladino: People have a motivation to get involved in our home care space right? My mother, for example, wasn’t Rn. For 30 years. I saw the challenges that she faced because she worked specifically in homecare and healthcare hospice as a case manager and doing clinical assessments, home visits that kind of thing.

00:36:18.760 –> 00:36:24.865
Mike Paladino: and when she got involved with it everything was paper based and manual. So for me, my motivation was, Hey, you know what I saw.

00:36:25.110 –> 00:36:38.980
Mike Paladino: how time consuming, how stressful and how difficult it was for her in her career. Well, if there’s software that can help others in a similar position, make it easier. That’s what my motivation was, even speaking to my partner. She is now

00:36:39.220 –> 00:36:44.969
Mike Paladino: an Rn. She’s actually a flight nurse doing like area ambulance critical care, one on, one flies on like.

00:36:44.970 –> 00:36:45.400
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: And so.

00:36:45.400 –> 00:37:02.489
Mike Paladino: Over the world really, really cool stuff. But before that she was in long term care. And again I got to see all the challenges that she faced with staffing, with, you know, working outside of scope a lot of the time because of staffing shortages with on honestly, that’s not a great thing, but it happens right, and

00:37:02.760 –> 00:37:27.080
Mike Paladino: I feel like that was not again, part of my motivation to be involved in space because of all the challenges. I talked to agency owners all the time, whereas you know what you know. My mother or father received home care. It was a terrible experience, and I said. You know what I don’t want others to go through is that I’m starting my own business, starting my own agency, and that’s such a common story that I hear about what motivates people to get involved in our space. You know, I saw a loved one

00:37:27.080 –> 00:37:39.180
Mike Paladino: go through a really challenging time. Maybe I won’t start an agency. But I’m gonna go to my local politician. I’m gonna go to these conferences and become a speaker and an advocate for what needs to change right? And I think that it’s a pretty cool

00:37:40.260 –> 00:37:46.769
Mike Paladino: Something we all have in common, I think in our space is there’s something that has motivated us to get involved and make a difference really.

00:37:47.350 –> 00:38:00.119
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Right. And speaking of, you know, we talk about strategic partnerships. The Association for Home Care and Hospice of North Carolina, South Carolina, is doing an advocacy day 2 weeks from tomorrow in Raleigh, North Carolina. You’ve got

00:38:00.530 –> 00:38:12.880
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: partners, strategic partners. You’ve got competitors. You’ve got everybody there coming together to work together for the main focus of working on reimbursement rates when it comes to Medicaid in the State of North Carolina.

00:38:12.880 –> 00:38:14.359
Mike Paladino: Yeah, yeah.

00:38:14.720 –> 00:38:28.720
Mike Paladino: It’s crazy. I have a lot of agencies in Nc that do Medicaid. And I always hear the story of reimbursement rates. You know, North Carolina, I I think, was around the average. Maybe it was a bit less. I can’t really remember. Maybe it’s on the lower end.

00:38:28.720 –> 00:38:31.580
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: It’s a flat rate. It’s a flat rate. It’s $23 and $84.

00:38:31.580 –> 00:38:34.869
Mike Paladino: Yeah. So that actually, from what I’ve seen is is is

00:38:34.930 –> 00:38:43.358
Mike Paladino: It’s not great. But it’s better than I’ve seen in other areas. I think I don’t wanna quote myself by saying what Missouri is, but I know Missouri, Mississippi are.

00:38:43.630 –> 00:38:45.040
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Missouri is the worst. Yeah.

00:38:45.040 –> 00:38:45.390
Mike Paladino: Great.

00:38:45.390 –> 00:38:46.939
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Maybe that is too low, right?

00:38:46.940 –> 00:38:47.839
Mike Paladino: Like you hit New York.

00:38:47.840 –> 00:38:59.529
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: York. You look California. You look at some other States. There’s definitely Ohio, South Carolina. So North Carolina, South Carolina, same exact film care Hospice Association, South Carolina, the rates $25 an hour.

00:38:59.530 –> 00:39:00.090
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:39:00.580 –> 00:39:12.226
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: It’s because Congress and the Senate get it. It’s not because the Association isn’t advocating for more. It’s because Congress and the Senate get it, hey, Burger. King Mcdonald’s down here. Chick-fil-a keynes

00:39:13.065 –> 00:39:18.379
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: pop eyes. Oh, my goodness! Who’s got through all the biscuits? I’m drawing a blank on it

00:39:19.270 –> 00:39:20.340
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Bojangles.

00:39:20.340 –> 00:39:20.750
Mike Paladino: That back.

00:39:20.750 –> 00:39:26.559
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Bojangles, you know. They’re paying 1415, $16 an hour for people to flip burgers.

00:39:26.990 –> 00:39:30.080
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: and we’re paying our caregivers. 1213, 14,

00:39:30.170 –> 00:39:33.349
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: because what Congress and Senate don’t understand

00:39:33.430 –> 00:39:48.149
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: this is happening in more than just just in state areas happening on the national level right now with the 80. 20 rule is that $23 and 84 cents that Medicaid reimburses us for doesn’t just pay for the caregiver

00:39:48.230 –> 00:40:04.440
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: pays for workers comp insurance. It pays to keep the lights on in the office. It pays for the Emr systems and the electronic visit verifications that we need to use that State’s mandate, for we have to pay for those services out of something. So if we’re giving, listen, we would love to pay a caregiver point.

00:40:04.820 –> 00:40:09.279
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: We would love to be able to parakeet paracore, caregiver what they deserve.

00:40:09.730 –> 00:40:10.610
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: A.

00:40:10.940 –> 00:40:12.100
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: But to keep a

00:40:12.410 –> 00:40:13.979
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: agency running.

00:40:14.700 –> 00:40:20.149
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: they have to be able to make a little bit somewhere. Yeah, to cover those costs.

00:40:20.150 –> 00:40:27.507
Mike Paladino: The margins just aren’t there? And you make a brilliant point. And I’ve seen this topic actually floated around heavily over the last like 6 months even.

00:40:27.890 –> 00:40:33.090
Mike Paladino: It’s the idea that because minimum wage, even on a national level, has increased

00:40:33.130 –> 00:41:01.790
Mike Paladino: Burger flipping jobs, Mcdonald’s fast food restaurants. It’s almost. And it’s. It’s terrible to say this, but it’s almost more advantageous to go work those jobs and then home care as a caregiver, because it’s a thankless job. It’s tough. You do a lot of things that other people wouldn’t. And when you’re weighing the options pros and cons, maybe I make a few dollars less per hour. Maybe I’ll make more money working at a fast food chain. Why wouldn’t I do that right? So it’s like, you know, that that’s really the big challenge that most agencies have.

00:41:01.790 –> 00:41:04.860
Mike Paladino: as you mentioned, are facing across the country, and

00:41:04.890 –> 00:41:11.470
Mike Paladino: we’re hopeful that it changes. I know that there are some states that are forward thinking and really trying to make a difference. I was in Washington

00:41:11.650 –> 00:41:32.270
Mike Paladino: last year, and there’s similar avocation going on where it’s like, we know, something has to change medical in California kind of the same thing. So there is movement, but it’s just a snail’s pace. And then there are the States that think differently, think the opposite. Think there’s no need to change right? And that’s the other end of that coin. You’re battling and struggling with.

00:41:32.690 –> 00:41:40.340
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Right like. I mean, if if the State doesn’t change, if government reimbursement doesn’t come, what what they don’t understand

00:41:40.360 –> 00:41:51.880
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: is when agencies close, these clients now are going to need skilled nursing facilities. Which now means your Medicaid budgets are gonna blow through the roof because it’s 300 plus dollars a day to care for a client at a nursing home.

00:41:52.440 –> 00:41:56.879
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Versus $23 an hour for 4 to 8 HA day.

00:41:58.330 –> 00:42:03.110
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: or even $30 for 4 to 8 HA day. That’s still under $3,300.

00:42:03.110 –> 00:42:26.119
Mike Paladino: Yeah, well, I think the interesting thing for me is the proof of concept. Are there any facts? Is there something to say? This is what we need and why. And it’s just gonna keep needing the advocacy groups to keep speaking up, going to conferences, being loud, reaching out to the local politicians. Those are really so. The only thing we could do right is just try to be loud and keep making noise. And usually eventually

00:42:26.340 –> 00:42:28.450
Mike Paladino: things hopefully will turn out in our favor.

00:42:28.600 –> 00:42:34.020
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: And I think some of it is honestly you. We have people that are in government that are throwing.

00:42:34.360 –> 00:42:41.370
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: I don’t know darts at a bulletin board or on a dart board, and seeing what sticks, not really understanding what’s going out there.

00:42:41.450 –> 00:42:46.350
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: The concept of 80, the 80 20 rule that Medicaid put in is a great concept.

00:42:46.450 –> 00:42:48.979
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: The idea is to raise caregivers.

00:42:49.110 –> 00:42:50.090
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: pay rates.

00:42:50.090 –> 00:42:50.600
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:42:50.600 –> 00:43:06.759
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Caregivers point blanking period. I’m hoping you’re listening to this podcast. You deserve to make more money. It’s a thankless job like Mike said earlier. But you’re a specialized person that chooses to do this job, and we thank you for that point blank period. We thank you for what you do

00:43:06.920 –> 00:43:10.970
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: you know you allow people to stay in their homes? The 80 20 rule is great.

00:43:11.430 –> 00:43:15.700
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: cause it. It meets the needs of caregivers getting the appropriate rate.

00:43:15.880 –> 00:43:20.120
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: the 80 20 rule is not appropriate for getting to that goal.

00:43:20.760 –> 00:43:22.589
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: What it could end up doing

00:43:22.670 –> 00:43:26.718
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: is putting agencies out of business which now puts caregivers out of work.

00:43:28.950 –> 00:43:40.619
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: and you know you, you read articles, home healthcare news has them all the time. About the Ap. 20 rule. A bunch of law firms are sending out articles all the time about what’s this? 80? 20 rules really really means.

00:43:40.760 –> 00:43:50.200
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: and I’ll be honest with you. I don’t fully understand it, but when you have Bill, don’t be the National Association for Home Care and Hospice President, who’s been advocating that the rule

00:43:50.440 –> 00:43:55.000
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: is conceptually good but doesn’t meet the purpose of the rule.

00:43:56.190 –> 00:44:13.790
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: and you have agencies that are saying it doesn’t meet it. We want to raise rates for our caregivers. We want to raise the pay rates, but there has to be a mutual middle point to do that. So we can meet that need. Let’s be honest. If we could pay caregivers $20 an hour. We would love to do it. 100%. I’d love to.

00:44:13.790 –> 00:44:14.120
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

26800:44:14.120 –> 00:44:15.279
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: But when you’re making

00:44:15.310 –> 00:44:21.410
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: 2 to 8% margins on stuff, how how.

00:44:21.410 –> 00:44:21.800
Mike Paladino: Hit some parts.

00:44:21.800 –> 00:44:25.039
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: You gotta keep lights on. You gotta be able to pay the rest of your staff

00:44:25.130 –> 00:44:26.960
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: that isn’t doing direct care.

00:44:26.960 –> 00:44:27.400
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:44:27.400 –> 00:44:28.879
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: And I think that’s where

00:44:29.100 –> 00:44:30.809
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: that rules missed out.

00:44:30.810 –> 00:44:55.530
Mike Paladino: Yeah, I think the other challenge, too. And and and they’ll jump into the final question. But the other challenge that I see is the reimbursement period. Sometimes there’s a delay in payment, and if it’s an agency that’s strictly Medicaid, and they’re not paid in the month, or there was an issue with their claims. And again, this is why we need Emrs and need systems in place that track your compliances like care sparks, and others. If there’s an issue with your claim, get denied to resubmit it.

00:44:55.530 –> 00:45:02.700
Mike Paladino: You might do it if there are some agencies to get monthly billing if you don’t hit your bills for that month. You can’t pay your staff

00:45:02.700 –> 00:45:10.472
Mike Paladino: right, and then from there it’s like you. Then you’re off operating under a deficit, for until you get your money, and that’s a separate topic, but very challenging.

00:45:10.740 –> 00:45:15.439
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: I mean, I can tell you, from a mergers and acquisition standpoint. We were looking at a company

00:45:15.470 –> 00:45:18.749
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: that was billing the Medicaid rate of 2 years ago.

00:45:19.240 –> 00:45:22.449
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: which was $4 less than the Medicaid rate. They should have been billing.

00:45:22.460 –> 00:45:23.170
Mike Paladino: Ow!

00:45:24.510 –> 00:45:25.780
Mike Paladino: That’s tough.

00:45:26.800 –> 00:45:29.410
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: And it’s just because they missed it.

00:45:29.760 –> 00:45:50.969
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: you know. Unfortunately, the small mom and pops miss out on some things that are key to keeping their doors open. They really are, because they’re so overwhelmed on doing multiple jobs that larger agencies don’t have, you know. So what do we do? How do we do it? Where do we make things better? How do we make things better? How do we get to the common goal of

00:45:51.020 –> 00:45:54.309
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Number one, making sure the clients receive the services they need.

00:45:54.530 –> 00:45:59.150
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Number 2, making sure everybody within the homecare industry is getting paid what they deserve.

00:45:59.980 –> 00:46:03.330
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: you know, from an agency all the way down to the caregiver.

00:46:03.390 –> 00:46:06.790
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: everybody’s got to be able to make this work.

00:46:07.360 –> 00:46:10.630
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: and we’re all willing to work with the Government to do that.

00:46:10.880 –> 00:46:12.780
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Now we got to get the government to work with us.

00:46:12.780 –> 00:46:13.380
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:46:13.680 –> 00:46:17.090
Mike Paladino: And that’s usually the hardest part. But

00:46:17.090 –> 00:46:17.450
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: It’s.

00:46:17.450 –> 00:46:17.769
Mike Paladino: Right, yeah.

00:46:17.770 –> 00:46:21.400
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: People that don’t understand what we do and how we do it. They just think they do.

00:46:21.400 –> 00:46:22.110
Mike Paladino: Yeah, it.

00:46:22.110 –> 00:46:26.829
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Let’s be honest. I don’t know everything about this, I admitted. I don’t know enough about the 80-20 rule.

00:46:26.870 –> 00:46:29.560
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: There’s other things I don’t know enough about, you know.

00:46:29.900 –> 00:46:31.800
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: It’s trying to figure it all out.

00:46:31.800 –> 00:46:50.983
Mike Paladino: It is, and there’s a lot. There’s a lot to it. There’s a lot of moving parts. And the other challenges. Things change almost every day so what was not proper and normal today is maybe different. Tomorrow and the next day, right? And that’s the other challenge. We always have to navigate that. The cog wheel of things changes as the gear spins. But

00:46:51.773 –> 00:47:05.540
Mike Paladino: yeah, the last question, Mike, I wanted to ask, yeah, it’s a pretty simple one. And it really revolves around the strategies. Rather what strategies can be used to measure the success of these strategic partnerships.

00:47:07.090 –> 00:47:07.720
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Hmm!

00:47:08.920 –> 00:47:28.430
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: I mean, really, it’s oh, that’s a tough question. To be honest with you. What strategies can be used? Managed success. It’s tracking. Honestly, you gotta track. You gotta keep track of what’s going on. You gotta keep track of. Okay. I’m working with Agency A, BC, and D, I’m sending them this many referrals they’ve sent me. This many is this working

00:47:28.910 –> 00:47:56.590
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: is, are we passing back and forth between home health agencies, appropriate amount so that we can be successful, or is it a one sided arrangement in that strategic partnership, you know, and it’s really that open, honest communication and trust that we talked about pretty much this entire conversation of being able to go to that strategic partner and being like, Hey, this is kind of a one sided arrangement, or this arrangements working perfectly? Or what can we do differently, so that this arrangement can be better on both ends.

00:47:56.590 –> 00:47:57.210
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:47:57.850 –> 00:48:00.409
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: You know. You never know how a strategic partnership works.

00:48:00.410 –> 00:48:12.270
Mike Paladino: 100%. I think you nailed it, too, right? Like, it’s the fax. So what do you know the partnership looks like on paper? How many referrals do we give? How many do we get from select age? So it’s just data tracking. Having.

00:48:12.270 –> 00:48:12.800
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: And up.

00:48:13.056 –> 00:48:36.140
Mike Paladino: You know, we have a way to track leads. And in your referrals in our system, right? So I kinda look at that when I’m envisioning this, it’s like I need to be able to see a dashboard, says, Okay, these are all my, you know, top 10 partners. And these are the results of how many we’ve given them, how many they’ve given us, the frequency, the success rates. You know these things. It’s all just having good access to data. And sometimes this software system provides that

00:48:36.140 –> 00:48:57.440
Mike Paladino: Sometimes you gotta a whiz who’s great at Excel, builds your pivot tables and kinda can give you these things internally. In any case, however, you yeah. Ho! However, you get that information, it’s just how do you? It’s using it effectively. And I think you know, there’s probably a million one ways you can define. How do you measure success? What does success look like to you? But I think at the core. It’s just

00:48:57.440 –> 00:49:07.580
Mike Paladino: taking the information tracking it. How many partners do we have that we actively work with which ones give us referrals right and build upon those ones, and you know.

00:49:07.650 –> 00:49:28.009
Mike Paladino: not to be selfish or whatever. But if we’re working with a partner that’s giving us stuff, we’re giving them stuff. We’re probably gonna keep fostering that one further. If it’s a one sided arrangement, you know, maybe we’ll still give them referrals when it’s a great fit. But maybe we’re gonna give them not a little bit less on purpose. But we’re gonna focus on the ones that are fruitful for both parties. Right? I think that’s how you really wanna maintain

00:49:28.010 –> 00:49:37.970
Mike Paladino: growth, but also strategic partners. That’s the key word. Who are my strategic partners? You could have tons of partners which ones are the most strategic, and those are the ones you want to really hone in on.

00:49:38.170 –> 00:49:48.339
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Right. And who are the ones that like you said, who’s passing business back and forth? That’s a strategic partnership, you know. We talk about strategic partnerships. Truthfully, you can almost call them referral sources.

00:49:48.770 –> 00:49:53.979
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Who are your strong referral sources, you know. And who are you? A strong referral source for.

00:49:53.980 –> 00:49:54.700
Mike Paladino: Exactly.

00:49:54.700 –> 00:49:56.320
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Help them grow their business.

00:49:56.660 –> 00:49:57.400
Mike Ford Prestige Healthcare Group: Yeah.

00:49:57.630 –> 00:50:18.454
Mike Paladino: Absolutely, beautifully, said. I think, Mike, we will cut it off there. I think we’ve had a beautiful conversation so far. What I’ll say again, Mike is thank you for sharing these great insights, and I’m really sure the audience got an in depth, knowledge, and review about how strategic partnerships help grow home care businesses, and in general help the agency flourish

00:50:19.127 –> 00:50:26.880
Mike Paladino: to you the audience. I really do thank you for tuning in and until the next episode. This is Mike signing off with Mike.

00:50:27.140 –> 00:50:28.120
Mike Paladino: Thanks, guys.