Home Care in 2021

​What does the home care industry look like in 2021 and beyond? HCAOA Board members look into the crystal ball…

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Shelly Sun, BrightStar Care

​“As more families are able to travel to visit their aging parents in 2021, they will see the need for home care to enable safety and improved quality of life, thereby accelerating growth for home care and a need to provide higher acuity care in the home. Further, a greater emphasis on data and proven health outcomes will be essential for deepening partnerships across the payer and provider continuum. And last but not least, recruiting and retention will be a critical focus to ensure the ability for home care providers to meet client demand - innovation in sourcing, scheduling and retention programs will be key.”

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Aaron Stapleton, Queen City Homecare

​“I believe 2021 is going to be a very prosperous year for the private duty home care industry. We have proved in 2020, through a pandemic, that our industry is not only useful but is important in the overall health care of our nation. I believe hospitals will start to see our importance and we will see an increase in discharge planners utilizing our care when they are thinking of the overall care of their patients going back to their home setting. It will be our responsibility to train our employees for higher levels of care as we will see this moving forward in our industry. Making these steps in 2021 will allow us to position ourselves for reimbursements we have not seen before and allow us to care for people we have not able to in the past.”

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Peter Ross, Senior Helpers 

​“After an unprecedented year in 2020, home care needs to stay the course on its momentum prior to the pandemic and the tailwinds after. The desire for seniors to age in their home has increased even more since the pandemic and the best news is that the healthcare system is supporting that as well. Home care agencies must look to data driven outcome strategies to help families understand their loved one’s ability to age safely in their home. Agencies who embrace partnerships and technology solutions will enable this to happen. 2021 offers a bright future for those agencies that adapt to a value based care environment.”  

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Jeff Wiberg, Family Resource Home Care

​“Personal care benefited from amazing positive awareness in 2020, I predict that there will be a divergence in 2021 of agencies who stay the course and those who capitalize on this awareness and press the advantage for greater utilization within the healthcare continuum and attention from payors. I foresee this divergence also spreading to include agencies who innovate on how they recruit, retain, train, and incent their caregivers and those continue to struggle with enough staff. I feel we will look back on this time as a watershed moment in home care where we truly saw advancement in the home care industry. 2021 is the year to truly make that a reality.”

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