2022 Home Care Executive Forecast: ‘Buckle Up For A Wild Ride’

This year saw home care providers further build on the spotlight the public health emergency placed on the industry. No longer fighting for a seat at the proverbial table, the operators were able to fully lean into opportunities that have pushed the industry forward.

More than anything, ongoing labor shortages and ways to circumvent workforce challenges have been top of mind for executives. Leaders’ ability to not only recruit but retain caregivers will play a big role in home care’s growth in 2022 and beyond.

As part of our annual tradition, Home Health Care News caught up with eight home care leaders to document their predictions on trends, challenges and opportunities for the coming year. Their names and predictions are below, edited for length and clarity.

HHCN published the 2022 Home Health Executive Forecast on Dec. 13

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I think that the biggest hurdles the home care industry will face in 2022 are the ramifications that come from overregulation and the outdated regulations of private-duty, private-pay home care. The current regulations have just not kept pace with the number of older adults that need care in this country.

Therefore, home care organizations as well as the caregivers that work with them, have been hindered in their ability to provide the help and support their clients need. For example, medication administration is often a requested service from older-adult clients. In some states, for a caregiver to be able to provide medication-administration services to the client, the caregiver has to hold three separate licenses: HHA, CNA and CMT. State regulators should figure out a way to bundle these certifications into one license so that it’s easier for caregivers to obtain the credentials necessary to provide medication-administration services to clients.

The governing bodies which issue and renew home care licenses in each state and make changes to regulations should work together with home care providers in the state to create common-sense regulations that will ultimately serve to benefit and protect older adults.

It may sound cliché, but I feel it’s so important for home care executives to get to know our state legislators and get involved with advocacy on behalf of the home care industry – and the clients we serve.

— Neal Kursban; CEO, Family & Nursing Care

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There will be a continued focus on improving service delivery. Home care providers will continue to improve how they capture data to prove the value of personal care as an important component of quality and reduced overall cost of care. Integrating case management into our processes will be essential to keeping clients healthy and preventing hospitalizations by putting the care team and case managers on the same page with the same goals. The industry will also need to show continued improvement in relationships between the private and public sector to ensure our most vulnerable populations are appropriately cared for.

Regarding our workforce, we are seeing demand for a different type of caregiver – someone who can address activities of daily living and form relationships with clients that address social isolation. We also expect to continue to invest in empowering our direct care workforce through specialized training, such as in dementia care, and offering them a career path with benefits. Caregivers want a career, not just a job.

Home care providers will need the flexibility to respond quickly to the changing market, implementing what works and shedding what doesn’t. Remaining independent helps us do this. This fall, we quickly came up with a formula to seamlessly manage transitions from any setback to senior housing because one of our strategic partners said that was a big need. The industry will be asked to do this kind of innovating and pivoting more often, especially as the pandemic continues.

The new federal administration is promoting more care in the home. More people are choosing home care over more costly and potentially higher-risk congregate settings. The VA’s Choose Home Initiative ties together home health and personal care services to keep SNP-eligible patients at home for a reduced cost. We see growth opportunities here.

— Mike Trigilio; CEO, HouseWorks

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Without a doubt, recruiting will be the biggest factor shaping the home health care industry in 2022. We don’t have a demand issue for services — we have a supply issue. Meeting this demand is directly dependent on our ability to hire qualified professionals to fill these positions, so that we can continue providing services to the increasing number of individuals who need them.

The success of this stems from decisions around funding at the federal level. Home health care stakeholders have been working for better reimbursements for decades, yet this debate still persists today. The bare minimum of funding that the home health care industry receives undervalues its superior health outcomes and perpetuates low wages for our workers. This impacts our ability to recruit and retain qualified caregivers, and reach all of the individuals who want and need care in the home.

Those of us in the industry know that home health care is the key to addressing so many of the broader health care industry’s issues. More than that, it’s what health care consumers want. Data we recently captured with The Harris Poll revealed that 67% of Americans have thought differently about their own health care options or those of a loved one as a result of the pandemic, and 65% agreed that they would have considered home health care as an alternative to a past hospital stay if they knew it was an option.

We’re already playing an integral role in the country’s response to and recovery from COVID-19, and we can play an even larger role once this barrier is removed.

— Jennifer Sheets; President and CEO, Interim HealthCare

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The biggest factor shaping home care in 2022 and beyond is caregiver availability, and the only thing that may change in our industry is home care providers truly embracing caregivers as the lifeblood of their organizations – and not just giving it lip service.

We aren’t nearly as interested in recruiting as we are in retention. For Griswold Home Care, 2021 was “the year of retention,” and this will continue for 2022. The customer whose experience is our priority is the caregiver. Happy caregiver, happy client — it’s that simple. We completed a system-wide branding study that focuses on how our caregivers perceive our brand’s strengths and weaknesses. We wanted to know what they think, and how we can improve. We implemented a new interaction management platform that makes communicating with caregivers a priority — where and when they want to communicate. We’ve relaunched the Jean Griswold Foundation, and its sole priority is caregiver support through education, scholarships and hardship grants. We defined a benchmark for caregiver satisfaction scores across the board, which we measure monthly. We have the technology to help caregivers serve clients both when they are there and when they’re not.

What excites us is the challenge, the opportunity. When we hear concerns raised about caregiver availability, vaccination requirements, increased regulations, minimum wage hikes and more, we get excited. Adversity favors the prepared, and we’ve already laid the foundation. When retention is no longer an issue, recruiting won’t be, either.

— Michael Slupecki; CEO, Griswold Home Care

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We saw in 2021 several challenges and opportunities in the home care marketplace. Demand for services has never been higher, but staffing challenges have really made it difficult to meet this amazing demand. Some of these staffing challenges were mitigated by the unemployment benefits. With these coming to an end in the fourth quarter, we have seen applications for caregivers increase significantly. In 2022, this influx of new caregiver candidates won’t last, and home care agencies will need to create a great place to work to attract caregivers in this competitive environment.

When it comes to opportunities in 2022, 14% of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans will now offer home care benefits. While this percentage isn’t very high, it has more than doubled in the last year and will be projected to double going forward. These MA providers will want to know why they should partner with your agency – and that is where data-driven processes to prove reduction of hospital admissions and ER visits are a must. You must have the technology to track these outcomes to stand out with these payers. In addition, offering technology solutions to augment your care in the home will be paramount moving forward. If you thought 2021 was exciting, buckle up for a wild and exciting ride in 2022.

— Peter Ross; CEO and Co-Founder, Senior Helpers

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The biggest factor shaping home care next year will simply be the demand for it. Demand will continue to grow, and home care companies will continue to try and find operational strategies to meet that demand. The second-biggest factor will be navigating care coordination with ongoing labor and workforce shortages – both in clinical care and supportive care services. We will continue to see creative innovation in recruitment and retention efforts to attract new talent to home care services, but the lack of workers will be a challenge for years to come. We’ll need to scale services to meet the new regulatory environment and for the national framework to catch up, to allow flexibility for care delivery innovation while also ensuring caregiver/patient protection.

We will continue to see the consolidation of home care business in 2022. As the demand increases, technology will have to scale in order to play a major role. Further, as we personalize care in general, remote patient monitoring has incredible potential to provide more sophisticated coordination of a patient’s care experience to improve access and outcomes. I hope we’ll see more organizations take on risk-based arrangements for home care to support value-based contracts, reimbursement and incentives.

— Dan Greenleaf; President and CEO, ModivCare (Nasdaq: MODV)

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As we unwind Phase 1 of the pandemic and begin to look ahead to 2022, I believe the impact on the home care industry will be transformational in two areas: workforce flexibility and technology engagement. The crisis we all endured has taught us many lessons, firstly in how to operate in a more flexible and virtual environment. Agencies will rethink their workforce models and likely steer toward a hybrid environment of “work from home” and “work from anywhere.”

This will enable adaptive agencies to attract and retain deeper operational talent from millennials and those in other geographies. I was recently listening to a Vistage speaker (Dr. Gustavo), and he cited information from a study of 5,000 millennials across 40 countries. In that group, an overwhelming 90% said they prefer to work full time at a location of their choosing. By 2025, Millennials will make up 68% of the workforce in America, so we need to consider their needs and wishes to stay relevant and competitive.

— Gregory Solometo; CEO, Alliance Homecare

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Demand continues to increase, and so our focus has been around ensuring we have the right and best labor force to provide our home care services. While in the home, quality of care and programs to enhance care (Like our DementiaWise and GaitWay programs at ComForCare/At Your Side) are key ways to deliver care at the best levels.

It is so exciting to be in a business like home care that is growing at the pace it is growing – and has such a positive impact on families. The best providers will continue to flourish and grow in their support of families in need. As the labor force normalizes, and/or as solutions are developed that require less labor, the home care market will continue to grow in size and satisfaction to the client and client families.

— J.J. Sorrenti; CEO, Best Life Brands