Software For Home Health Care Business

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Well, let’s acknowledge the fact that when you will be running your own Home Health Care Business, time will be a scarce commodity for you.

A plethora of activities will queue up on your calendar and you will hardly get the time to sleep in the first few months, at least.

Right from obtaining required licenses, hiring for your business, servicing your clients, developing a marketing plan to regulatory and business support activities, everything will seem like the next priority.

While this can be overwhelming, there are software products that can make your life easier and help you manage your business.

What is Home Health Care Business Software?

 A home health care business software streamlines your business processes and helps you keep track of your clients, your jobs, your employees, as well as help you in billing your clients, logging time, make payments to your employees, and collecting payments from customers.

While the software is helping you in your business activities, it significantly cuts down on your repetitive administrative activities, automates a lot of your manual work (thereby cutting down on manual errors), thereby saving you time. This time can be more efficiently invested in growing your business.

 

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What Should You Consider While Buying a Software for Home Health Care Business?

Features

You need to decide the base features which are most important to you and ensure that your software subscription covers these.

These might include patient records storage (can be accessed by you or can be easily presented to Medicare or Medicaid if asked), staff scheduling and client-wise plan management, electronic visit verification (mandated by Medicare), electronic signing feature, compliance summary for policies, invoicing and billing, payment collection through online payment gateway,  staff payroll management, and managing claims from Medicare / Medicaid.

Cost

The majority of the products in the market follow a tiered pricing model – tiered on the basis of the number of users and the number of features.

Some companies also charge the base fee as per the number of clients that your business serves through the software, which is beneficial if your client base fluctuates a lot.

The typical pricing ranges from $50 per month to $250 per month with the full range of features available for use for a sufficient number of users at the highest tier. You would also typically get a discount if you choose to subscribe and pay for one year when compared to a month or quarterly subscription.

 

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Mode of Deployment

While the time taken for deployment should not be more than a day, even if you are deploying it on computer systems at your premises, the mode of deployment actually drives the time taken for deployment.

Most of the software products nowadays offer cloud-based deployment, which allows you to avoid maintenance, data storage, and support costs. Cloud-based systems are also easy to deploy and they can be accessed through any device connected to the internet.

It makes it easier for your staff to log their time of duty while being at the client’s home, which is an important need for this business.

Below, we have discussed and reviewed some of the best software for home healthcare business. We sincerely hope this will help you in arriving at your decision on which software to subscribe to for your business.

ClearCare

ClearCare, powered by WellSky, is an extremely powerful cloud-based platform for managing home health care businesses with a variety of features that reduces your administrative work, across growing your agency, managing your caregivers, deliver your services, and optimizing operations.

The software is used by more than 4000 caregiving agencies in the US and provides great customer service and new user training. Specifically, the software provides very comprehensive support in the managing of your staff of caregivers – right from the hiring process in which it helps in employment screening to managing caregivers’ safety and training.

The software charges you on the basis of the number of clients and the base charge is determined by the number of active clients per month. The company also includes the ClearCareGo mobile app and the Smart GPS telephony service in the software subscription package that helps you and your employees access the software from anywhere.

Pros

  • Subscription costs are linked to the number of active clients per month – which makes the cost of the software more aligned to your business success and volumes
  • Good customer service and implementation team that will seamlessly help your business start using the software or migrate from another software.
  • Feature-rich and good value for money for new businesses as payment plans are linked to the number of customers
  • Good in-built data analytics capabilities – helpful for medium to large-sized businesses
  • Easy to use and easy to navigate through different parts of the software

Cons

  • New users may be prone to accidentally change or reschedule all future appointments when trying to reschedule one specific one – better navigation in rescheduling required.

 

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AxisCare

AxisCare is one of the most prominent software packages in the home health care business space, specifically meant for use by this segment and has been developed by private duty agency owners.

It is a convenient scheduling and management platform which is being used across the US and 7 other countries. Caregivers can work with the app that lets them conveniently manage visits and care plans.

Among the most useful features, the software allows for scheduling, billing, marketing for your business, client support, electronic visit verification, as well as visit insights and reporting features.

The software integrates with QuickBooks to automate the client billing process, and PayPlus/ Paylocity/ Paychex to offer staff payroll options. The company’s customer service is great and it offers you a free demo to understand the features of the software.

Pros

  • The standout feature of this app is the marketing suite which allows you to optimize your marketing budget by letting you understand the efficiencies of the different marketing plans and channels.
  • Facilitates caregiving training through a partnership with Nevvon
  • Provides easy integration with a host of partner apps which increases the array of features that the software provides you with.
  • Good customer service

Cons

  • Initially, it may take you a while to get used to the dashboard and user interface. However, the company provides unlimited free training to get used to the features.

Celayix

Celayix is a comprehensive workforce management solution that can be further customized to different industries including healthcare, hospitality, security, public sector, services, venues, etc.

The software supports employee scheduling, time logging, attendance, and employee communications. It gives you and your employees the ability to create and assign employees to slots or publish slots or jobs so that your staff can select slots as per their own availability.

It further supports a wide range of features through collaboration and integration with other software –  The Celayix Integration Manager extends the Celayix platform through app integration and data exchange with other software products, providing payroll systems, financial and accounting systems, Learning management systems, and customer relationship management systems.

Pros

  • Accounting support provided which as a bundled feature along with this software will save you on accounting costs.
  • A great option to have if you are only looking for staff management and have specialized tools for other business requirements
  • Helps you in retaining all business data centrally, which is helpful for reporting purposes

Cons

  • Not specifically crafted for the home health care business, if you are looking for very specific features, they may not be present.

 

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CareTime

CareTime is a cloud-based software that helps home health care businesses manage their activities across over 14000 users in the US.

The software equips you to manage all aspects of your business including but not limited to staff scheduling, electronic claims, payroll and invoicing to customers, electronic visit verification, care delivery, communication tools, and documentation, as well as reporting requirements for medium to large businesses.

The Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) module (which can be purchased separately and integrated with any existing software that a business may be using) ensures compliance with the EVV mandate of the government and using it helps to lower the business’ payroll cost and also helps to avoid wastage of time on administrative activities.

The software provides a mobile app for caregivers which allows your employees to clock in and out with GPS verification, review and manage care plans, record observations, and document activities.

A standout feature of the software is the CarePortal that allows customers and their families to clearly communicate with the caregivers and the agency, thereby enhancing transparency and convenience. 

Pros

  • The company provides a free 14-day trial period, within which you may test out the features and make a decision for or against subscription
  • The CarePortal provides transparency and peace of mind for family members of the elderly
  • The user interface is easy to navigate and the company provides enough new user training to get used to the interface, particularly if you are moving from any other software
  • EVV module increases transparency and trust in the caregiver-client ecosystem

Cons

  • Not enough features for business growth, for example, no effective marketing tools, hospitalization tracking or customer relationship management tools
  • No employment screening option

KanTime Healthcare Software

KanTime is a cloud-based enterprise-level software that is customized for use in the home healthcare business and private duty spaces. The software provides a smartphone application that can be used to comply with the Electronic Visit Verification mandate of the government.

The software also allows you to automate across all standard activities pertaining to your business – across customer relationship management, employee management and timesheet tracking, activity scheduling, billing, payments, finance, and reporting, as well as a useful data analytics platform which will help you track your business metrics and give you a bird’s eye view of the performance.

The software has customized versions for home healthcare business, private duty, a pediatrics practice, or a hospice.

Pros

  • Family Portal enhances the transparency of caregiving as well as increases peace of mind for the family of the cared for
  • One of the most cost-effective solutions available the market
  • Good and friendly customer service – helps you to get used to the new interface
  • Easy to use and navigate

Cons

  • The promotional free usage version of the software has limited features and may not encourage you to purchase a subscription

 

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Conclusion

While it is easy to get overwhelmed with the number of choices available in the market for a useful software in the home health care business domain, the real challenge is to identify the correct subscription that your business requires at any point in time.

There is no point in buying the most premium subscription for the software when your business is just starting off. Having said that, it does take a little time to figure out the most optimal subscription for your business.

So, we recommend you start off with a monthly subscription so that you are not tied up for a long time with something that may not be the best option for your business.