This is Fay Mikiska, the creator of the CaregivingTool, which is an alternative for the 93% of the U.S. population that simply can not afford to have an agency deal with hiring caregivers.
Oddly enough, I don’t consider agency home health care to be competitors in this industry because we serve different markets and different purposes. What agencies offer are people who are are available to serve your needs when you need them in a moment’s notice. Believe me, that is a tall order to fill. You try to keep skilled and trained help employed with enough hours to sustain a living when scheduling is so uncertain.
Another thing consumers overlook when comparing the cost of agency care verses private hire is the extraordinary costs of payroll taxes and insurance that doesn’t get mentioned in a worker’s hourly rate. Agencies pay all the hidden costs that accompany any other small, owner operated American business. That’s one of the bigger disappointments to owning your own business—you quickly become tax collector and bookkeeper for the government and insurance companies.
But your home is not a factory. Your loved one in need of care is not a commodity. The caregivers you hire and supervise are not in a career advancement setting. And the last thing you should have to concern yourself with is playing tax collector for a non-commercial, non-profit life situation that you are simply trying to survive.
Fay Mikiska is the author of the CaregivingTool: For Managing Your Caregivers and Repair & AfterCare: For Post-Op Home Recovery. She has been a caregiving recipient for over 27 years. She was born in 1956 and calls Midtown Sacramento her home. For more information about the CaregivingTool, please visit http://caregivingtool.com/.