Q&A with Steve Lamb: Franchise venture proves rewarding

After working as a financial and management consultant, Steve Lamb was looking for a new career that would require less travel. Lamb and his wife, Julie, and their three children had returned to his native Colorado Springs two years ago to be closer to their parents after living in other parts of the country for eight years.

Lamb’s grandparents ran a bookstore, grocery store and child care center in the 1950s, and his parents owned a rental-car agency, so running his own business was in his DNA. After investigating several possibilities, this spring he bought the local franchise for BrightStar, a national home health care agency.

Lamb spoke to The Gazette about why he chose health care and how the business of home health care works.

Question: How did you become interested in home health care?

Answer: I was looking for a local company that had a product or service I could really believe in. I started reviewing the franchise model and liked what I saw there — and of course the service is something I could believe in: Caring for people in their homes.

Q: Did you have personal experience with home health care before jumping into the business?

A: A year ago, my wife’s father was in hospice and needed some home care. And other family members have used home care. It taught me about the differences in home care: We really needed more help on an ongoing basis for her father, much more than just a periodic visit.

Q: Is home health care generally covered by insurance or Medicare?

A: There are differences in home health care agencies. We don’t take Medicare, but we partner with other agencies that do.

(Our customers) are mostly private pay, some do have long-term care insurance. We provide both the companion care and in-home care, which isn’t necessarily covered by insurance. We also provide skilled care; with those cases we do get some insurance reimbursement.

Q: Is there more to home health care than helping the elderly or disabled?

A: We really have three lines of business: One we call “LifeCare,” that focuses more on the elderly. One we call “KidCare,” which is similar services, but focuses on children. And we do staffing, in which we provide staff to other health care agencies on a temporary basis.

Q: Is recruiting a challenge?

A:That’s really the core of what our office staff does — developing that staff, finding them and evaluating them from background checks and drug testing and skill testing. It’s the challenge of building the bench and meeting the demands and making that happen seamlessly. Part of the challenge is we like to hire those that are the most qualified — to find some with adequate experience is a challenge.

Q: Do your employees work part-time or full-time?

A: They are mostly part-timers. We have several that are full-time. When we get cases that are 24 hours a day, then we get several people that would be full-time on a single case. That’s one of the things that we emphasize for our staff, is that flexibility.

Q: How many people do you employ?

A: We’ve gone from 12 field staff employees to about 25 in the last few weeks.

Q: Is the home health care business competitive?

A: It’s very competitive. There are many competitors here in town. There’s also a variety of focuses, those that take Medicare, for example. There are some that don’t do any skilled care, they just do their companion care and that’s their focus. We’re sort of in between, because we do skilled care as well as the companion care.

Q: So how much does home care cost?

A: In the companion care area, it’s in the range from $18 to $20 an hour. For a certified nursing assistant, services range from $22 to $24 an hour.

Q: Why go with a national company, BrightStar, instead of starting an independent business?

A: One of the biggest values of the franchise is they have addressed issues like insurance, as well as getting us national accounts.

Q: Is home health care regulated by the state?

A: That’s something that’s new this year for home health agencies. We are directly regulated by the state — we are a home care agency, Class A. It certainly took a great deal of energy just to go through the process.
—
Questions and answers are edited for brevity and clarity. Call the writer at 636-0275.

BRIGHTSTAR CARE

Contact BrightStar home health services: 264-8800 or www.brightstarcare.com