Home business.DYNAMIC HEALTH CARE HAS BOOMED WHILE COMPETITORS HAVE FAILED IN THE ON-CALL NURSING INDUSTRY In the late '80s, Carol Silver and Nissan Pardo entered the home health care business, as did so many others. A dozen years later, they have emerged among the survivors. Their two companies provide nursing care and low-maintenance home care. Capitalizing on their personal experience as well as a medical background, the Sherman Oaks-based operations have grown from two employees to more than 250. Sales have gone from $4 million in 1995 to $8.7 million in 1998. It has not been an easy road. Since they started their first company, the home health industry has come under tighter restrictions and higher costs, and more challenges seem to be on the way. In California, 175 home health care companies went out of business between December 1997 and January 1999, following increased restrictions on Medicare payments Noun 1. medicare payment - a check reimbursing an aged person for the expenses of health care medicare check bank check, check, cheque - a written order directing a bank to pay money; "he paid all his bills by check" , according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the California Association of Health Services health services Managed care The benefits covered under a health contract at Home. "It's gloom and doom," said Connie Little, senior vice president of the association. "Things are just very difficult now." Pardo and Silver don't seem all that worried. Having weathered the first home care downsizing (1) Converting mainframe and mini-based systems to client/server LANs. (2) To reduce equipment and associated costs by switching to a less-expensive system. (jargon) downsizing , they're confident that their companies will make it through again. Working in their favor is the fact that demand for home health care has been rapidly increasing because of an aging population and an emphasis on containing medical costs. Silver's own father had died of Lou Gehrig's disease Lou Geh·rig's disease n. See amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. and she was able to stay at home and help care for him during the last years of his life, with the help of a full-time private nurse. That experience provided her with insight into what other families want in home health care. "When we talk to a family, we're able to relate to them," Silver said. Silver had worked for Pardo at an L.A. clinical lab for more than a decade when they decided to enter the home health business. With the growth in computer analysis programs, doctors were doing more of their own diagnostic testing Diagnostic testing Testing performed to determine if someone is affected with a particular disease. Mentioned in: Von Willebrand Disease , rather than having tests done by outside clinical labs. At first, they focused on getting contracts with area senior centers. Then they reached out to area non-profit health organizations, which spread word to prospective patients. Today, they get referrals from nine of the 11 L.A. County senior centers and dozens of non-profits. The company began as a private duty service, providing some minor home health care and helping with cooking, housekeeping A set of instructions that are executed at the beginning of a program. It sets all counters and flags to their starting values and generally readies the program for execution. and other daily tasks. It was designed as an alternative to a nursing home for patients in need of little or no medical care. Pardo and Silver then decided to split the company in two in order to facilitate growth. One company - Dynamic Home Care - would provide care to low-maintenance patients, and the other - Dynamic Home Nursing - would handle a full range of home medical care. Around that time, home health care began to boom. New companies were entering the market, trying to capitalize on Cap´i`tal`ize on` v. t. 1. To turn (an opportunity) to one's advantage; to take advantage of (a situation); to profit from; as, to capitalize on an opponent's mistakes s>. an aging population and potentially lucrative Medicare payouts. When the federal government began reducing Medicare reimbursement Reimbursement Payment made to someone for out-of-pocket expenses has incurred. rates. Pardo and Silver decided to edge back. As they weaned wean tr.v. weaned, wean·ing, weans 1. To accustom (the young of a mammal) to take nourishment other than by suckling. 2. themselves off Medicare, they turned to managed care, which was looking to the home health sector because it represented an opportunity to reduce costs. For home care, an HMO HMO health maintenance organization. HMO n. A corporation that is financed by insurance premiums and has member physicians and professional staff who provide curative and preventive medicine within certain financial, might pay as little as $70 a day for full-time individual service, us. a hospital stay that typically costs hundreds. The decision helped sustain Dynamic; in fact, HMOs have become the fastest-growing source of new patients. Meanwhile, the number of Medicare/Medi-Cal patients is dropping off, Pardo said. To further separate itself from the rest of the industry, Dynamic decided to hire home nurses, rather than contract with third-party providers. "We train them on the home environment and impress on them that the kind of care they give is related to the patient continuing to live the rest of their life in an environment that is comfortable and conducive con·du·cive adj. Tending to cause or bring about; contributive: working conditions not conducive to productivity. See Synonyms at favorable. to an extra length of life," Pardo said. For Home Nursing, costs are usually paid by Medicare/Medi-Cal, a managed care plan or other private insurance. For Dynamic Home Care, revenues consist almost exclusively of out-of-pocket payments by the patients, because few insurance companies cover such services - though that is changing. Dynamic's co-founders believe that as more managed care plans offer coverage for daily low-maintenance health care, that segment of the business will boom. "The general public realizes that taking the patient out of the home is not the solution," Pardo said. "The technology has enabled us to do more at home now." Spotlight Dynamic Health Care/Dynamic Nursing Inc. Year Founded: 1987 Core Business: Home nursing Revenues in 1995: $4 million Revenues in 1998: $8.7 million Employees in 1995: 125 Employees in 1998: 260 Top Executives: Nissan Pardo, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. and CFO See Chief Financial Officer. ; Carol Silver, president and administrator Goal: To provide in-home health care at an affordable price Driving Force: An aging population and strong demand for less-expensive care |
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