Don’t Forget About this Nobel Profession: Home Care Workers

Another example of grossly underpaid and underappreciated healthcare workers: Home Health Aides and Homemaker Companions. These are the people who take care of us when we need and depend on them. Home health care aides assist elderly and disabled patients with tasks such as cooking, bathing, dressing, housekeeping, medications, and more. These home care workers often provide continuous, around-the-clock care for patients who need to be or who prefer to be, in in the comfort of their home, rather than a healthcare institution, like a nursing home or assisted living community. They not only help the elderly, they also help us when we recover from surgery, they also help children with disabilities, and take care of our spouses or children when we have to work. The latter are not age specific. This situation is similar to underpaid teachers who take care and educate our children during the day. Let’s not forget that teachers are also integral, as they shape the minds of children that will one day have the new ideas that can make the world a better place to live in. Its also unfair for these home care workers who during the worst times during COVID 19 were serving patients without extra pay, they didn’t have the luxury to work from home, like many of us did. The need for well-trained, properly compensated home care workers became apparent during the COVID 19 pandemic and the need will continue as Baby Boomers live to their 80’s and 90’s.

Home Health Aides and Homemaker Companions provide great to service to us, at a time when we need them the most. Unfortunately, their employers (healthcare companies, insurance companies and healthcare agencies) make huge profits on the difference between what they bill the patient and what they pay the healthcare workers. As a CPA, I am seeing an increase in these home care workers getting frustrated from the jobs they love, because of the hours and the low pay. One client told me they had to work 3300 hours in one year to make ends meet, while she had to keep and pay for her child in day care. But there is hope, they are learning about the benefits of owning and operating their own business, like a Home Health Agency or a Nurse Registry. Perhaps there is hope for W-2 employees as minimum wages are scheduled to increase, but not the case for independent contractors, who are not generally subject to minimum wages rules. Properly compensating home care workers could have a multiplying effect for the home care worker, the patient and the family of the patient. We all feel better when people are properly compensated. Beside the continued low pay and long hours, maybe the increase in demand for these home care workers, will drive up their wages and, out of necessity, expose more home care workers to the benefits of owning their own home care business.