At-home-care firms sprouting up in state
Posted on Saturday, August 9, 2008
The growth of Arkansas’ elderly population is producing an increase in at-home service businesses in the state.
About 15 percent of Arkansas’ population was 65 or older in 2000, compared with the national average of 12. 4 percent. By 2020, almost 20 percent of the state’s population will be 65 or older, compared with the projected national average of about 16 percent in 2020, according to the U. S. Department of Commerce and the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.
There is an “incredible need” for nonmedical in-home care for the elderly in Arkansas, said Elaine Eubank, executive director of CareLink, which is the central Arkansas area agency on aging.
In-home care includes such services as light housework, meal preparation, medication reminders, shopping and errands, laundry, local transportation, companionship, and bathing.
“We have seen more people going into that [in-home ] business,” Eubank said. “I don’t know how to quantify that because many nonmedical services are not licensed.”
Mike Gross, owner of Bryant-based Elder Independence, agreed the market is growing.
“There are still a lot of people out there [who need in-home care ],” Gross said. “When you look in the phone book every year, there are more and more businesses.”
Gross, who has been in health care for more than 20 years, began Elder Independence in 1999. It now offers services in about eight central Arkansas counties, Gross said.
“The business has grown tremendously over the past 9 1 / 2 years,” Gross said. “As the pie gets bigger, more and more companies are coming into the business.”
Right at Home, an Omaha, Neb., franchise business, plans to open as many as three in-home care offices in central Arkansas next year and hire up to 150 employees, said Brian Petranick, the firm’s chief operating officer.
Right at Home is considering opening offices in Conway, Hot Springs and Pine Bluff, Petranick said.
“What is really driving the growth of our industry and our company is the shifting demographics in our country,” Petranick said.
Many baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, begin to reach retirement age in the next several years. By 2020, Florida, Arizona and Arkansas will have the three highest percentages of retirees in the country, according to government projections.
And one study indicates that as many as 75 percent of people 65 and older want in-home assistance, Eubank said.
Central Arkansas can support up to six Right at Home offices, Petranick said, although he didn’t indicate when or where the company will open more than the first three offices. There are about six cities in Arkansas that are large enough to support a Right at Home office, he said.
The state’s eight area agencies on aging are the largest providers of in-home care for the elderly in Arkansas, helping more than 15, 000 people and employing more than 5, 000, Eubank said.
Medicaid and long-term care insurance often help pay for inhome care, although many clients or their families pay for the service themselves, Eubank said. The costs are not covered by Medicare, Petranick said.
Eubank said a typical elderly client pays the state’s area agencies on aging $ 7, 000 to $ 11, 000 annually for the in-home services they need. That compares with an average cost of $ 45, 000 for nursing-home care, an alternative many Arkansans have to take because they can find no one to meet their needs.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
