The Home Care Association of America (HCAOA) is the industry’s leading trade organization representing home care agencies and their suppliers throughout the United States. The association’s goal is to provide member agencies with practical resources, advocate on behalf of home care providers and their caregivers, and bring together innovators and suppliers within the industry.
There are many advantages to membership, and at the top of the list is community. “What our members value is being part of a community of like-minded individuals,” says Chief Executive Officer Jason Lee. “You can share your triumphs, your challenges. It makes you feel a part of something. There can be a sense of isolation for business owners, especially those who are starting off for the first time. It can be pretty daunting,” he says.
“The value of an association is to be able to join other individuals and groups who are doing the same thing. You can provide feedback, guidance, mentorship, that type of thing.”
Another key benefit “is being able to speak with a unified voice,” he states. “Being a part of an organization where we are speaking on behalf of the industry and having members be a part of that, I think is important. [There] is a mutual element in the fact that our members help us bring a broader voice, whether it’s based on geographic dynamics or their expertise, their personal interaction with government, and how policies would impact them on the federal and state level. It’s that synergy of membership and us as an organization working together and being able to provide that strong voice.”
Membership is also good for business. “We’ve seen that members who join HCAOA tend to have 45 percent higher revenue,” Lee says. “While most individual agencies pay $888 in dues each year, we’ve calculated that they receive about $200,000 in member benefits.”
Educational opportunities are another important benefit of membership. For example, HCAOA hosts the National Home Care Conference each year, “a great opportunity for educational sessions on things like AI, scheduling, how to support your caregivers. That conference really encapsulates a lot of the value [from HCAOA membership]. You’re getting the education; you’re getting the networking.” This year’s conference took place in October, in Seattle/Bellevue, Washington.
In addition to the national conference, the association has state chapters that convene regularly. “We are set to launch digital communities for each state in 2025 so our members can connect and collaborate on advocacy, business, operations, or any topic with ease year-round. We are always looking for ways to better support our members and believe this will be a great addition to an already robust list of member benefits,” says Lee. “In our state chapters, our members can coordinate on the local level about issues that impact their businesses, such as regulatory requirements and operational resources. A number of them have in-person conferences, pretty much all of them have virtual meetings, and so, again, it’s an opportunity to connect with your peers, learn from each other, hear from regulators and other key speakers, and to learn from those moments.”
Currently, a key federal issue the industry is tackling is the Medicaid Access Rule. “As you can tell from the name, the goal is to create more access to care,” Lee says. The rule’s 80/20 provision requires 80 percent of Medicaid payments to be used for wages and no more than 20 percent for administrative costs. “It’s one of those things on paper that sounds great, but [is] challenging when you get into the details,” Lee shares. “There are few states, if any, that can withstand that kind of ratio. When you talk about 20 percent for administrative costs, that includes training, background checks, all of your retention elements,” he explains. “All that would be thrown into the 20 percent, and that’s not much to work with. So our concern is, one, it could potentially put agencies out of business; or two, to stay in business [agencies will] pull away from the rural areas, underserved communities, and focus more on the large cities. We’ve heard that from our members, and clearly that’s the opposite of what you want to see happen.”
HCAOA is taking an active approach to remedy the situation. “We’ve been working with CMS,” Lee says. The association is also working with other entities within the sector. “We’re going to have ongoing conversations. They understand the challenges. At the same time, you can understand that they’re not prepared to roll back the provision themselves at this point, but they are listening. They want to know what the impact is on the state level.”
The association stands behind some of the provisions of the rule. “There are other parts of the Medicaid Access Rule that we support,” he affirms. “Quality measure sets, things like that, that are important and would be new, but we think this 80/20 provision would undercut that. So, there’s a bill on the House side that would remove the 80/20 provision and the other provisions that we think are good would remain intact. We continue to provide advocacy in that regard.”
The association has enjoyed success at the state level recently. “Our state chapters have led the efforts for increases in Medicaid rates in Georgia, Washington, and West Virginia, which are long overdue,” says Lee. “We’ve seen that lag behind inflation for so long. We hope other states will follow suit.”
The association supports Connecticut’s and Maine’s efforts “to set industry standards for a license to help improve delivery of in-home care to clients. One place where we’re providing education and, to a certain degree, opposition, is a domestic worker bill in New Jersey, as well as a separate bill which has a lot of auditing requirements.” HCAOA is working to prevent any unintended negative consequences of the bill that might occur. “We’re having different conversations. We’re meeting with, for instance, the Executive Director of Legal and Regulatory Services at the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development as well as the Acting Director of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs—again, providing education and trying to explain, ‘here are the potential negative impacts that might occur in the homecare industry if you were to impose this,’” Lee explains.
The association is eager to get members’ feedback in order to promote solutions and secure the future they envision. “We are listening,” Lee asserts, and a recent industry survey is helping HCAOA understand how to best represent members moving forward. “We’re trying to do outreach to make sure what we present resonates with our membership, and I’m always keeping an open ear and an open door for our members to make sure that they feel they can reach out to me and provide feedback and let us know [what] is really helpful.”
One issue about which members express concern when considering the future is the workforce shortage. “Our hope is that we can build out a robust workforce within the industry,” says Lee.
A promising area to watch is how the industry will leverage technology. In the future, “There are so many things that can be done with technology to make [life] easier for our members, the caregivers who work for them, the families we serve.” Take AI, for instance. “There are ways—even if somebody’s not in the home—to track if a family member has fallen. Technology can provide an alert.”
In addition to keeping people safer, AI could provide people with company. “We talk to Alexa and whatnot,” he points out. “You could easily see AI being part of the companionship element to provide an additional touch point with those in need, clients who may want some more interaction. You can’t replace an in-person interaction, but you could see how AI could complement that and give them another avenue of communication,” he explains.
“There are a lot of things coming down the pipeline that are incredibly exciting and will really make the industry vibrant,” he summarizes, “and so, with HCAOA, we want to promote that and find solutions as much as possible.”
From providing community, to advocating for the industry, to leveraging future technologies, the association is committed to representing its members and building a better home care sector both today and into the future.
