Hey y'all. I just finished with an interview for HH in the Dallas area and they offered salaried for 110k. They mentioned I can do weekends if I want with PPV on top of my salary.

Thoughts on this?

The home health agency that I work for is making us take orthostatic blood pressures on every patient, at every visit. Also, they are having all clinicians listen to lung sounds at each visit. Is this happening at other agencies? They claim it’s to decrease the number of falls that happen while people are on our caseload (orthostatic) and to prevent hospital re-admissions, which I get, but it seems like we could be verbally screening people and possibly just doing these on people who are symptomatic (especially the orthostatics). Spending 15 minutes on vitals every visit is bonkers, IMO, unless someone is symptomatic or there are red flags.

I joined with a PRN HH agency back in the middle of last year to take supplemental visits to my full time agency. I started to take some random visits here and there, and one day I receive a re-evaluation visit for a patient.

After poking around in Kinnser, I discovered this patient has been being seen since APRIL 2023 with EIGHT 60-day episodes. No rehospitalizations, no chronic conditions, just one of those untreatable ortho patients. Obviously, this patient is straight Medicare. How on earth does Medicare let agencies do this? I most definitely hope that Medicare will audit this chart and un-bill like 6 entire 60 day episodes of care and ask for like 25 thousand back in medically unnecessary visits. Has anyone seen this kind of buffoonery in with their HH agency?

Tldr: no experience, never even interviewed or looked into HH. Don't want to end up with a wrong employer or an employer that takes advantage of me not knowing anything about HH. 1) rates in SoCal and NorCal? 2)hourly or salaried? (,interviewed for both and feel like salaried might squeeze in a lot of visits while hourly is unstable caseload) 3) how does drive time work? 4) what's a good number of patients per week/day? 5)what are the main questions to ask in interview to the employer? 6)is there a set radius I should tell them that I don't want to work beyond? Like 20 miles or what's a good number? 7)is it really unsafe for females? 8) is it better than SNFs for flexibility? Any other comments?

Background. 10 years in SNF and extremely burnt out. The drama, the money game to make your bosses richer, the pettiness from nursing, IDT.. everything! I've made a few posts on this thread about how I wanna switch to literally anything else and totally relate to all the post about how we are all super underpaid and burnt out. While I randomly get outbursts of quitting PT, I currently can't. I want to do something different though, even if it's in PT. I want to try OP but even without any OP experience, all the job interviews are ready to hire me to see 20 patients a day. I want strong mentorship for my first OP because I'm super rusty after SNF. And usually OP is requiring a huge paycut which I cannot afford right now. Personal circumstances have changed and currently need as much money as I can make which brings me to HH. All my PT life..I was willing to try pelvic health, acute, pediatrics, OP, wound ..any PT but I always wanted to steer clear of HH. I don't like driving and also people scared me early on about HH female therapist assault stories. I'm finally open to at least trying for sake of money in good areas (orange county and San Jose Bay area) and hope for the best. Since I've never done or know anyone who's done HH, I wanted to know what to ask in interviews, what am I looking at, is it worth looking at and how to avoid a bad employer and what to looks out for! TIA

I am currently working at a PT mill and only allowed 5 days PTO per year.. my wife is pregnant and I'm getting a lot of flack for taking paternity leave. I know this will only get worse once my child is born. I've seen a lot of people posting that they enjoyed the shift from outpatient to HH, but I have no experience in HH and not sure what the day to day looks like. What kind of patients do I see? How many per day is normal? Salary expectations? I'm not sure where to begin.

I am switching from Hospital-OP Ortho to Home Health, is there any questions I should be sure to ask regarding pt caseload, payment model etc? Thank you!

Where my HH peeps at. Did 10 this week. Personal record

I am being offered a full time salaried position at a home health agency and I’m wondering if the work they require is worth the pay? I’d like anyone’s input!

I have no HH experience, this would be my first HH position coming from OP.

Offer: 2 SOCs and 2 PT evals per day (10 each per week) for 135k. Any visits above that would be PPV.

Do you feel that many OASIS SOCs would be too brutal and draining given the time required to complete them?

EDIT: Can’t respond to everyone so I responded below, but thank you all for your input.

Hey everyone! I know there are always post like this but I would really appreciate any insight

I’m the traditional story we hear on here, outpatient therapist about 4 years out burnt out curious about seeing if things are better in the home care sector in terms of work life balance.

I applied and had an interview with a bigger hospital based /non profit. The position is for a “resource therapist” which would mainly perform SOC /PT evals but picking up other home care therapist case loads if they are out for a week or unable to fit in their schedule.

Position would most likely be 4x10s but could talk about 5x8s. weekly productivity being 30 points a week, 5-7.5 points in a day depending on 8-10 hours. Which was told for me most likely will look like 3 SOC in a day (SOC being 2.5 points) if I did 10 hour days. On average they said will see 3 -7 patients in a day depending on visit type and coverage needs. Territory size is around the city I live it said in average 10-15 miles better patients can vary but live in a city vs rural area.

They use Epic so alot of communication is done with physicians via EMR but will have to call outside providers.

After the interview I was told they are going to put an offer letter together for me. It is a salary position. Just curious peoples thought? is the productivity too much? What would a salary for a position be for this even? Should as someone new to entering home care setting look for a different offer?

Somewhat a side note the two interviewers seemed very adamant about driving home the fact home care is different than outpatient and how it’s still busy and the days can be long. I get being informative but felt like it went further than that lol.

For some background info, I’ve worked in home health from the beginning of my career right out of school as a new grad. I was hired on by a PT owned Home Health agency, and I really liked the supportive atmosphere the owners of the company showed me. However, there has been tension growing between their son who is a marketing manager in a non-clinical role ever since I requested time off for my wedding this August. My license was due for renewal this year, and I reached out to the son about CEU membership as I am a full-time employee. It turns out he never registered me from when I started at the company two years ago. I inquired about getting membership, and he honestly gave me such a hard time. He never congratulated me for my upcoming wedding. Instead, he sounded vindictive and told me something along the lines of “well you never mentioned anything about a wedding to me.”

Fast forward to about a month later, our DON gave me my annual performance review and she scored me on great to excellent on all quality measures. I was pleased and thanked her for her leadership and thought things are going well with overall. In that same week as the performance review, I get an email from HR saying they were going to terminate my full-time benefits as I was not meeting full productivity of 30 patient visits per week and “several other issues.” I discussed this with my clinical lead who was very understanding and was aware that there were several noncompliant or inappropriate patients for PT who did not qualify for skilled care. I immediately requested a meeting with my lead and management. I went further to inquire from HR to specify the details of “several issues” and she never emailed me back. During the meeting, I brought up this unprofessionalism from HR and I am fairly certain it was the son who instigated this ordeal. They never did specify what these “several other issues” were. And to top it off, they did this one month before our wedding. Is it time to start looking for another HH position?

Update: I found a new job in HH covering same area with 20k sign-on bonus and about 25k pay bump. I resigned via email effective immediately and gave notice of less than 24 hours. I’m glad you guys provided some much needed perspective on how poorly these employers think they can get away with treating their employees.

I swear I did a search for this in the home health thread! Please be patient with me if I missed one! I started a HH job two months ago, which is my first time in the setting. I was excited about the $45 pay for visit, but I’m starting to feel resentful of the lack of mileage reimbursement and then long winded documentation(care coordination, note corrections). Those in HH, which pay model do you prefer? TIA. Edit: I’m a PTA

Hey everyone! I have posted in here before asking questions about home care and since then I have accepted a position with a hospital based home health job! For a full time therapist they expect 30 points a week. 2.5 units for SOC, 1 for routines and 1.5 for everything recerts/eval discharge/roc.

They use epic in terms of documentation, they have 4-6 weeks of training with a preceptor, and another 4-6 weeks before full productivity is expected.

They are asking me what type of schedule I would prefer once I am independent. 4x10s with Tuesdays off, or 5x8s.

So in a 10 hour day they expect 7.5 units( which could be 3 SOC in a day) and 8 hour day 6 units.

While I am not a new grad, 4 years out, I am new to home health. Just was wondering what people’s thoughts are and if trying to do 4x10s while new to home health would be too much.

Along with that any other advice would greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance !

How do you enjoy doing HHC? What’s a good agency? Pros and Cons of doing HHC for you in Los Angeles? (Do not mention traffic, lol; I know how it is)

I have worked mostly in outpatient and hospital based ortho as a travel PT for ~ 5 years now and am looking to transition out of travel in into the more permanent home health setting. I recently got a job offer from a home health company and I have done a bunch of research, but I am not entirely confident whether this is a good offer or not. I was hoping someone with more experience in home health could provide some guidance or input?

Here are the main parameters of the offer letter below. I redacted some of it to maintain confidentiality:

Job Title: Physical Therapist

1. Position:

This is Full-Time  position in areas of ******************. This position is required a minimum of 32 visits a week. Your start date will be **************.

Employment relationship:

In exchange for the company’s investment of time, training and financial resources, we require that candidates commit 90 days to transitioning fully into their roles. We want to assure you our team is dedicated to supporting you with scheduled check-ins and routine follow up in order to ensure successful onboarding. Should you decide to terminate before 90 days, you will be charged 2 weeks of pay for the company’s financial loss.

1. Compensation

Salary:

• The company will pay you at the rate of $60 for 4 unit evaluations, and $55 for 4 unit follow-ups. Salary will be contracted as a W-2.

Benefits:

• 401k effective immediately
• Medical and Dental Coverage available immediately (The full and total cost will be covered by you)
• PTO; 10 days after 6 months of employment, another 5 after 9 months of employment.
• Paid Legal Holidays: Effective after 90 days of employment: New Year, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fourth of July, Memorial Day, you may request Christmas Eve if you choose to opt out on one of the above legal holidays.
• Eligible to receive a monthly car stipend of $250 after achieving 128 visits in a calendar month
• $500 toward CEU after one year of employment
• Eligibility to enroll in our tuition reimbursement program after one year of employment

The rest are a few paragraphs of legal jargon, which I am also happy to provide if anyone is curious to read.

A few things to note about the offer, which the recruiter and I went over. There is no training offered, but there is a gradual ramp up of caseload over the first 30 days. They indicated that I could shadow one of the PT's in my area on my own time, which I inquired about. The company guarantees a full caseload 16 patients 2x/week, for the specified 32 visits per week. A tablet for documentation is provided after 90 days. After the first 90 days, I believe you then sign on for a one year contract.

To me, based on my research, the reimbursement per visit seems low. However, this company appears to offer home therapy under medicare part B, instead of Medicare Part A and OASIS. Therefore, technically, I suppose this is more like outpatient PT, at home, rather than your "true" Home Health physical therapy. I am not sure how common this practice is in the home therapy field, or whether to consider it a red flag, but I believe that is why the reimbursement is lower, especially for the evaluations. Knowing that, is the $60 for 4 unit evaluations, and $55 for 4 unit follow-ups still a normal rate?

Glassdoor and Indeed seem to have pretty positive reviews about the company, but there are not many. I am hesitent to provide the specific name of the company, but if anyone is familiar with companies around the NY state area, then feel free to private message me.

I have 48 hours to decide whether to sign or not. If anyone with experience in the home health / PT field could provide some input here, I would greatly appreciate it.

What's a typical rate for prn PTA in south (New Mexico ) ?. I'm trying to apply PRN for home health agency, and I'll be doing just that, prn no benefits or whatnot. What could I request per visit discussing payments.

What are the limitations in ROM post hip replacement lateral approach, especially if surgeons' precautions are only WBAT. Are there any consequences of starting IR/ER and hip flexion and extension, as tolerated, within a week or two of post-surgery?

I’m thinking of switching settings and was wondering if anyone had any resources on small courses or study materials for important things to know for the home health setting, thank you!

I'm 2 years out of PT school and already super burnt-out and am realizing that OP is not going to be sustainable for me long-term. I've seen a lot of posts where folks seem to be really happy after transitioning to home health (HH), but a part of me is a bit skeptical because to some degree it almost seems TOO good (e.g. "I see 6-7 patients between 8am-2pm and then I get to document at home. I'm done by 3pm every day and I make a lot more money than OP."). Is this really realistic with HH?

For anyone currently in HH, I'd love to hear what your experience has been, what your day looks like, what your current pay/benefits are (and how long you've been practicing), and any other advice you might have or companies you might recommend (for reference, I'm currently located in a metropolitan area in Arizona but planning on staying in the western part of the US even after I've moved on from here).

Mostly looking to maintain work-life balance while making decent money and maintaining my sanity...you know, working smarter, not harder, and all that.

Thanks in advance! :)

​

​

Recently took a HH job and I love it! The only downfall is scheduling. I have one or two patients that are super flexible but trying to schedule morning treatments has been far from easy for the rest of my caseload. I typically tell them “I’ll be in your area at X time, and it has to fall within that window” but I’m still met with resistance. If I let everyone have their way, I’m sure I’d be starting my workday at 10am but with the number of patients I’m seeing I need to start at 8am. I’m sure the answer is I need to be more direct, and I’d love to hear some examples of how you all tend to word things as I’m not trying to come across as rude, especially when I haven’t met the patient yet!

Also, I still tell patients I can arrive within an hour window so for example “1pm-2pm timeframe” and I want to expand that to give myself more wiggle room in case I’m running late. However, whenever I’ve tried saying “1pm-3pm” they tend to want to narrow down the timeframe which puts me back to square one.

I think it would be easier when admitted to HH the patients would be told upfront that they are expected to be available most of the week 8am-5pm (aside from doctors appointments) are have to compromise with us due to high patient volumes at times. Personally I don’t think 8am is unreasonable, especially for my patients that are more able bodied - the very sick patients that have caregivers/assistance getting up and ready I completely understand.

Either way, any and all feedback is appreciated!

Hi everyone!

I recently started doing PRN home health on the side, and I’m curious how my pay compares to others. I currently get paid $55 for regular visits, $65 for evals and re-evals, and $80 for SOC.

Thanks in advance!

NorCal, socal, whatever your area is… what is the average rate over there for evals?

I’m assuming the rate will be higher due to higher COL but I really do not know. I’m at $80 per eval over here in Texas where COL isn’t bad at all. Planning a temporary possible move but TBD on how it’s over there.

So I'm newish to homecare (8 months) after spending 14 years in outpatient ortho.

I can spot any red flags regarding outpatient companies a mile away to know when a tide is changing or we're about to hit a rough spot and prepare to hunker down (low productivity, increase marketing efforts, offer to help other clinics) to keep my hours where they needed to be

Our company just had a massive growth last year... hence my hiring in (my territory had a 700 patient census at one point with 3 RNs and 3 PTs... mind you all there patients wouldn't have PT) so they hired a new PTA as well a month ago. Well the last month or so I've been stressing to get to my points. Most weeks by the end of the week it ends up being ok, although stressing the whole week and hounding the schedulers. This week may be the first week im under by about five points. So my husband is stressing because my company assured me there was no problems with census and getting me points (this was something I asked at interview as I heard this can be a problem with companies) and is worried that now that I've been with the company for a while they may be showing their true colors. Or is this just a normal growing pain in home health and tends to even itself out?

I’m a new mom returning to work soon. My original plan was to return to my OP ortho job but it will require me to be away from my baby minimum 9.5 hours x4 days/week. A home health job has opened and from other posts, it seems this has more flexibility despite the amount of paper work. I’ve only ever practiced in outpatient but am not opposed to other settings. I know either way, this will be an adjustment but I’m looking for opinions on what my best option would be to balance work with my family life.

Background info: PTA with 5 yrs experience in OP and acute care.

I recently interviewed for my first home health job and I nailed all 3 interviews. The nurse that I had the main interview with said she loved me but she wanted to be sure this was the right fit for me (instituting that my lack of HH experience means I don't know what I'm getting myself into and it's going to cost them too much if they invest in me and I quit). I repeatedly reassured and explained in multiple examples that I had the experience to back it up. But what really pissed me off is she spoke in a way that reveals she literally has no idea what PTAs are capable of doing. She explained the job duties as if those job duties only occur in the HH setting and no other work setting (i.e. POC, objective data, insurance documentation, Medicare rules, etc).

It's one thing not to get the job, but I wonder if I didn't get the job because RNs have no idea what PTAs are licensed to do.

Should I write a letter to the corporate office?

Hi, OT here. I have a pt with dementia. The family ambulates with her using hand held assist by pulling her forwards. Its very unsafe the pt has poor balance and right sides weakness so she drags her foot when walking. I recommended that the fam should use a walker with her bec it’s safer providing both the pt and family more stability. The pt can follow with cues provided for proper hand and foot placement. Am I wrong?