CARE MANAGER at Senior Bridge... $$$???

7 Posts

A nurse I know found an ad on Craigslist and told me about it. I went on to check it out. One ad was from Senior Bridge directly, but there was no mention of Senior Bridge. It was somewhat elusive... I pasted it here.

Are you a Registered Nurse looking for PRN work? This position requires 1-2 years of home health care or hospice experience. This position is not with a home health care company. Local driving is required. If you are looking for something different and exciting, please respond. Must be able to work independently with guidance. Training for position is provided. Thank you

Since the contact information was missing and there was no mention of Senior Bridge, the discovery was upon replying to the Craigslist ad. There were also several other agency ads seeking Care Managers for a Senior Bridge Contract.

It all "smelled" a bit fishy to me, so I went to the Senior Bridge website. There things got even more fishy. There were plenty of words at the site that did everything accept answer some basic questions. Like... who would call Senior Bridge and why? How much is the service? They don't say it's free, but they don't list a cost, but there is a button for a quote.

A little bit more digging around the web and you'll find a few YouTube's and some other articles. You'll find that they have been purchased by Humana. Nevertheless, I called to get more of an answer. I thought it best to simply learn from calling and asking... what do you do?

The toll free number led me to a receptionist that "transferred" the call to voice mail. Eventually after calling back a few times I got someone. She explained that Senior Bridge's services vary by state.

In my state (Ohio) they do private pay case management at $150/hour. Basically family members find out some kind of way about Senior Bridge. They can make a request for a Care Manager to come out (at the cost of $150/hour) and discuss the care and handling of their senior family member. The Care Manager (from Senior Bridge) will either be a directly contracted RN or SW or one who is subcontracted or employed by an agency who signed up for a Senior Bridge contract. Upon other discovery, it seems like ANYBODY can have a Senior Bridge Contract. So... if you want to have a Senior Bridge contract (as an business or even a home based agency) then all you have to do is sign up as a Senior Bridge "agency" contract.

Nevertheless, this Care Manager RN or SW is then contacted by Senior Bridge to go out and meet and greet the family. Keep in mind, Senior Bridge is getting $150/hour and the agency gets $100 (visit) and the directly contracted RN or SW gets about $50/hr. Basically Senior Bridges makes $50-100/hr no matter what. The agency gets the next cut then the nurse. So it's probably smartest to set up your "own" agency and contract yourself out or get this kind of work on your own (if you can) and get the whole $150/hour.

Of course, in our "blue collar" town, most seniors and family members can't afford a private pay aide let alone a private pay care manager. My guess is that the clients are really wealthy or they have some kind of long term care insurance that might pay this kind of rate for a care manager. Not sure... either way, I do know of an agency that has had a Senior Bridge contract for over 18 months and Senior Bridge hasn't called them even one time for a referral.

So, that's my 2 cents worth. For those who can get these type of private pay high end cases... AMEN! That's a lot of moo-lah-lah!