Home Health Per Visit Rate

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Hi, I'm new here and still pretty new to nursing. I've been an LPN for about 11 months and recently got offered a job in home health. They mentioned that I would be paid for mileage and at a per visit rate. I was just wondering what the normal pay is per visit for home health nurses, so I know what's fair. I do live in Mississippi btw. If anyone has experience with this it would be super helpful. Thanks

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It can be hard to compare markets, so I’ll put it this way:

My total per visit rate with mileage is about 1.6 times what I would make per hour at an hourly job based on my current level of experience.

Most companies will try to low ball you because the rate itself sounds good at face value, but you have to consider that they are paying you a flat rate instead of covering various benefits such as: Paid time off, sick pay, health insurance, 401k, etc. Then you have to consider the amount they would legally have to pay per mile to an employee, and the amount of miles you are driving, plus wear and tear on the car. Depending on which state you live in, there are also state employee benefits such as paid family leave or state disability that an employer might pay into. You also have to factor in your drive time. If it takes you 8 hours to see 7 patients, you need to make sure you are getting 8 hours worth of pay (after subtracting travel and ‘benefits’ from your total).

So even at the rate I ask for, they still save money by paying less ‘employee related expenses’, and they don’t have to retain a large number of full time staff to guarantee that they have nurses available to see their patients. They obviously hire per diem to save themselves money in the long run, and that’s fine because it can still be very lucrative to the individual nurses. BUT if a nurse doesn’t do the math and takes a rate that puts them at a below market pay level, most agencies aren’t going to volunteer extra money.

Decide how much you can accept per hour, multiply it at 1.6, I suggest not taking much less than that unless your travel time is minimal.

I know some nurses who accept very low pay that I would never accept, they end up pressured to do 10+ visits a day in order to make ends meet, spending maybe 10 minutes at each visit because most of their day is travel to hit all the stops, providing low quality care. Bad for the patients and bad for your morale in the long run.

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Specializes in Home Health.

This is complex and varies between regions . I live in Corpus Christi Texas and I can state that with rates , I have seen SNV rates for LVN/LPN go from 24-35$ per visit + mileage . In some cases there is also added differentials for weekends and holidays +5-10. In some cases employers will compensate for more complex visits with higher rates, IVs and wound vacs.

If the visits span multiple counties, I would ask for some incentive with an additional monies +10-+30 .

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My agency sends me out every day to see patients who live about 62 minutes from the office. I could do a couple of local, regular visits during the time I spend driving. They do not want to reimburse me for my driving time, they will only pay mileage reimbursement. Is this the norm in home health? Thanks.

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Specializes in Hospice.
7 hours ago, LateDogg said:

My agency sends me out every day to see patients who live about 62 minutes from the office. I could do a couple of local, regular visits during the time I spend driving. They do not want to reimburse me for my driving time, they will only pay mileage reimbursement. Is this the norm in home health? Thanks.

Not for my agency. I got paid by the hour and driving time was included.

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