Is home health profitable?

tablefor9, RN · Feb 27, 2011

Depends. The days I drove 300+ miles, I was paid $0.35 a mile. The PPV was determined by type of visit: admit, discharge, LPN supervisory visit, recerts all paid more. But no, I didn't make as much as when I took the retirement home patients and could see 12-13 patients with my only driving being out to lunch.

Work to get your patients reasonably grouped.

caliotter3 · Feb 27, 2011

I have recently been taking cases 70 and 60 miles away from my home, from one of my agencies. It is that or more of nothing. They pay no mileage nor have they raised the hourly rate as an incentive. If I don't accept the case, another nurse who is willing to travel that far to work, will.

kids · Feb 27, 2011

In my experience, a lot of times the agency isn't able to negotiate mileage from the contracting entity. My agency compensates by charging the contracting entity an insane amount of money and passing the inflated rate on to me.

These days my bread & butter is doing visits contracted by a nation-wide home infusion company whose own nurses aren't willing to drive 30+ miles to change a PICC dressing, draw some blood, flush a CL post home chemo, etc...easy, fast visits.

I have the luxury of setting my own schedule, I work 3-4 days a week, if I count my time from when I walk out my door to when I walk back in it's usually 10 hour days. When you add it all together and divide it by my time away from home I avg $40 an hour.

My husband's job is relocating us in 2 weeks, my agency has had 4 weeks to replace me and hasn't been able to. If they find an RN with the varied experience and confidence to do my job, they aren't willing to do all the driving.

RNDude1 · Feb 27, 2011

While many non-medical companies slave their milage pay to the government standard (about 50 cents/mile), I have found that home health companies don't--and they are slow to raise their milage pay to compensate for fuel cost increases. My company pays 34 cents/mile, which is far below that government standard and increasing pathetic when factored in with last week's 24 cent/gallon increase in gasoline costs.

I know there are many that would do any healthcare job at this trying time. But most of us need a decent pay check. In my experience, the $27/visit didn't compensate sufficiently for car maintainance and the several hours each night I would spend on paperwork. I bailed back to a bedside gig. :twocents:

-RN- · Feb 27, 2011

Nursing isn't profitable for what you put in. I live in D.C. and they offer $30. Disgusting!

brotherbear · Feb 27, 2011

I have recently been taking cases 70 and 60 miles away from my home, from one of my agencies. It is that or more of nothing. They pay no mileage nor have they raised the hourly rate as an incentive. If I don't accept the case, another nurse who is willing to travel that far to work, will.

Caliotter thats precisely my point. In the end what you make is your expenses made trying to perform that job subtracted from what your hourly wage is. In this instance you are making say $30.00 per visit. Heres the math.

Gas spent getting there (at $3.15 per gallon with a vehicle that burns 35miles per gallon. The distance travelled is 70 miles. You have to spend four gallons of gas. i.e. 2 x 3.15 = $6.30, then add another $6.30 return trip. So $12.30 on gas per visit. Now you remember you also burn an average of 2 hours just travelling. So that has to be accounted for too. That's why i always comment that home health is quite the drag. In this case if you it's costing $12.30 on you per visit then I am all ears for the nurses that think it is profitable. Maybe their is something I'm missing, but hence the discussion right?

caliotter3 · Feb 27, 2011

My car doesn't even get 35 miles to the gallon. And there is the human toll of the drive. I am falling asleep at the wheel driving 70 miles at midnight. Last night I was doing 80 in my lane, and a dork pulled in front of me, I went to his lane, then he pulled back into that lane, putting me in the position of going around him using the off ramp. I don't think this kind of thing is worth it, considering my hourly wage is subpar to begin with. But no one else is hiring at all.

brotherbear · Feb 27, 2011

My car doesn't even get 35 miles to the gallon. And there is the human toll of the drive. I am falling asleep at the wheel driving 70 miles at midnight. Last night I was doing 80 in my lane, and a dork pulled in front of me, I went to his lane, then he pulled back into that lane, putting me in the position of going around him using the off ramp. I don't think this kind of thing is worth it, considering my hourly wage is subpar to begin with. But no one else is hiring at all.

On the flipside it's convenient to an extent. The flexibility I would say, I'm just venting at the glaring personal expenses one has to make given the number of people that speak about highly paying nursing jobs out there.

Isabelle49 · Feb 28, 2011

Home Health is NOT profitable, unless you are the type to see 10+ patients a day. I've known some to do that - I don't think they were doing nursing, I do think they were visiting and getting signatures. After being in home health for 8+ years, my salary has gone down, from the first HH job I had. I currently average an hourly wage that is comprable to what I made as a new grad 24 years ago and sometimes less.

Remember Home Health is a for profit business. The less $ spent on staff, the more $ the owner's have to be sunning on a beach.

systoly · Feb 28, 2011

When it comes to mileage reimbursement, it doesn't matter who pays for it, right? Invest some time and familiarize yourself with the tax laws, the IRS is much more generous than you might expect. It's worth to research how to qualify for tax credits.

brotherbear · Feb 28, 2011

Well, the tax laws on "work transportation" are very open as long as the person is using the 1040 or 1040a. However getting this back with your taxes has a downside in that the amount you can get is limited and you have to wait till the end of the year. Anyway, it's a good point you made though. There's far too many visiting nurses that do not take advantage of the tax credits/breaks.

When it comes to mileage reimbursement, it doesn't matter who pays for it, right? Invest some time and familiarize yourself with the tax laws, the IRS is much more generous than you might expect. It's worth to research how to qualify for tax credits.