Need Advice

hi all,

what a great forum, lot of information, thanks.

anyway, i need advise in starting a home health agency.

summary

first of all, i have completed my business plan and fairly financially secured. the home health agency will be a newly developed business. this business will be a three way partnership business, this includes myself, wife, and aunt. my wife and i have at least ten years of medical experience. my aunt has eight years experience as a home health marketer; apparently she would bring in at least 100 to 150 patients a month for her previous agency. the things is that she would have to move two hour west to where my wife and i are at, in south texas. we have a legal (lawyer, a relative) advisor and a financial (banker, a relative) advisor, at the time we are not using a home health consultant, but if we need one, we have someone in mind. we will be starting out as working staff to cut down on some expenses. but will still hire one rn, two lvn, and one office helper, will hire other staff depending how busy we get. we will be initially starting out from our home where we have an extra apartment set aside from the house, again to cut down on expenses.

services

services that we would like to provide is skilled nursing, iv therapy, anodyne therapy, infusion therapy, community based alternative, primary home care services, and possibly pt(a)

billing type

initially, our target billing will be mainly to cms and to blue cross blueshield. i know it will take several days to months to get approved by medicaid and medicare, but that one of the biggest reimbursement companies for home health agencies.

need advise on or questions:

how long and what is require for private insure billing, such as blue cross blue shield?

is the lewis system the best software for home health agency?

i think i heard the price for the lewis is about $30,000, is this correct?

is there any other system that is comparable to the lewis system that may be cheaper?

once again thanks for this forum for all the info.