Private Duty Nurse NOT through a company

[Yvonne Woody]

A coworker once told me of a way that private duty nurses can be self employed and paid directly by insurance instead of working for a home health agency. I can't remember exactly what she told me so I am coming here to hopefully gain some knowledge about how to go about being a private duty home health nurse on my own. I currently am with 2 different pediatric home health agencies and the parents said they would hire me if I were to go solo. Anyone have any knowledge of what I need to do to make this happen? I am in Texas by the way. Thank you

[NottaSpringChik, BSN, RN]

Don't know about that but one sticky with working for your current clients on your own could be if you signed a non-compete agreement. I just applied at an agency and that was in the on-boarding packet. It specifies not working for any one you meet through your job for a period of two years after you stop working for them.. So under the agreement, if you were on a case and the client decided to work with another agency, you would not be able to work with them through that agency.

[KR]

I have thought about working on my own but won't for several reasons. 1 being insurance. 2-I don't know all the State/Federal Rules/Regs/Laws that the companies make sure we as nurses follow. For example, there are specific things that need to be addressed on their 485/Plan of Care that needs recertified every 60 days in most states. Also, depending on the state docs have between 7 to 14 days to sign verbal orders & fax them back. So there is a lot more to do and know than just the Private Duty Shift Nursing part you are doing now. You would also have to do the Supervisory and Case Managers roles and be expected to know all the rules & regs.