5 Reasons to Hire a Private Pay Home Care Agency vs Independent Contractor
When you are hiring a caregiver for the aging and elderly, you need to know whether you should hire a private pay home care agency or an independent contractor. Since a caregiver can be a full-time role, you have to understand the risks and responsibilities before hiring the right person.
More than 65 million people spend an average of 20 hours per week to provide care to disabled, ill, or aged family members or friends during any given year in the United States. These people are looking to hire caregivers to allow them to focus more on their personal and professional tasks while still caring for the elders.
While hiring an independent contractor may seem like a one-off thing, you must not rush to make a hiring decision. In fact, it is important that you consider the pros and cons of choosing whether to go with an independent contractor or private pay home care agency.
We believe, after seeing many failed independent contractor hires, that private pay home care agencies are better for the task of taking care of your loved ones.
Here are 5 reasons why we believe hiring a private pay home care agency is better than hiring an independent contractor.
1. Payroll, Minimum Wage, Overtime, and Taxes
When you hire an independent contractor, you will be handling payroll and should know what taxes have to be withheld. You are the person who has to take care of reporting the income of your independent contractor, deciding the minimum wage, and overtime payments.
Taking care of the payroll and taxes can be burdensome when you have other responsibilities and it is best you leave it to an agency. Private pay home care agencies comply with regulations in regards to employment practices and take the burden of payroll, taxes, and overtime pays off your shoulders.
2. Background Checks
You have to conduct background checks yourself when you’re hiring an independent contractor. You may feel like skipping the process but it is important to know that by skipping background checks, you are inviting a lot of trouble that could have been avoided. There have been cases where independent contractors whose backgrounds weren’t verified had criminal histories and were involved in criminal activities like theft during the course of their employment.
A private pay home care agency performs rigorous background checks before hiring qualified caregivers. By working with an agency, you are assured that only the best caregivers are hired and brought into your home.
3. Work Experience
There are plenty of cases where the caregiver hired independently gives a false account of their work experience including the responsibilities they had in their previous roles. You need to hire a caregiver who can effectively take care of the requirements and needs of your loved ones. As such, you need to verify the work experience of independent contractors. This takes time and effort and you need to check with references from previous employment.
You can hand over these tasks to an agency that checks and verifies the references and work experience of caregivers. Agencies also understand the tasks that caregivers are allowed to do since they are compliant with the state regulations.
4. Liability Insurance
What would be the ideal course of action when you hire an independent contractor for caregiving and you face illegal actions or accusations? Remember, there are real risks when it comes to caring for elders and you have to talk to an insurance agent in case of abuse, exploitation, or fraud.
Abuse and neglect can be physical, emotional, medical, financial, and sexual. While it is a huge problem to deal with as an individual, by working with a good private pay home care agency, you can be sure that the complaints regarding abuse, neglect, and exploitation are taken seriously. Agencies also care for the rights of the caregivers and provide equal importance to their concerns regarding abuse and exploitation.
5. Backup Plan
There are a lot of things that hinge on a single person when you’re working with an individual contractor. You depend on the person to show up on time to care for the elders in your home and take care of their needs. You may have a lot of things going on in life and have to meet your own personal goals that you trust the individual caregiver to be available to take care of the seniors. However, will you be prepared in case of a personal emergency for your caregiver? What if they are sick and cannot make it to a shift?
These concerns are huge when the elders depend on caregivers for everyday activities like getting up, going to the toilet, bathing, and getting dressed. You should be confident that if your caregiver cannot make it, you have a backup plan. This is where working with an agency is extremely reliable. You don’t have to panic when your caregiver suddenly cannot make it to a shift due to personal reasons. When you have an agency, there are other caregivers who are backups who can cover the shift for your main caregiver. This way, you can be assured that the elders in your home are cared for at all times.
Reduce the uncertainty when it comes to private pay home care services and choose VIPrivate Care for your needs. We provide private nursing and personalized medical home care with sensitivity and warmth to the finest details. We are here for you and are looking to deliver the exceptional home care services you deserve.
