What to Look for in a Home Health Travel Therapy Contract

Written by Travis Kemper, PT, DPT

Home health can be a great option for travel therapists due to the abundant need for therapists to serve patients in this setting. If you are willing to take home health contracts, options for locations will open up dramatically at any given time, and usually you can command even higher pay than normal. To see if home health may work for you, check out my pros and cons article here.

Since home health is a bit different than other settings, you may be wondering what things you should look for in a home health contract and what questions you should ask in an interview for this setting. Here is a more in depth look at some important aspects of a home health contract that you should consider:

• Training:
  • Find out how much training will be provided by the company. This is especially important if you don’t have prior experience in this setting.
  • Tips during training: Take the computer from your trainer and document as much as possible. You know how to be a therapist, but as I mentioned in the pros and cons article, there is a lot of documentation in home health, so you really want to start getting familiar with the system as soon as possible.
  • Of course, you should also pay attention to the differences in care that you’ll be providing in home health because there are some important safety issues to take note of during evaluations, but otherwise the therapy you’ll be providing is similar to other settings.
  • In our experience, my wife Julia and I have received about two weeks of training at the home health contracts we have taken.
• Points system:
  • You want to find out how their productivity works, and if it’s on a points system vs. hourly vs. purely based on number of visits regardless of type. This is an important measure of productivity that is different from every other setting. Your company may assign a certain number of points to each type of visit based on the length of time they predict this visit taking (I am sure that it is also based on the reimbursement from insurance).
  • For example, the last home health contract we did had the following points system:
    • 2.5 points for start of care/OASIS
    • 1.5 points for evaluation
    • 1.25 for discharge
    • 1 point per regular visit
  • In a 40 hour week we were expected to complete 30 points at that company.  The numbers generally are similar to these from what I have heard from others. This is also how many full time and PRN employees are paid in home health instead of hourly/salary.
• Travel Radius:
  • You want to find out how far you will be expected to drive and what areas you will be covering for your home health visits.
  • This is going to be the number one factor outside of your personal efficiencies with documentation and planning that is going to affect your productivity capabilities.
  • At our first contract, our travel radius was very similar and only about 15 miles from the office for either one of us. At our second contract, my radius stayed about the same, but the majority of my patients were located in a 10 mile radius of the city in my territory; while Julia’s was a larger territory, probably 20 miles, and her patients were more spread out as there was no main city in her territory.
  • This is something that is hard to figure out before you take a contract. We didn’t even know exactly where our territories were going to be when we took our second contract due to the huge territory the company covered. There were many days where I would only drive 15-25 miles in total, and Julia would drive 50-60 miles.
  • Obviously the more you drive, the tougher it is to hit your productivity standards. Your best bet is to ask how many miles you can expect to drive in a day/week in the interview. You can also ask around to find out about the area and the traffic before committing.
• Mileage Reimbursement:
  • Find out if they reimburse for mileage and how much.
  • We do not recommend you take a home health position unless they are going to reimburse you for mileage.
  • You want to be making at least 50 cents per mile no matter what, and personally if I ever do home health again I will demand the government rate of 58 cents per mile. The mileage is not only for your gas consumption, but also for the wear and tear on your vehicle. If you are planning to do home health for an extended period of time, getting a fuel efficient vehicle is highly recommended as well.

These are a few of the key factors you want to consider when looking into taking a home health contract as a travel therapist. Home health can be a rewarding setting to work in, especially because it can be flexible for your lifestyle. But you want to make sure to ask the right questions so that you won’t be stretched too thin when it comes to number of visits, driving radius, gas, and wear and tear on your car. If you have more questions about working in home health, or have a specific job offer you’d like to discuss with us, please reach out to us for mentorship!