Live Your Dream, Naples SCORE Can Help



Left to right: SCORE Counselor, Chick Heithaus, JLFHC Principals: Elisabeth Nassberg; Nikole Stillman; Jacob Nassberg.

Just Like Family Home Care (JLFHC)
Where your family is our family too!
www.justlikefamilyhomecare.com

“Mom just came home from surgery, now what do we do?” That’s a question asked by many baby boomers and members of generation X, especially if they are “up north”. They need serious help, not an unanswered long distance phone call or a response they can’t understand from someone with unknown experience.

These and other home care needs are serious and important. While the local yellow pages show the names of many agencies who claim to provide such services, the question is: How do you evaluate them?

A service called Just Like Family Home Care (JLFHC) – now operates in Naples, and provides a well qualified answer to this question -- as well as other home care needs. It was launched in 2006 by three principals with ten prior years of extensive experience in the nurse registry business on Florida’s east coast. There they grew that business from one office with four employees and thirty patients to a company with five offices, more than forty employees and over a thousand patients. Noting that the west coast of Florida had only one third of the per-person home care agencies, they decided to set up their own business in Naples. They discussed their new business concept with the Naples chapter of SCORE. Counselor Morton Klein was their first contact who later turned it over to counselor J. C. (Chick) Heithaus, who had extensive skills which matched their needs in business organization, strategies and marketing.

SCORE’s Role
SCORE/Naples helped the principals obtain the prerequisite Florida state license, and subsequent county and city licenses. They were advised on how to structure their business as an LLP, and how to create operating agreements between the three partners. SCORE’s advice enabled them to grow their business with their own resources, eliminating the need to go outside for financing. Their original plan called for an estimated $200,000 in working capital, which would require outside financing. One proposal gave the partners only 35 percent ownership, with 65 percent going to outside investors. SCORE’s help enabled them to grow the business using just their own resources, and the partners now hold 100 percent of the company.

“SCORE has consistently provided help and advice or someone who could”, says Elisabeth Nassberg, one of the founding partners. “They helped develop marketing and promotional plans and materials. And they are currently putting emphasis on building and promoting the JLFHC image”, she added.

About JLFHC
JLFHC now has over 200 independent contractors whom they have interviewed, screened and verified their background checks. They range from companions, home health aides, nurse assistants, licensed practical nurses to registered nurses. About 70-80 percent of their business is in patients’ homes, with the remainder being in assisted living, hospital and rehabilitation facilities. They specialize in providing live-in help with a low $200 daily rate, thanks in part because many of their contractors for these services are based in Florida east coast locations, where living costs are less than in Naples. Many local health care providers are franchises and privately-owned operations, which can be impersonal as well as more expensive, since their employees are usually local residents.

JLFHC defines itself as consumer friendly and “match makers”. The principals are their “voice” on the phone. They deal directly with patients, learn their needs and match them with the appropriate caregiver. For a new client, they will send out one of the principals or a registered nurse to meet with them and the patient, to determine their specific requirements (a simple companion or an R.N., or skills somewhere in between? When? How long? And how frequently?).

There is no need for patients to do their own interviewing. Should any problems arise, JLFHC management will resolve them immediately.

Two of the principals have grandparents in Boca Raton and Delray, so the importance of a responsible, reassuring voice on the telephone is important to them on a very personal basis.

How They Charge
Medicare provides minimal home care benefits, which must be prescribed by the physician. Additional or alternative services are billed to supplemental insurance carriers, major credit cards or Long Term Care insurance policies. JLFHC handles or helps with the paperwork, following up with insurance companies to verify benefits under a specific policy. Patients are customarily billed weekly, contract labor is paid weekly.

SCORE's counseling services are all at no cost. SCORE offers counseling sessions on a one-on-one basis as well as workshops. E-mail counseling is offered as well to those who are out of the area, or prefer cyber-meetings. SCORE is a partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration with over 10,500 members and 389 chapters nationwide.

The Naples chapter ran 14 workshops last year with a total of 351 business people in attendance. Additionally, the chapter counseled 920 clients in face-to-face sessions and another 902 via email.

We can be reached by e-mail at score@scorenaples.org or by phone at 239-430-0081. Our Web site is www.scorenaples.org