MIAMI, Sept. 4, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Private Care Association (PCA), the national association for private duty home care registries and referral agencies since 1977, will host its 2013 Annual Conference on Oct. 2-4 at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Hotel in Orlando, Fla.
The annual conference, which is open to PCA members and non-members as well, will feature a number of educational sessions of interest for home care registry operators, as well as other home care agencies interested in forming a home care registry.
"This year's conference will kick-off with an informative, half-day 'pre-conference' session that will lay out all of the fundamentals of the registry model and educate attendees about how to build a strong foundation and establish a successful and compliant registry," said Jim Mark, president of the PCA. "A registry saves families 10-30 percent on their private in-home care expenses, allows consumers to individually select caregivers with whom they feel most comfortable and provides greater continuity in caregiver relationships. Private care registries are a very important part of the national healthcare landscape."
A nursing care "registry" is a home care company that refers independent-contractor caregivers to individuals on a private basis, for care that is needed anywhere from a few hours at a time up to 24 hours a day. These caregivers are essentially in business for themselves and are not paid by the registry, but they are subjected to a very rigorous screening and verification process to ensure that the registry refers only the very best qualified caregivers.
"With the potential impending changes to the Companionship Services Exemption and the upcoming implementation of the Affordable Care Act, more and more home care agencies are exploring the home care registry model," said Mark. "The PCA, as the national voice for registries, is the place to go to get the best information about registries."
The pre-conference session, "Registry 101: Building a Strong Foundation," will be led by Russell Hollrah, partner at Hollrah Leyden LLC, an attorney with expertise in the use of independent contractors in the home care registry business. Hollrah will address topics such as:
- Options for providing in-home nursing care and key differences between those options
- An overview of the caregiver registry model
- Fundamental operational differences between registries and agencies
- Creating a registry business and culture
- Principal legal risks to caregiver registries and suggested risk management strategies
The keynote speaker for the main conference will be Michael Guidiccissi, chief executive officer of Home Care Sales by Power Shot Training, Inc., the home care industry's premier sales training and consulting firm. Guidiccissi will draw on his two decades of experience in the home care industry to teach attendees a number of powerful, competition-crushing sales strategies to increase their sales and market their home care businesses more effectively.
In addition to the various speakers and educational sessions, the conference will also feature a number of networking opportunities and social events open exclusively to registered attendees. For more information or to register for the conference, please go to www.privatecare.org/annual-conference.
About PCA
Since 1977, the Private Care Association (PCA) has been the voice of private duty home care. PCA's membership is made up of home care registries that refer self-employed caregivers to provide assistance with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, lifting/transferring, continence care, feeding/meal preparation, companion care, homemaker services and nursing services in the client's home. The PCA has an involved government relations program that actively presents its position to public policymakers at the state and federal levels and, as the national voice for home care registries, the PCA promotes the interests of the private duty home care industry, advocating the consumer-directed model of care and consumer choice. For more information, please go to www.privatecare.org.