Private Duty Today presents the

Private Duty Home Care State of the Industry, 2010

Over the past two decades the number of companies providing care to consumers and their families has grown dramatically. What began as a few "mom-and-pop" businesses, and a collection of underperforming home health agency private pay divisions has sprouted into the fastest-growing segment of the healthcare industry in America.

Today, we believe there are more than 15,000 companies serving families. There are hundreds of thousands of employees nationwide. There are several national associations and more than 25 franchise companies.

However, with all these companies and support networks, some of the fundamental questions about our industry have answers that eluded us.

• What is the average revenue of the private duty home care company?
• What profit margin is typical for these companies?
• What percentage of revenue is being spent on marketing?
• What is the average salary of home care workers, and the average price per unit of home care services?
• Does accreditation or membership in an association impact our bottom line?
• What revenue and profitability should I expect after two years, five years or 10 years?

These are questions the consultants in our firm are asked almost daily, and while we have anecdotal evidence, we would prefer statistically valid documentable benchmarks.

Leading Home Care, and our subsidiary Private Duty Today, are in the unique position to reach out to our industry in an unprecedented manner. Our readership of more than 8000 e-mail subscribers is more than 10 times the size of the second-largest group of home care owners. We have the ability to reach more companies, and a wider variety of companies, than any franchise group, membership organization or national association. We're proud of the fact that our readers have turned to us every other week for more than five years.

While we have significant influence, we also recognize that we have significant responsibility. Our organization, along with two corporate underwriters, have developed a very detailed survey that will yield the most significant collection of benchmark data in the history of our young industry.

Participate in the process.

The more companies that participate, the more valid our data becomes.

This survey won't be easy. It's estimated that your company will spend more than 60 minutes accumulating data, and another 30 minutes entering the data into the survey. Spending 90 minutes contributing to this survey, however, is incredibly important. Not only will you contribute to the data benchmarks, but you'll have an effective way to compare and contrast your own company against those benchmarks when the final report becomes available.

Our thanks...

Participating companies deserve a big thank you. But we recognize that a pat on the back isn't a huge motivator.

Because participation is critical we are going to allow each company that contributes data to fill out a form at the end of the survey and receive a discount code for the 2009 and 2010 reports. That discount will be significant.

The 2009 Private Duty Home Care Benchmarking and State of the Industry report carries a retail price of $999.00. This industry report is a valuable and detailed collection of data the aids the companies and associations in our industry when making critical strategic decisions.

Participants in the 2010 benchmarking study will be able to purchase the 2009 report for only $149.00 immediately, plus, when it becomes available, the 2010 final report. This discount of over 85% is our way of rewarding participants for sharing of their time and data. Participants save $1,700 total.

Furthermore, by having access to the national data, you'll be able to compare apples to apples, so to speak. All of the data points that participants share will be comparable to the final report data in a meaningful way.

• You will be able to make better hiring decisions for executive teams.
• You will be able to view your profitability compared to national averages.
• You will be able to compare your income to other owners.
• You'll be able to make better decisions about marketing budgets.
• You'll have a better understanding of profit margins.
• You will see the impact of national economic trends.
• You will be a smarter owner, manager, CEO or marketing executive.

We believe that this data will be a solid value at $999, but for participants the reward should be immense.

Data collection in this process is ongoing, however we will soon be announcing a deadline for participants to have their data included in the 2010 benchmarking report. At that time, participants will no longer receive a discount on the 2009 report, and their data won't be included in the 2010 benchmarking data set.

"Am I eligible to participate?"

In order to participate you must meet the following criteria:

• You must be an owner, chief executive, managing director, marketing director or human resources director of a private duty company, or a company that has a private duty subsidiary.

• You must have materially participated in business during all 12 months of 2009..

• Companies of all sizes may participate, however, only companies with revenue in 2009 for private duty services are eligible.

• Franchise owners may participate, however, franchise companies may not participate unless the franchisor owns and operates a company that provides care directly to consumers.

• Private duty home care, for the purposes of the survey, is defined as companies that provide personal care services, companion services, errands and housekeeping services, and other related services in the home of Americans over the age of 65, people with disabilities, or children with special medical needs.

• Companies that provide staff relief services to medical or retirement facilities exclusively are not eligible to participate.

• Companies that act as caregiver referral services exclusively are not eligible to participate.

• Geriatric care management companies that do not provide direct care are not eligible to participate.

• While Medicare certified companies are eligible, revenues from Medicare will not be included in the data. Companies with 100% of revenue coming from Medicare are not eligible to participate.

• Not-for-profit or government run programs are eligible to participate, however, services provided philanthropically will not be included in the data.

"How do I participate?"

There are two parts to participation, data collection and survey response.

We will collect data on approximately 50 data points. Much of this data is financial in nature. Most data will be reported based on calendar year 2009, however some data points will ask for data dating back to 2005.

To ease data collection we've created a printable data collection worksheet PDF file. We recommend you download and print this file and complete it using your financial data. We estimate collecting this data should take approximately 60 minutes. To download the data sheet, click the link labeled "Download the data collection PDF".

The second step is survey response. After completing the data sheets, you will return to this page and click the link labeled "Begin the online survey".

You will be asked to enter all the data from the data sheet, as well as some demographic information, into our confidential online survey.

"When will I receive the discount code and final report?"

Immediately following the survey, you will be taken back to our website and given a coupon code. This coupon code can be used to purchase the 2009 Private Duty Home Care Benchmarking and State of the Industry Report for $149.00. The report will ship immediately. The 2010 annual report will be available later this year.  You will receive a pre-order code by email for the 2010 final report which will be available later this year. The coupon code will only be valid during this pre-order period.

You will be contacted by e-mail exclusively, so you must provide a valid e-mail address.