#45 In the past 6-12 months, AI has gone from interesting and useful to reliable and effective. Dave Dworschak from Phoebe explains what that actually means for operators. It’s not a replacement for people, but a teammate that takes repetitive work off administrator’s plates. Dave breaks down three real scheduling workflows where AI is already being used today: last-minute call-out outreach, proactive shift confirmation, and missed clock-in and clock-out cleanup. Tasks that used to take schedulers 1.5 to 2 hours are now being handled in under 15 minutes. We focus on how agencies can integrate AI into their existing systems, workflows, and culture to reduce constraints, protect revenue, and give teams their time back without adding headcount.

• Dave Dworschak on LinkedIn
• [email protected] 
• Phoebe
• How Phoebe cut down missed shifts by 75% 

If you're interested in learning more about Lab Partners—email me at [email protected]. 

#44 Nick Provost started in home care as a teenager at his family’s business and has now spent his entire adult life working his way up in home care, eventually stepping into his current leadership role at Gratitude Homecare in New Jersey. The core of his care philosophy is: every family should look back and say working with us was “the best money we ever spent.” We dig into the reality of private-pay business development in home care and the two hats every great BD leader must wear: building referral relationships and converting those referrals into clients. Nick had no formal sales training, but he explains how active listening, being a true resource, and deep industry knowledge have helped him thrive in a highly competitive market. He breaks down what’s working with his top referral accounts, how he asks for and earns business, and the feedback loops that keep referrals coming back consistently.

• Nick Provost on LinkedIn
• [email protected] 
• Gratitude Homecare

Sponsors:

• Mertz Taggart
• Helper Heroes

#43 - He’s scaled Sunny Days In-Home Care to more than 37,000 hours of care each week across five offices through a mix of organic growth and acquisitions. In this episode, CEO John Bennett breaks down exactly how he’s centralized his back office, structured his org chart, and defined a clear set of North Star KPIs. He shares why hours—not revenue—drive alignment across the organization, how shift coverage acts as a real-time pulse check on culture, and how RACI thinking brings clarity as teams grow. John also walks through the challenge of getting buy-in during periods of change, especially when roles evolve and specialization increases. And he shares the teams' simple but powerful focus: maximizing the “hours of good” they delivers to individuals and families who need care most.

• John Bennett on LinkedIn
• [email protected] 
• Sunny Days In-home Care

Sponsors:

• Mert Taggart
• Phoebe—10% off, mention the Lab

#42 He grew the business impressively for five years, exited daily operations, and then things didn’t go as planned. Justin Currie, CEO of Thema Home Care opens up about what happened after he stepped away, the people and process issues he discovered, and how he ultimately tuned the business around. He gets detailed and prescriptive on people in the wrong seats, processes not being followed, hard decisions and conversations he had to have, and the results of re-engaging in daily operations. He also shares an exciting update about partnering with the American Health at Home fund to expand his business and open new doors for accelerated growth. 

• Justin Currie on LinkedIn
• [email protected]
• Thema Home Care
• American Health at Home

Sponsors:

• Helper Heroes—virtual assistants trained for home care operations
• Phoebe—AI scheduling assistant for call-out coverage, shift confirmation, clock in/out reminders, and more

#41 Lawyers. Home Care. California. Need we say more… I sat down with Angelo Spinola, ‘the lawyer of home care’, shareholder at Poslinelli, and one of his clients, Yazmin Hamilton, VP of Compliance at industry giant, 24 Hour Home Care. Angelo talks about audit pitfalls, misunderstood regulations, when to bring in outside counsel, and how to be proactive before it’s too late. Yazmin breaks down her 20-person compliance team, what they’re focused on, how they operate, and lessons learned scaling across states, services, and payor sources. These two keep what could be a dry legal episode, fresh with stories and frameworks applicable to any home care business.  

• Angelo Spinola on LinkedIn
• Polsinelli: Home Health, Home Care & Hospice
• POSH: Polsinelli Online Solutions for Home Care
• Yazmin Hamilton on LinkedIn
• 24 Hour Home Care

Sponsors:

• Phoebe—AI assistant for scheduling communication
• Acrisure—leading insurance broker for home care

#40 A $5M home care company can have upwards of 300-500 communication touch points in a single day. It’s not uncommon for an agency to be using 8-12 tech tools and for caregivers to interphase with 3-5 every week. Technology often feels like the root of many issues, even turnover, but often times it’s actually the integration and implementation of these tools. Denise DiSano, the Founder and CEO of enCappture breaks down her 3 C’s framework to analyze and improve your tech selection, adoption, and consolidation. 

• Denise DiSano on LinkedIn
• [email protected]
• enCappture website
• PDF: Caregiver Retention Day 1 Checklist

Sponsors:

• Helper Heroes
• SmartAutomations.Care

#39 Melissa Morante didn’t come from home care—she came from New York PR—but since joining her family’s agency in 2016, she’s become one of South Florida’s go-to experts on Parkinson’s and chronic illness care. In this episode, she shares how that deep dive into Parkinson’s led to her building a network of support groups that now serve hundreds of families looking for education, community, and relief from caregiver burnout. We talk about what it really takes to run effective support groups, why consistency matters more than structure, where she hosts these groups, and how these gatherings have become one of the agency’s most meaningful differentiators. Melissa also opens up about the challenges and the opportunities ahead as they expand into other chronic illnesses and community partnerships. 

• Melissa Morante on LinkedIn
• ComForCare Palm Beach
• American Parkinson’s Disease Association (APDA)
• Parkinson’s Foundation
• Michael J Fox Foundation
• PMD Alliance

Episode brought to you by:
SmartAutomations.Care smartautomations.care
Helper Heroes helperheroes.com

Live @ HCAOA—20-minute conversation with Clayton Foutch, CEO of Home Matters Caregiving

• Clayton Foutch on LinkedIn
• Home Matters Caregiving
• Home Matters started as a family business in 2007, franchised in 2020, and now has 39 locations nationwide.
• Built on a nurse-guided, innovation-focused model shaped by Clayton’s engineering background.
• Traditional care mainly serves the top 5% who can afford $10–30K/month, leaving a huge access and labor gap.
• The team has reviewed ~40 emerging technologies and formally tested several to close these gaps.
• Passive tech matters most—anything clients must wear, charge, or interact with quickly fails.
• Sensi leads in audio-based passive monitoring, but roughly 25% of clients still resist it.
• Operators must shift from reactive to proactive care models using tech to prevent incidents.
• Agencies can partner with discharge planners by offering tech-forward solutions for families who can’t afford full-time care, proving value through metrics like readmissions.

Sponsors:

• Baba (callbaba.com): AI phone-based co-pilot for seniors to prevent loneliness, create support, and connect them with professionals 
• Paradigm (paradigmseniors.com): Credentialing, billing automation, and revenue cycle management for VA and Medicaid payments
• HomeSight (vantiva.com/homesight): TV-based wellness hub for blended care—video visits, health monitoring, and daily reminders for the family and care team

Live @ HCAOA—20-minute conversation with Michelle Cone, SVP of Industry Engagement at HomeWell Franchising, Inc.

• Michelle Cone on LinkedIn
• HomeWell Franchising 
• The investment that’s paid off in home care: 1) learning to lead with patience and 2) learning to play the long game
• Leading with patience:
  • Don’t scrap ideas or initiatives after a matter of weeks, give important things more time
    • Measure everything and make decisions off of quantity and quality 
  • Find mentors who embody patience and shadow them
  • Home care is reactive and we want to solve problems quickly, but give yourself time and space to think, reflect, and process issues accordingly 
  • Systematize ‘how you process’ as a leader, so you can improve over time
• Playing the long game:
  • In sales: building relationships, processes, and trust that lasts
  • In operations: short term goals, long term initiatives, and both require clear expectations and a plan of execution
  • Put in place: monthly, quarterly, annual, and 5-year goals
• Michelle’s personal mission: educating anyone and everyone on the impact and benefit of home care
• The time is now for home care—we’ve put in the work, time to double down on what’s working.
• Keeping an eye on CMS Guide Program in 2026. Partnered with PocketRN with a focus on reducing hospital readmissions.
• The 3-legged stool: non-medical, skilled, hospice > personal care pulling apart from companionship, palliative care taking on a bigger role > the nature and structure of home care is shifting 

Sponsors:

• Baba (callbaba.com): AI phone-based co-pilot for seniors to prevent loneliness, create support, and connect them with professionals 
• Paradigm (paradigmseniors.com): Credentialing, billing automation, and revenue cycle management for VA and Medicaid payments
• HomeSight (vantiva.com/homesight): TV-based wellness hub for blended care—video visits, health monitoring, and daily reminders for the family and care team

Live at HCAOA—30-minute conversation with Stephen Tweed, Founder/CEO of Leading Home Care

Highlights

• Stephen Tweed on LinkedIn
• leadinghomecare.com
• Home Care CEO Forum
• The big metric: Hours per week = the currency of home care
• Lesson common but more important: Hours per client per week = the health of the business
  • It indicates:
    • Where clients are coming from
    • Which referrals give the longest hour clients 
  • Which referrals and clients have the longest length of stay and LTV
• Hours per client per week + length of stay = $ value of the client
• Next comes: Hours per caregiver per week
• 3 types of caregivers: professional caregivers (40-60/hrs a week), half-time professional caregivers (20-30 hours a week), part-time intermittent caregivers (come and go) 
• 4 levels of your ‘data stream’
  • Level 1: raw data
  • Level 2: information 
  • Level 3: knowledge 
  • Level 4: wisdom 
• Clients and families want 2 things: reliability and continuity
• Clients go through ‘5 phases of flow’: 
  • Phase 1: attraction
  • Phase 2: conversion
  • Phase 3: staffing
  • Phase 4: caregiving 
  • Phase 5: collections 
• 2026 Future of Home Care Study
• System = process + people
• If you do a task weekly in your business, you need to systematize it. 
• Applying AI: the task, the internal systems, and the competitive ecosystem (differentiation)