Dr. Malik shares his agency’s secrets to success with CareTime as his team’s secret weapon and how the platform frees up his time.
How did you get into the home care agency business?
Dr. Malik and his wife started America A Care, a home care agency consisting of around 35 clients, in Atlanta, Georgia, matching kind caregivers with seniors in need of service in their area.
Dr. Malik has a personal history with home care, tying back to his home country of Bangladesh, where he cared for his parents round-the-clock, only resting for short periods of time. Witnessing the kindness and compassion of caregivers looking after his parents planted a seed of entrepreneurship for Dr. Malik.
This set the expectation for how his caregivers would perform and how to run his agency. After hearing about the home care industry years prior from a close friend, Dr. Malik stepped up to start and manage the day-to-day operations of America A Care in 2016, while his wife took the owner’s role.
Dr. Malik’s desire to work with people and care for others stemmed from experience in education and allied health training. He was able to tap into his network and connections of medical professionals to look over documents and manuals and make sure he was on the right path.
What are some challenges you've faced managing an agency?
Dr. Malik’s top priority in business is client satisfaction and developing personal relationships. Just as each client has a one-on-one relationship with their caregiver, Dr. Malik wanted families to have that same experience with the owner.
Being bogged down with billing, particularly during his agency’s inception, was a challenge. “We were having growing pains, and learning the Medicaid system required a steep learning curve.”
Additionally, electronic visit verification (EVV), was a complex process that required a separate learning curve. “When I started billing EVV, there was always something going on. Claims files didn’t go through the way they should. It didn’t matter if 50% of the claim was clean if the other 50% wasn’t good. It was baffling to me.”
“I needed additional EVV support to make sure that everything was good in each claim. Since coming to Caretime, everything has been fine.” Caretime isn’t just a platform, it’s an experience.
How has technology given you time back in your day and improved your business operations?
Since meeting the Caretime team, “I was impressed by their professionalism and promptness of getting things done.”
Dr. Malik trusts that things are getting done correctly. “I don’t even go to into our EVV to see what’s happening. There’s no time to do that. Caretime has been a great support for us, a great backing, and I know I can reach out to the team any time.”
“I was impressed by their professionalism and promptness of getting things done.”
Instead of being in the software, “I like to focus on operations, the day to day, and how to improve service. Caretime is giving me the free time to call clients and figure out how things are going.”
Using Caretime has given him the freedom to work on building customer relationships and listening to their stories, instead of being bogged down with billing or EVV.
How have you find success growing your business?
America A Care was built on a foundation of no complaints. “My main goal is to have 110% client satisfaction.” That’s a reputation that Dr. Malik set out to maintain. Each of his clients has come to him through word of mouth and word on the street, from a happy caregiver, a satisfied client, or a neighborhood referral source.
“Our business is all word of mouth.” Without the need for local print or digital advertising nor a website, Dr. Malik has been able to reallocate funding to improving operational efficiency, increasing supervisory visit frequency, and focusing on building the business from within.
America A Care has built a reputation that is hinged on positive client relationships, and that starts well before a caregiver walks in the door of a client’s home. They had a client wait to start services for six months due to miscommunication because of the depth of the relationship they built. The client shared with Dr. Mailk that “‘Others came and approached me’ but said insisted on starting services with Dr. Malik.”
“The satisfaction of each client is the essence of this business. Our clients have given us the opportunity to service them requiring a great deal of trust, and we’ve honored their desire to be served.” With Dr. Malik having the time in his day to not worry about the back-end of operations, he has the time to focus on providing white glove care, support, and resources to each client, family, and caregiver.
“When a client needs something from me, I take immediate action. It’s a team effort and I’ve got the confidence that Caretime can tend to my backend when I’m not at my desk.”
“I’ve got the confidence that Caretime can tend to my backend when I’m not at my desk.”
Caretime has also given America A Care the flexibility to expand and grow. “Other businesses are coming to team up with us. One of the reasons to expand and continuously grow our business is that if you don’t grow the business, it collapses. Especially in the caregiving industry, you have to continuously grow.”
