Home Healthcare Market Research and Media Liaison Team

Project Planning Memorandum

To: Jared Grogan Ph.D. and Jason Wolfe RN

From: Darpan Sodhi, Henry Kisthardt, Oksana Doubrovski, Matthew Colligan,
Catherine Cvetkovski, James Hartrick
Date: April 11, 2017

Subject: Research and Writing Plan

Introduction
CarePRN, being a startup company, requires continual attention and improvements.
Understanding the market and its target audience will allow CarePRN to plan
accordingly, make profits, and stay relevant in the fluctuating realm of business. This is
where we come in. We intend to discover what audience CarePRN can reach, to
identify strategic uses of advertising, and to forecast future obstacles CarePRN may
come across. This will require research on metro-Detroit tri-county demographics and
statistics and legislative reform. Using Census data, the Michigan Department of Health
and Human Services data, social media, legislative bills, and information from
healthcare market experts, we will be able to guide CarePRN in the development of its
business approach.

The problem our team plans on addressing is explained, along with our goals and
intended deliverables. Methods and resources we plan on using will be described. Our
timeline and role distribution is also enumerated.

Problem
CarePRN serves as a more affordable alternative to providing on demand home
healthcare. This service is intended to help family members experiencing caregiver
burnout. It is important that the legitimacy of the company is properly presented to web
users such as potential clients and potential caregivers. CarePRNs website lacks the
content that would reassure potential consumers of the company's legitimacy. Clients
need to feel that the company will provide specified care and that it is certified to do. A
structured business plan with service rates and clientele is necessary to attract and
maintain a consistent and satisfied workforce. The first step in recruiting clients and
workers is advertising. Gaining a better understanding of who can afford the services
and where they live will allow for a targeted advertising approach. Once more clients
sign up for services, more caregivers can get to work.

Because the future of our national healthcare is currently in flux, we hope to forecast the
changes that will directly and indirectly affect CarePRN. Policy reform has hurt and shut
down companies with similar business models that CarePRN holds. In order to prevent
negative effects on the business, forecasting healthcare reform is vital, along with
learning from the mistakes and unfortunate events that lead to the collapse of other
home healthcare companies.

Areas that will be researched to project future impacts:

Understanding the Audience
Jared Grogan and Jason Wolfe 2 April 11, 2017

Interpreting Healthcare Legislation

Predicting Obstacles
Department of Labor Standards Investigation

Problem Statement: Setting CarePRN up for success will require further research
into population demographics, health conditions data, income distribution, internet
usage by younger generations, healthcare legislation, HomeHero practices and
business model, and The Department of Labor Standards. This information will allow
the development of strategic advertising and forecasting possible events that may
impact the future of CarePRN.

Understanding the Audience
(demographics/statistics,
income, miscellaneous)
Using this information, we will learn more about
who needs CarePRN services, who can afford
them, what county they live in. We also hope to
learn more about the family members who are
supporting the patient. Are they more likely to go
online and search for services?

Interpreting Healthcare Government regulations on home healthcare work

Legislation at both the federal and state level. Special attention
will be given to any new regulations on
certifications. New insurance standards might
influence the customer demographic targeted by
CarePRN in terms of affordability.

Predicting Obstacles Based on the successes and failures of companies

focused on home healthcare services, we want to
learn and develop key strategies that can create a
flourishing business model for CarePRN.
HomeHero is a comparable company that recently
went out of business; we hope to learn from them.

Department of Labor We intend to learn more about standards

Standards Investigation implemented and proposed for direct care workers.

The information we gather and analyze can serve as promising recommendations that
CarePRN can consider and work on. Additionally, the information we discover can
contribute to the establishment of a potentially prosperous business within the
metropolitan area of Detroit. If CarePRNs business decisions and advertising maintain
a consistent momentum, clients and caregivers can interact efficiently using technology,
leading into the long term improvement of home healthcare.

Going further with our research, we will keep in mind the following questions: What is
the potential value of our research? Will our findings make a difference in the decisions
CarePRN makes in terms of advertising and business? We assume that the
Jared Grogan and Jason Wolfe 3 April 11, 2017

demographic information, legislative investigation, and comparison to similar

businesses will serve as a usable tool that could guide CarePRN in understanding and
predicting their audience and market. We anticipate our research to raise additional
questions that might require further inquiry.

Drafting usable and persuasive documents will allow us to build on our work and
improve CarePRN when new information is discovered. Creating one page deliverables
will condense and summarize our research so that it can serve as useful guides for
TechComm@TechTown teams when they move forward with their research and
mission.

One of our biggest affordance is technology. Through all of the things that are available
to us, we are able to communicate instantly and put our work together within minutes.
We have library resources provided by the company such as databases and books. We
are all from different areas and pursuing different majors, allowing us to get many
different perspectives for our project. We all get our work done in a timely manner,
allowing us to progress according to our original due dates.

Our work will experience some limitations. Population data may be outdated,
generalized, or restricted to information that does not answer our questions directly.
Additionally, we do not have access to private health records or unpublished data that
has been collected recently. In regards to healthcare reform, we do not know all the
private discussions and decisions being made behind closed doors. Publicly released
information is all we can work with. A big constraint on our mission is time. With only a
month left in the semester and six full time students. We may not be able to cover all
the details.

Tracings of Research Methods

We aim to use three tracings for our research inquiries: data work, interview work, and
source work. We are starting our research with data work by collecting information on:
age demographics; population health statistics; average income by county; U.S. Labor
Department regulations; and current and proposed Michigan legislation dealing with
labor standards, contract workers, and/or minimum wage. We then plan to set up some
interviews with Jason, a CarePRN client, the Family Caregiver Coordinator for Henry
Ford Health System, and any other healthcare market experts. Lastly, we plan on doing
some source work by looking into other organizations that have/had a similar home
healthcare business model (specifically HomeHero), and by finding some scholarly
research relevant to our project.

Our deliverables are research on the current and future healthcare market conditions,
who can afford the premium pricing approach CarePRN hopes to begin with, and
recommendations on where to advertise CarePRN. We will use the three tracings
described above to do this. Our primary audience for our research is Jason, the CEO of
CarePRN, and Jared, our coach. Our secondary audience include our ENG 3050
Jared Grogan and Jason Wolfe 4 April 11, 2017

classmates that can use our research when tackling their designated CarePRN work.
The secondary audience also includes potential clients of CarePRN, website users,
care seekers, care providers, Metro-Detroiters, those suffering caregiver burnout.

To share our research with the TechComm@TechTown team and to share our
progress, we intend on creating one-page memos that contain relevant information that
assist different teams when they work on their designated projects. We have set up an
archive for teams to refer to on our wikipage. New information will be posted once it
has been peer reviewed using our Work Rubric (see below).

When reviewing our work and ensuring the logos, ethos, and pathos of our work we will
use the following rubric criteria:

Work Rubric

Who is this information intended for? (classmates, coach, Jason, CarePRN)

What are their personal characteristics?
What are their attitudes towards the topic?
Why are they reading this?

Is this work purposeful?

Is the information persuasive enough for the reader to value it?
Will it help my reader with their tasks?
Does it have enough detail?

What is the genre? (memo, research paper, one-page handout to

TechComm@TechTown)

Was it peer reviewed at least twice?

Is the content source legitimate?
Is it concise?

Grammar/writing style

Moving forward with our work, we have created a list of research questions that we will
begin investigating. We anticipate to find new information that can alter, add, and/or
delete some of these current questions.

Research Questions:

Corresponding Category each question is associated with: Understanding the Audience,

Interpreting Healthcare Legislation, Predicting Obstacles, Department of Labor
Standards Investigation.
Jared Grogan and Jason Wolfe 5 April 11, 2017

Type of Question [7] Our Question Type of Research

1. What is the theory 1. Has getting home healthcare Interview, Source

behind this process or gotten easier or harder in Oakland,
technique? Macomb, and Wayne county in the
last 5 years?

2. What is the history of 2. Which metro Detroit municipalities Data

this phenomenon? have aging populations? Which have
concentrated populations with
disabilities? What is their average
annual income?

3. What techniques are 3. How often do people (client base) Data

being used now to go to the internet with the problem
solve this problem? how do I take care of my parents?
What responses do they get?

4. How is a current 4. How is minimum wage expected Data, Source

situation expected to to change over the next few years?
change? What effect does this have on home
health care services?

5. How were current 5. How much contribution has each Interview, Source
clients able to learn type of social media (website,
about CarePRN? facebook, etc) been to the current
business of CarePRN?

6. What are the 6. What other home healthcare Data, Interview

strengths and services are available to the same
weakness of competing targeted audience as CarePRN?
products and services?

7. Which product or 7. How has the need for home Interview, Source
service do experts healthcare grown within the last 5
recommend? years?

8. What are the facts 8. What factors classify a home Data, Interview,
about how we do our healthcare worker as an Source
jobs at this company? independent contractor? What labor
standards apply to live-in domestic
and home healthcare workers?
Jared Grogan and Jason Wolfe 6 April 11, 2017

9. What can we learn 9. What are limiting factors to Interview, Source

about what caused a choosing home healthcare services
problem in our for loved ones?
organization?

10. How is this service 10. Can the family members afford Data, Interview
financially beneficial to this on demand service in
clients ? comparison to other home
healthcare companies and nursing
homes?

11. What are strengths 11. What strengths have kept Interview, Source
of CarePRN? CarePRNs clients working with
them?

12. Which counties will 12. What counties around Michigan Data, Interview,
realistically use can afford from home healthcare Source
CarePRN services and services?
why?

13. What are legislative 13. What is the likelihood of rapid Source, Data
constraints? legislative changes? How long does
it take to for a legislation to pass?

14. What certifications 14. What are the requirements for Source, Data
need to be achieved? CarePRN caregiver certification and
how are they going to change?

Resources
Researching the home healthcare market requires the use of various diverse resources.
This dynamic topic must be analyzed and explored through primary and secondary
research outlets in order to gain a thorough understanding.

First hand experiences and information from Jason will help us narrow in and elaborate
on topics and events that affect the home healthcare market. Jason can connect us with
other market experts on his team so that we may learn more from their projects and
experiences, specifically the Family Caregiver Coordinator for Henry Ford Health
System. Hearing what they have to say will allow us to gather our thoughts and begin
targeting specific topics and elements that we must further research.

The internet will serve as a valuable tool when conducting our research. Visiting
websites of companies who have a similar business model will let us learn what others
are doing and how they are doing it. Comparing and contrasting CarePRN to other
companies in the market can reveal what aspects of the business plan need tightening
Jared Grogan and Jason Wolfe 7 April 11, 2017

up, revisions, and restructuring. Learning from others successes and failures can
improve the overall CarePRN strategy.

Reading up on articles and current news explaining political and financial decisions that
may affect the future growth of the company is critical. This research will give us the
tools to attempt to forecast an unpredictable market. Online databases that provide
population statistics and demographics will allow us to determine who lives in the
communities CarePRN intends to serve. This will also give us insight as to what types
of services are needed by the communities.

Turning to experts outside of the CarePRN family will provide an etic perspective.
Elements that may have been overlooked could be added, elaboration and explanation
may be called for, and improved planning might be necessary. Learning about others
perspectives, experiences, and beliefs can provide valuable insight that we may use
when trying to forecast the future of the home healthcare market in Michigan.

It is important to keep in mind that nothing lasts forever and that things are always
changing, whether it be for good or for bad. Being informed and continuously critically
assessing current events can lead to a more accurate prediction on what the future has
in store for home healthcare. Online research is not enough, it must be paired with
interviews with experts who have experience working in the home healthcare market.

Preliminary Research
The following is a list of the preliminary research that was conducted in order to develop
the problem statement and goals of our project. Specific statistics are recorded in our
target counties: Macomb (M), Oakland (O) and Wayne County (W). Our preliminary
research was targeted toward finding the range of need and income in our target
counties. Recent bills on healthcare are mentioned. Initial impressions and lessons
learned from the failure of HomeHero are elaborated on.

Population Statistics
Prevalence of Disability, Activity Limitation and Use of Special Equipment [1]
Jared Grogan and Jason Wolfe 8 April 11, 2017

Projected Number of Michigan Adults with Disabilities (2012-2030) [1]

2015- # of adults 1.966 million
2025- # of adults 2.050 million
2030- # of adults 2.077 million
Prevalence Estimates Among Michigan Adults With and Without Disabilities [1]
No Healthcare Coverage (among 18-64 years old): With Disability-17%
and Without Disability 17.5%
No Personal Healthcare provider: With Disability- 9.7% and Without
Disability- 19.5%
No Healthcare access during past 12 months due to cost: With Disability-
25.6% and Without Disability- 12%
Health Disparities among People with Disabilities: A Snapshot [1]
25.5% of adults in Michigan report being disabled
People with disabilities in Michigan report higher rates of many chronic
conditions and poorer health status
The Aging Demographics of Michigan and Metro Detroit [5]
Over 58 million are over 50 years of age as of 2010
By 2030, Boomers (66-84 yrs old) will represent 20% of nations
population
Are we prepared? Senior population expected to skyrocket, even in shrinking
Detroit [6]
Higher senior population especially in Michigan, residents over age of 65
are expected to make up 23.9 percent of population by 2040
Mayor Mike Duggan wants to establish senior services department
Noted that it is cheaper to provide seniors in home healthcare than to just
put them in nursing homes
Persons without health insurance, under age 65 years, percent 8.5% (O) 12.2%
(W) 10.0% (M) [4][
Persons over 65, 2015, percent 15.5% (O), 15.9% (M), 14.1% (W) [4]
Persons over 65, 2010, percent 13.2% (O), 14.3% (M), 12.7% (W) [4]
Mean Income, $67,465 (O), $54,582 (M), $41,210 (W) [4]
Total healthcare and social assistance receipts, 2012 ($1000), $10,835,571 (O),
$4,079,624 (M), $12,420,402 (W) [4]
A lot more older people now than before (baby boomers). A huge market
because of this, so this should be expanding
At a local level, homecare would be increasing spending
At a national level, homecare would be decreasing spending

Recent Bills on Healthcare

At a national level, healthcare is changing everyday targeting elderly healthcare
supplement
Changes in the global, national, regional, local levels are all important to forecast
Michigan minimum wage has gone up about 40 cents each year for the past four
years and is regulated by the department of licensing and regulatory affairs [1]
Minimum Wage is $8.90 right now [1]
Jared Grogan and Jason Wolfe 9 April 11, 2017

Education and certification requirements for home aids is not mandatory since
they are only allowed to aid in basic daily activities of the client[2]
Home healthcare is projected to grow over 30%[2]

Lessons from HomeHero Failure [3]

Insurance companies and health systems are not likely to pay for non-medical
home care
The effects of changes in legislative healthcare Bills have an immediate effect
over the business of the company
Many HomeHero beginning contracts were only case studies which didnt project
to continue doing business with HomeHero after the case study ended
An advantage to HomeHeros business was the various geographical locations
they could provide care to instantly upon request
The change in overtime rules caused the rates to go from $250 to $550

Team Charter and Schedule

All work will be done using Google Docs. This will allow all team members to refer to
others work and to help edit and guide each other. When we meet in class, we will
share our discoveries, discuss our concerns, ask our questions, and critique each
other's work. This will ensure quality work.

Together in class, we will work on peer evaluating each other's deliverables using the
rubric shown above. Based on the calendar below, everyone will know what they have
to do and when they have to do it. We are all open to new ideas from each group
member, and will use that to our advantage to get the best possible deliverables for
Jared and Jason. We are all aware that we have other responsibilities out of this class,
and have made the schedule accordingly so that everyone has enough time to finish
their responsibilities with all of their workload. All work that must be finalized by
Tuesday or discussed in class will be completed by teammates by Monday, giving
everyone ample time to prepare, edit, and improve on work before classroom
collaboration.

Work description and distribution:

Deliverable Whose Job Due Date

Understanding the Audience Cat - Demographic Data, Income, 4/10

Projection
Oksana - Chronic Health Conditions,
Client Characteristics and Tendencies

Interpreting Healthcare Matt & Henry - Legislation and interview 4/10

Legislation questions

Predicting Obstacles Darpan - Failure of HomeHero 4/10

Jared Grogan and Jason Wolfe 10 April 11,
2017

Department of Labor James - Healthcare changes 4/10

Standards

Memo Draft All members 3/30

Memo Final All members 4/4

Plan of work:

Calendar
Tuesday 4/4 Thursday 4/6 Weekend 4/8
Start Revising Memo Revise interview Work on
Draft Interview questions deliverables
Questions Improve Project 3A
Finish Revising HW:
Memo Work on
HW: deliverables
Start writing our Submit Project 3A
deliverables
Read Merkel article
on research

Tuesday 4/11 Thursday 4/13 Weekend 4/15

Discuss deliverables Start to think about Write Progress
Review and critique how we can Report Draft
our work connect our
HW: deliverables
Interviews Add interview
Oksana-Intervi information to our
ew with client deliverables
completed
Matt-Interview
with iCare4U
completed

Tuesday 4/18 Thursday 4/20 Weekend 4/22

Edit all of our Final Draft of TBD
Deliverables Deliverables Due
Together Finish Progress
Report
Jared Grogan and Jason Wolfe 11 April 11,
2017

For our deliverables, we plan to compile between one and two pages of each of our
individual findings and how it is relevant to the project. Oksana will research current
statistics on people with disabilities, chronic health conditions, and other relevant
demographics. She will also investigate client characteristics and technological
tendencies when searching for healthcare. Much of her research will be presented in
charts that display the data visually.

Catherine will research the statistics on age, population, those who need care, and
those who are caregivers. In addition to finding the current statistics, weve decided that
it would be beneficial to determine projections of these statistics into the future. With this
information we plan to forecast any opportunities or problems that might arise for the
home healthcare market.

Darpan will research the home healthcare company, HomeHero, that just recently
ceased operations in California. She will analyze many of the areas in which they
excelled prior to the shutdown as well as the reasons that led to the company failing.
This information will allow us to suggest courses of action for Care PRN in order to
avoid the same problems that HomeHero faced.

James will collect information pertaining to employee classification(s) from the IRS and
the standards for live-in domestic and home healthcare workers from the department of
labor. He will also research how the healthcare system has changed in the past few
years. The purpose of this is to gauge the regulatory landscape. Additionally, he will
analyze how the viability of the home healthcare market may change in the upcoming
four years. We predict that the healthcare system is poised to change greatly.

Matt and Henry, along with the rest of the group will work to draft questions for
prospective interviewees that could give us some insight into how home healthcare
works. Interviews with Jason, the current CarePRN client, and the Family Caregiver
Coordinator for Henry Ford Health System will give us valuable front line research
on the goals and abilities of the company.

In order to achieve each of these goals we will make sure that each person participates
and completes their job by the specified dates. Although each person has a specific
research area, we will encourage collaboration within the group so that no portion is
completed by just one person. We will accomplish this collaboration through our already
established means of communication that include a text group chat, an email group, and
a google drive.

References
1. Snyder, R., & Lyon, N. (2015). Health of Persons with Disabilities in Michigan.
Retrieved March 28, 2017.
2. Home Health Aide: Educational Requirements. (2-17). Retrieved March 28, 2017,
from
http://study.com/articles/Home_Health_Aide_Educational_Requirements.html
Jared Grogan and Jason Wolfe 12 April 11,
2017

3. Baum, S. (2017, February 28). HomeHero has ceased operations for caregiver
service. CEO explains what happened. Retrieved March 28, 2017, from
http://medcitynews.com/2017/02/homehero-ceased-operations-caregiver-service-
ceo-explains-happened/?rf=1
4. Bureau, U. C. (n.d.). Census.gov. Retrieved March 28, 2017, from
https://www.census.gov/
5. Metzger, K. (2012, February 2). The Aging Demographics of Michigan and Metro
Detroit. Retrieved March 28, 2017, from
https://datadrivendetroit.org/files/D3P/Aging_2012.pdf
6. Kalhajal@mlive.com, K. A. (2014, June 16). Are we prepared? Senior population
expected to skyrocket, even in shrinking Detroit. Retrieved March 28, 2017, from
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2014/06/are_we_prepared_senior_p
opulat.html
7. Markel, Chapter 6, Researching your Subject