LivHOME, a Santa Barbara-based company that positions itself as an alternative to nursing homes for senior citizens, is opening a Newport Beach office this month.
“The demographics are excellent, with the wealth and aging factors,” said Mike Nicholson, LivHOME’s co-founder and chief executive. He noted that Orange County has the eighth-largest population of people older than 65 among U.S. counties, according to a Chapman University study.
LivHOME provides in-home care managers with advanced geriatric specialty degrees and experience, said Patty Murphy, the company’s OC director.
Murphy said care management could also include getting a client to a physician, physical therapist or other healthcare provider if needed. She noted that caregivers receive specialized training in areas including Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
LivHOME services cost $3,000 to $3,200 a month, based on 40 hours a week of care by a caregiver that doesn’t live with a client, Nicholson said. The cost goes up to around $5,000 a month if the caregiver has to live in the client’s home.
Figures from an Assisted Living Federation of America/PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP survey showed 1999’s average monthly cost for a private assisted-living facility room was $2,250 nationally and $1,945 in the West. A study released in July by the MetLife Mature Market Institute, meanwhile, showed that the average national cost of a nursing home stay was around $4,700 a month.
LivHOME’s services aren’t covered by health plans, but Nicholson predicted that “eventually, long-term insurance will get its act together” and consider covering such care. He added, however, that he is not interested in involving his company with managed care.
LivHOME plans to keep its offices company-owned, rather than franchising them. Franchising is a model pursued by Omaha, Neb.-based Home Instead Senior Care, which has offices in Orange County and offers non-medical companionship and care services for senior citizens.
LivHOME has offices in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Funders include Bank of America Ventures and Tullis-Dickerson Co. Inc. Nicholson said the company finished a $10 million second round of financing in March.
LivHOME is projecting to end 2000 with a $7 million “revenue run rate,” Nicholson said. He said that going public is an avenue the company is exploring. n
