There are black and white delineation lines. Then there is marbled gray. There are set rules of engagement, boundaries, and limits. Then there are fuzzy areas with no direction, footholds, backstops, or structural supports.

As you navigate through your healthcare career it is nice to be able to see your way from one day to another, one assignment to another, from one paycheck to another. The management and ownership at Care Team believe that you are best when focusing on the delivery of patient care. That is the underlaying reason that Care Team chose to be a licensed skilled nursing, full-service home health care agency. Also, it is the reason we are the employer and our caregivers are our employees, W-2 employees.

In today’s world of elderly care, there are nurse registries, which are primarily non-licensed personnel, and then there are licensed agencies that provide a full range of medical, skilled nursing and non-medical services. Due to regulatory pressures, just about all licensed agencies have a set employer/employee relationship with their caregivers (W-2). Most nurse registries have contract employees (1099) and the scope of the relationship is to match caregivers with patients and provide billing services. Nurse registries don’t assess the patient, work with the patient’s physician to develop a care plan, and they don’t supervise the provision of care going forward. It is up to the nurse registries’ caregivers to determine what non-medical services they can and cannot do for the patient. Hopefully these caregivers are well versed as to what they can and cannot do under state healthcare laws and regulations.

Unlike registries, Care Team’s nursing supervisory staff will develop a care plan and will utilize our caregivers’ skills, education and experiences to carry out the plan of treatment. You, as the caregiver, will have a defined and ever evolving care plan to give you direction, job task and set time frames for completing the task. You will also have those supervisors to support you each and every day, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You are not left alone in a patient’s home. We’ve got your back.

As an employee of Care Team, we have insurance coverage to protect you as well as the patient. If you are injured on the job, you are protected by Care Team’s worker’s compensation insurance policy. Also, we have insurance to protect the patient from a variety of issues stemming from our services. When working for a registry, you need to carry professional liability coverage and are vulnerable to assuming the cost of treatment for on-the-job injuries.

Lastly, registries try to convince their caregivers that they can earn more “take home” pay because their employer pays them as a 1099 (contract) employee. The truth is that you will owe the social security and Medicare taxes anyway. In fact, you will have to pay twice as much as if you were a W-2 employee.

W-2 employer’s pay several taxes for you. While your paycheck is net of your contributions for federal income taxes, social security (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%), the employer matches the social security (another 6.2%) and Medicare (another 1.45%) taxes in your name. Your employer also pays unemployment taxes to the state and the federal government for your benefit. No gray here!