- Key insight: Discover how a student-matching platform is lowering in-home care costs and improving access.
- Expert quote: Neal Shah - Enabling affordable, quality home care improves outcomes.
- Forward look: Prepare for home-based caregiving platforms to alter workforce benefits and care pipelines.
- Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review
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This type of support is highly valued by employees: According to
CareYaya provides services such as light personal assistance, medication reminders, meal prep, activity engagement and overnight stays. The setup promotes aging in place while
"Supporting people to stay at home by connecting them with affordable, quality care is a major positive for society, because it keeps [them] healthier and safe, but also in an environment they want to be in," he says. "That is an opportunity for home-based caregiving to improve as an industry, to get better care workers, to modernize the way that care is delivered, and also a lot of opportunity for technology innovation."
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A different approach to caregiving
CareYaya applicants come from the company's partner universities, which currently number more than 40 across 10 states. The company vets them with background checks and interviews, and ends up selecting about 20% of those who apply. Families are interviewed as well to ensure students will not be asked to provide medically complex care.
Once cleared, those in search of care can enter the days and times needed, as well as specific circumstances or conditions of their loved one, and an algorithm in the app will connect them with the best matches. Families can request student caregivers who end up being the best fit, and the app's mutual rating and review system allows both clients and student caregivers to publicly share their experiences, says Shah. Many clients end up with a care team of two to three students at a time, all details of which are synced through the app, he says.
"We know the reliability, we know the on-time percentage, we know their reviews — our algorithms do everything for you," he says. "Busy [clients] need the job done, and they need it done well with high trust [and] good-quality people. This [approach] reduces the friction of running [background] checks on your own and negotiating schedules and different rates with each person — we standardize and streamline that experience."
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The financial aspect of working with CareYaya can be a win for family caregivers, too. Unlike many traditional in-home care services that charge an hourly rate and keep a large cut, CareYaya's student caregivers are paid directly by their clients at an hourly rate of around $20, and keep 100% of their earnings. CareYaya itself is funded through philanthropic contributions, grants and investments. This means reliable care at a major reduction in cost — around 50% less than going through a traditional agency, according to CareYaya's data.
"If you're [paying for] 40 hours a week of care for your mom at $40 an hour, it's [more than] $1,500 a week that you're paying out of pocket," Shah says. "If I propose to somebody in Durham, North Carolina, [for example] that they can pay $80,000 a year for 40 hours a week of care — and the care worker [may not be] that great because the company's not paying them much — or instead, a Duke University nursing student is going to take care of mom for $40,000 a year, and that person is going to be awesome … it reduces the guilt and the financial strain."
Shah points out the positive impact of exposing future healthcare professionals to the intricacies of caregiving, which builds experience along with empathy that they will carry into their careers as nurses, doctors and other vital roles. He notes that money is typically secondary to a passion for helping people, and students often form close relationships with those they care for, leading to better results for all involved.
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As benefit leaders look for more ways to support their working caregiver population, they need to understand the impact of reliable, in-person help on people's ability to be present and perform, says Shah.
"Employers are going to recognize that supporting caregivers is in the best interest of their bottom line," he says. "[Having] a break is the No 1 thing, [and] there's a big opportunity for them to address this."
Read more about caregiving needs and solutions in the workplace:
The hidden strain of special-needs caregiving on today's workforce Exclusive research: The caregiving benefits employees need At AT&T, employee caregivers get a boost from these benefits Exclusive research: Caregiving support boosts recruitment and retention How this Modern Health exec balanced caregiving and career
