How Online Platforms Are Disrupting the $335 Billion Caregivers Market

Looking for a caregiver for an elderly parent or a child? You're not alone. Americans now spend more than $335 billion a year on care for people, homes, and pets. Unfortunately, finding the right caregiver is getting harder because of aging America, lower unemployment rates, and limited discretionary income. To make finding the right caregiver easier, companies like Care.com (CRCM) have created online platforms that allow people to find the right caregiver at the right price.

In this episode of The Motley Fool's Industry Focus: Healthcare, analyst Shannon Jones is joined by contributor Todd Campbell to explain how companies like Care.com are disrupting this massive market and if investing in these companies now is smart. 

To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. A full transcript follows the video.

This video was recorded on Aug. 28, 2019.

Shannon Jones: Welcome to Industry Focus, the podcast that dives into a different sector of the stock market every single day. Today is Wednesday, Aug. 28, and we're talking Healthcare. I'm your host, Shannon Jones, and I am joined via Skype by healthcare guru and world traveler, Todd Campbell. Todd, welcome back! How was the trip?

Todd Campbell: It was great! Actually, I have a value tip for all of our listeners out there. Are you ready?

Jones: Give it to us!

Campbell: If you're thinking about traveling, and you're thinking about traveling to Europe, please put Prague on your shortlist of places to go. The reason I say it's a value tip, $1 buys Kč 23 of the Czech currency. I tell you, I was there with a family of four, we had to work really, really hard to spend $100 on a meal.

Jones: Wow! I'm sold right now, Todd!

Campbell: And it's gorgeous! The town is incredibly cosmopolitan. Lots of stuff going on. Great food, great people. Really friendly. It was good to get out of the U.S. and see this other area of the world.

Jones: Great! I am so glad that you're back, Todd, especially glad that you're back for this week's show, because it's all about diving into the senior care market. Todd, I know you and I have talked about the growing aging population, specifically the baby boomers, a lot in the Industry Focus: Healthcare shows. Especially here in the U.S., the market opportunity is massive. That does create an opportunity for investors. Today's show is about diving into that opportunity and discussing two companies -- a well-known public company and also a privately held company that's stepping up to the plate to help out with our growing aging population. We'll also have a very special guest joining us on the second half of the show for that. 

Todd, let's first set the stage. What makes the senior home care market such a massive opportunity right now?

Campbell: This is such a great time to be doing this show for me, Shannon, because I'm actually hunting for a caregiver right now for my mother in law. I'm a little bit older, and my parents and my wife's parents are getting well into their 70s. Actually, my mother in law has type 1 diabetes. As a result, her vision has deteriorated over the years. It's tough. It's tough when you're raising a family, and you've got all these other commitments that you have to do, to also make sure that you're there and available as much as you'd like to be for the parents that raised you. We're actually taking advantage of some of the services we're going to be talking about today, evaluating people who may be closer to where she lives that may be able to pitch in and help out. I think that's something that I'm not alone in. A lot of people are doing that.

I was looking at the numbers, Shannon. There's over 75 million baby boomers, and they're turning 65 at a pace of 10,000 people per day from here through 2029. A lot of those seniors are going to require some help, whether it means getting to a doctor's appointment, or if it means housecleaning or just providing some companionship. And it's not [just] seniors that these sites that are linking people like me to these care providers are addressing. They're also helping parents finding child care, and busy working moms and dads with things like tying up with house cleaners. I think it's a very interesting and important growth market, especially because of the retiring Baby Boomers and just how much of the population will be shifting older over the course of the next decade or two.

Jones: With this massive market opportunity, there's also the other side of this, and that's the caregiver side. Are there enough skilled caregivers out there to address the needs of a population that's living longer? That's the biggest question that a lot of these companies are trying to solve. Like you mentioned, that includes everything from routine daily tasks to more complex needs like dementia care. There was a federal study done recently that showed home care is actually becoming one of the nation's fastest growing occupations, with an additional million workers needed by 2026.

Right now, you've got this supply/demand issue going on. For home care workers, this is a job market that's plagued by low wages, inconvenient work schedules. You've got little opportunity to advance, and even sometimes misalignment of the skill set that a family requires versus the skill set that caregiver actually has. In all of that, you have a very high-turnover environment, which has created this labor shortage, especially at some of the skilled nursing facilities. Todd, you and I have talked about a couple of REITs out there that have struggled over the last few years because of a number of factors, but a huge factor being this shortage of skilled quality workers. Being able to attract and retain the best caregivers out there is a huge problem. 

All in all, you've got multiple pressures. You've got a booming aging population, you have a shortage of skilled workers out there that can meet the need. At the end of the day, this leaves people who are basically the most in need of quality care having the least amount of access to it.

Campbell: That's a great point. It's something that all these companies are going to have to try and figure out. Historically, when you were looking for someone to pitch in and help you out, maybe you're relying on something like Craigslist, or, if you go back even further, the classifieds section, or word of mouth, talking to friends and family. Like you said, with demand being the way it is today, it's a lot more competitive for those people. Yet, at the same time, we're still hamstrung by our wallets. We have those competing forces. Traditional supply and demand theoretically should be driving up wages for these caregivers and attracting more people to the industry, but at the same time, you have this other dynamic, where you have people with not a lot of extra discretionary income that they can commit to these things. You really have to find the perfect person for each of these individual situations.

I suppose that's why platforms that can sit in the middle are becoming so valuable. These platforms can cast a very, very wide net. As things like Uber and Airbnb and such have shown us, being able to tap into this broader population of people can be a very successful business model. We talk, probably around our friends and our family and everybody else, about how everything is moving toward this gig-oriented economy. I suppose, as time goes by, maybe you'll end up with more of a situation where, say, you have traditionally a stay-at-home parent, and they have a little bit of extra flexibility, because maybe now their child has started to go off into elementary school themselves. Well, maybe now, they could participate through one of these platforms and use some of their time, put some of that time that otherwise they would be maybe at home, not as productive as they'd like to be, doing something, helping out, pitching in for somebody else.

Jones: Exactly. It all comes down to finding the right caregiver at the right cost, to your point, Todd, and with the right skill set to do that. That's where you have companies and start-ups stepping in to fill that gap, and where we as investors can look for opportunities. 

There's one public company that got its start more so in the child care space, but has expanded to other areas, including senior care. That is none other than Care.com, ticker CRCM. Todd, this is a company I know recently has made a lot of headlines, probably for a lot of the wrong reasons. But it's a company we've been asked about quite extensively here at The Motley Fool. Can you tell us a little bit more about their business? What is it they're attempting to do? And, what's been happening in 2019?

Campbell: They've actually been around quite a while, Shannon. They got their start back in 2007, recognizing early on that there might be this tidal shift toward demand. They established a platform, online, or via mobile, you can access it, where you are able to either, as a family looking for a caregiver, go on and search and get connected to people who might be interested in that role that you have available; or, conversely, if you're someone who has extra time and you'd like to be a caregiver, if you have a certain skill set, like you're an LNA or something else, you're able to go on the platform, get screened, and be able to be matched up. They call it the matching platform, if you will. They're matching the people who need it with the people who can provide it. They're also doing some other ancillary things. They provide a service that allows you to pay the care provider through their platform. That can streamline things for taxes. They're also giving the caregivers some tax tools and that type of thing to help them better manage it as a real business. And then, of course, they also have this very fast growing part of the business, which is providing these services as a backup to employees of different companies. For example, Best Buy is a client of theirs. Best Buy offers backup day care through the Care.com platform. 

In 2019, we're going to get to it, there have been some... we'll call it growing pains. There have been some issues. We'll explain those in a minute. Leading up to that, just to give you a little bit of a feel for where the company is today, they have about 31 million people who are interacting with their system. They call those members. Of those, they have, let's call it 340,000 or so who are paying subscriptions that give them access to use the platform. That's where they make their bread and butter. They get these subscription fees from these families who then can be connected to these caregivers. And then, of course, on the enterprise side, they can collect fees from the employers who are providing access for their workers to these caregivers. They're a pretty good-sized company, considering it's relatively early in this escalation of demand for these services. I think they do about $200 million, roughly, in revenue. They're growing at about a 10% clip. That's the backstory of it. 

You mentioned, a rocky year in 2019. Yeah, this is part of the issue. Can you screen these caregivers in a way to make sure that you have honesty and integrity throughout the platform? In March, The Wall Street Journal did an article that called into question whether or not Care.com was doing enough to make sure that the people who were offering services on their platform were people who should be offering services on that platform. Since then, there's been this domino effect that's happened. The CFO has resigned. The CEO has announced they're looking for a permanent CEO, and she's going to transition to a chairmanship-type role. Best Buy had stepped away from their business for a while to reevaluate and make sure that everything was copacetic. It seems that they've done that, and they're back as being a big client of theirs on the enterprise side. But, yeah, this is one of those big issues that all of these companies in the space are going to have to figure out how to manage. How do we make sure that everybody who's participating on the platform is safe?

Jones: It's the trust, with any of these platforms, whether it be for a child or whether it be for elder care. Trust is the underpinning of it all. Care.com, we've been talking about it internally here over the past few weeks, especially with the announcement that the CEO and founder was stepping aside into an executive chairman role. Is this the bottom for Care.com? Is it now the ultimate value play? Right now, the stock is trading for about $9 a share, has a market cap just north of $300 million, 1.5 times sales. Could this be the ultimate value play? Obviously, they are helping to fill that gap. They're addressing specific needs. They do have multiple product lines. Granted, the activist investors are also now starting the circle. But if you step back, look at it from a much longer lens, when you see what Care.com is doing, and how, basically, they're making it convenient for you to find a caregiver no matter whether it's child care or senior care, and giving you all the tools that you need to be able to manage that relationship, you do have to wonder if this could actually be a good buying opportunity for a company like this.

Campbell: We have to get to that investing takeaway for our listeners. Is this something that's investment-worthy at this point? The shares have absolutely been hammered over the course of the last few months, since that Wall Street Journal article. They are taking steps to make sure that their platform is stronger. You're going to see over the course of the next six to 12 months more tools, more screening, more availability of sophisticated background checks that families can use for these caregivers, or that caregivers can take and use as a marketing tool to get more business. You're going to see all of that happening. I think changing some of the leadership is not a bad thing. Having a fresh set of eyes would be very good.

They said in Q2, they brought down their guidance because of their sales weren't quite what they were hoping for. They said that's because of a drop-off in word of mouth business. That was largely because of the Wall Street Journal overhang. At some point, as that gets further and further in the background, you're going to have easier, theoretically, comparisons. My feeling is that 2020 might be a very good time to start looking for a recovery in the stock. Time will tell. The company is still growing about 10% year over year, despite this negative headwinds. So, for me, it's a name worth keeping on a watch list.

Jones: Absolutely. Time will tell. A lot to watch here. 

[...]

Jones: For today's show, I thought it'd be great to dive a little bit deeper in terms of understanding the home care market and some of the industry trends and dynamics shaping this space. I'm super excited to have CEO and founder of HomeCare.com, Todd Walrath, joining us today. HomeCare.com is a privately held company. It's also an investment with the Motley Fool's sister company, Motley Fool Ventures. He's joining us today to give us some unique insights into his business and the industry. As a serial entrepreneur, if I can use that term, Todd, he comes with a wealth of knowledge and experience, having built multiple companies from the ground up. Todd, I'm so excited! Welcome to Industry Focus!

Todd Walrath: Thank you, first, for having me! We're super excited to talk about HomeCare today and help your audience understand some of the things that we do.

Jones: Exactly, yeah. Let's kick things off with that. A lot of our listeners with Industry Focus: Healthcare, we always try to cover new trends, things that they need to be watching. But before we get into that, let's talk about HomeCare.com. What is it? How exactly does it work?

Walrath: Sure. HomeCare.com is a mobile app that caregivers can download to get connected directly with families that need their services. We have over 250,000 caregivers that have registered with HomeCare.com to be caregivers. I think the reason that they're excited about having a mobile app to help them manage their work life is because there's so many different families that need care. The trend now is that caregivers want to be able to have control, choice, convenience. By downloading the app, they can see all the work opportunities in their area. They get to select the ones that work for their schedule, for their commute. Most importantly, they get to interview the family during the process, so they can align the type of work they want to do with the skills that they have. If they want to be challenged, if they want to work with families with dementia. If they want to provide companionship, they can look at those opportunities on the app, and then pick the things that are best for them.

Jones: Gotcha. Todd, you yourself have such a unique background. You've done quite a lot even before you started diving into the start-up world. Can you tell us about those experiences that you've had before HomeCare.com, and how they helped shape your vision and strategy for this mobile app service?

Walrath: Sure, yeah. I've worked for big companies for a long time. Coming up, I worked for big companies like AT&T and America Online, I worked for the Weather Channel. I was fortunate enough that when I joined the Weather Channel, it was right in 1996 when the internet was starting, so I helped them build their initial website for weather.com. I learned there about what consumers like to do on the internet, how to present information digitally, how to iterate, to improve functionality features. I've tried to carry that with me in my later years here as I've gone off to become an entrepreneur and start my own company. I've tried to carry a lot of those things with me.

I got into the senior business right around 2006, dealing with my own family situation. I was looking for care for one of my family members and found, gosh, even though the internet at that point had been around for 10 years, there were no brands or "Sherpas" to help you navigate through how to find providers, who pays for it, who are the good ones, how does this whole process work? So, I started a company in 2006 called seniorliving.net that helped families with assisted living. We sold that business, and then in 2015, we started HomeCare.com to help families on the home care side of things. So, I've had a wide spectrum of experiences in the senior care world.

Jones: Yeah, very wide spectrum. One of the quotes I read from an interview that you did not too long ago stood out to me. You said traditional home care is broken. Can you explain that, and how Homecare has positioned itself to solve that problem?

Walrath: Yeah. When I say that, I don't mean that the industry doesn't care about families, that they're not well-intentioned people who are trying to do right by people. The people in the home care industry have big hearts. They work long hours. It's a labor of love that they've chosen to go into this field. The biggest problem to me is the physics and the economics of the industry. When I got into the industry in 2006, the average caregiver in the U.S. made $9.75 an hour. That's not a lot, but that was 13 years ago. Last year, the average caregiver made $10.25 an hour. Not much improvement in 12 or 13 years of caregiving. The challenge is that most home care agencies don't make very much money. It's a low-margin business and they have high fixed costs. They have nurses and schedulers and their office location, payroll people, marketing people. The industry has replicated this business model. I think there's 20,000 providers in the U.S. alone, they all have the same location, a couple of zip codes that they cover, a handful of caregivers, a handful of families, and they haven't been able to change their business model very much. Last year, the turnover for caregivers, because the wages are so low, was 82%, which boils down, to you and me, being that, if your mom likes the caregiver that she has, there's an 82% that that caregiver is probably going to change out in the time that they're getting service from whoever they chose to provide, which isn't a very good experience for anybody. The caregiver is going through change, the families certainly don't want to go through change, and the providers have to constantly replenish the supply of caregivers. 

So we tried to take a strategy which would avoid that, which would be, let's just connect the caregivers directly with the families, and take the agencies out of the middle of that relationship. They add a lot of cost to it. If we can do some of the functions that the agency does through technology, we can save the family money, and more importantly, give the family control over who is providing their care. The home care industry has been around for 30 years, but isn't it odd that you don't get to interview your caregiver before they start, or see what their resume is, or their experience, or talk to several caregivers before you decide which one is best for you? Every other industry allows you to do that, except home care. We put those basic pieces back in place so that families could see the background of the caregiver, the experience, and then select what was going to be the best fit for their family. 

It's come full circle with the economics and that particular quote. That's what I meant when I said that.

Jones: You mentioned the word alignment. From any caregiver model, whether it be senior care, even from child care, having alignment with what your needs are, and also what the needs are, or at least the skill set that this caregiver is bringing, is important. I'm curious, have you seen, as the labor market has evolved, and it's something we've talked about a lot in the show, have you seen more requests for more specialized needs that a lot of these clients are asking for? And because of your network, is it easier for you to try to match up those needs?

Walrath: Yeah, we do it two ways. First, we do a pretty extensive interview with the family. What was your life like before? What was your mom doing before she needed the care that she needs? How can we get her closer back to what's normal for her life? Most importantly, we basically do a detailed inventory of what the family's looking for. Then, we put that out to our network. So now, caregivers can actually get a detailed view of, OK, what kind of things is this person looking to do? Where are they? What do they need help with? Does that match up with what I'm interested in doing? Some people love the challenge of a really complex case. Other people might be intimidated by that, and just want to get to know the person they're taking care of and have more of a personal relationship with them, and everything in between. So, by doing that detailed interview, then pushing that out through the technology, the caregiver can get a good feel initially for what the family's looking for. What are the hours? What are they willing to pay? What's the location? What are the things they need done? And, then in the interview, they get the rest of the story. Is the personality a fit? Is this somebody I think I can work with? Can I be successful in this particular engagement? That's a little bit how we align that. 

And then, we also add in all of the other safety and needed items in today's world. We're background checking, we're verifying their license, we're getting references for the families, and we're tracking their success rate. What have other families said about that caregiver? Did they show up on time? Were they earnest? Do they provide good work? What feedback do we have? And now, having done this for five or six years, we literally have thousands of data points of feedback on the caregivers, and we're able to reward good work that is out there.

The average experience of a caregiver on our network is about 9.5 years, so I think we're attracting the best people who are tired of only having one option to make $10 to $12 an hour working for a home care agency. Now, they can essentially work for themselves on our platform. And we're seeing some of the rates that they're able to get are $15 to $17 an hour sometimes. That's good for everybody. The caregiver's getting treated better, they want to show up, they want to do good work, they're going to be more consistent. Through our business model, we're able to get more of the money that the family is spending to the caregiver where it belongs. That's why the caregivers are thriving on a platform like HomeCare.com.

Jones: Yeah, that makes so much sense. If the caregiver's happy, the family is happy. I want to zoom out a little bit. It seems like the demand for caregivers in this market has never been higher. What do you think are some of the key drivers or industry trends pushing more consumers to Homecare vs. some of the other options that they could choose from?

Walrath: It's a common sense approach. Most people want to stay at home. They don't want to be in a location that isn't their home with their creature comforts. It's also the most inexpensive way to get care. The great thing about  home care is, if a family member wants to help out three or four days a week, then you only need a caregiver three or four days a week to fill in the other holes. It's flexible, in terms of the way that you can package it. You could get it for four hours a day. You could get it for four days a week. You can't live at an assisted-living facility four days a week. That's not how that industry is set up to work. You move in there, and you live there all the time, and you pay that higher cost all the time. Between wanting to stay at home and the sheer economics, it's the most cost effective way to get care. 

It also provides that layer for adult children of security. I was reading an article, I think 65% of adult children live more than 200 miles away from their parents. Today, as our parents are aging, and everyone's living longer, that makes it tricky, if you're a couple of states away, to look in on your family member and take care, make sure they're safe, make sure they're comfortable. Home care can provide that connectivity, when adult children can't have proximity to the ones they love. It's a good option for them.

Jones: That's so true. I can relate. That's something that I'm even starting to think about now. I'm a millennial, but my parents live a couple of states over. As kids move away from their parents, it becomes so much more of a thing you have to start thinking about sooner. The economics alone, there's such a focus on the massive amount of spending that goes into healthcare as a millennial, too. It's also thinking about, how can I make sure that I am making the most cost-effective decisions? All of that plays into this model that you've built. 

With that being said, though, Todd, what do you think are the biggest opportunities for HomeCare.com and the industry? Also, what are some of the biggest challenges right now that you're facing?

Walrath: Well, on the opportunity side, one of the big trends right now in healthcare is consumer-directed care. I can pick my doctors, I can pick my procedures, I could go to a couple of doctors, get a second opinion. I am empowered to choose the path of the solution that I think is going to work best for me. I really like that aspect of healthcare. Generations gone by, it was driven by insurance costs, and doctors said, "You have to do this." Now, with the internet, the sharing of information that's out there, people are a lot more informed than they were 20 years ago. The consumer is much more enabled and empowered to make their own choices. That's also the case in home care here. They're able to choose the caregiver they want or a team of caregivers to provide the services that they want. That's a big trend right now. 

The number of people who need care is not going down. I was at a conference a couple of weeks ago. Baby boomers, which is the largest group, from 1946 to 1965, there were twice as many people born as any other, period. That's created a large inventory of potential customers. The first baby boomer doesn't turn 80 until 2025. If you think about home care, we're just getting started. About five years ago, 40 million people were getting home care. They say by 2025, 2030, that will double to about 80 million people needing home care. It's a huge revenue opportunity. Quite frankly, we're not sure if we have enough caregivers to even service them. If we don't create new, compelling platforms, technology, things that give caregivers choice, or attract new caregivers in here, there's not going to be anybody to take care of us when we're ready for care. We need to be focused on creating real working opportunities for people that want to do this work. 

A second opportunity is that healthcare providers are starting to use our platform to get workers in their operation. Examples would be assisted living, or skilled nursing facilities, hospitals. They need a lot of caregivers to provide aid services to the patients in their facilities. We have a growing business as well providing access to our 250,000 caregivers to healthcare providers. We're excited about that. We call that product ShiftMed. We've packaged it a little bit different for healthcare providers. But at the end of the day, it creates more opportunities for the caregivers themselves. 

The challenges of the industry are, we're still in the education phase. People don't know these options exist. That's why we want to tell your audience. That's why we're attending a lot of conferences and health fairs, letting people know that these options exist. I think that's our biggest challenge. You don't get a training class in college about how to deal with senior stuff. We have to take the village approach to helping each other, talking about it. It's much more common now to talk about senior things than it was in the past. Those are all good trends that will solve that problem, but it's a challenge still, educating everybody as to how things work.

Jones: Yeah, that's true. The education and the awareness of these options out there is key. I think underpinning this entire space, and the HomeCare model, is this platform of trust. A company we've talked about on the show before, Care.com, of course, has been dealt some blows on the trust in terms of background checks, screenings, things like that. It sounds like with HomeCare, though, it's a much more specialized, more intimate trust-building that starts at the beginning. It's not just a background check. Is that right?

Walrath: Yeah. The home care market is a much more regulated market than the child care market, believe it or not. There isn't a lot of statutes that I know about what your babysitter needs to do before they come out to your home, things like that. But at the state level and the federal level, there's a fair amount of regulatory protections. We even go well beyond that. Having background checks, license checks, reference checks, all the credentialing, health screening, TB tests, all the different things that go into making the workers safe for patients, the states do a pretty good job of regulating that. And then, we've made our technology so that it supports all that regulation. So, I think we're in good shape there. Fortunately, we're required to do all those things before people go out. In the day care industry, it's more optional. I think that's where Care.com got caught there a little bit, because some of those things were optional. Some families thought they had already been done, and didn't get those extra services. That's where the gap in perception existed, and created some problems there. So, things that I don't think we have in this industry, but we're pretty vigilant about it.

In healthcare, you only get one shot. If you're not providing quality services all the time, you're not going to get very far. People have long memories in healthcare. They stay in it for their whole lives as workers. We want to keep that relationship front and center at all times.

Jones: Yeah, absolutely. And then, paying for healthcare expenses, as we've talked about, is something that is on the top of mind for many. It's also really complex, especially when it comes to senior care as expenses continue to rise as the population gets older. Obviously, having a platform where you have that flexibility to find a caregiver, there's payment offered through the platform as well. As we expand out in terms of insurance coverage, whether it be private or public, what are the options out there for families who are looking for caregiver services?

Walrath: The good news is that we try to be the most competitively priced in our market. We're trying to save families money. It's a huge expense to them. We're typically 15% or 20% cheaper than the other local options. Home care as a category has never been paid for through government services. Medicare and Medicaid traditionally haven't paid for private-duty home care because it's nonmedical in nature. But that's changing. The Medicare Advantage Program has changed -- 2019 was the first year that, if you're on a Medicare Advantage program, they actually have some codes for you to get private-duty home care through your Medicare Advantage provider, which is nice. Now, I would say, it's early stages of that. There's not a lot of people who know about that, who are taking advantage of that yet. It's about four to six weeks of coverage after specific events and things like that. But I think that's the first step in having home care included in some of those programs. Interestingly, what they're finding is that the nonmedical things determine the outcomes just as much as the medical things. I'll give you a couple of examples.

The most common reason that people get readmitted to the hospital are, A, they don't go to their doctors' appointments. Well, if you have a home care worker, that's one of the things they do. They take you to your doctor. They sit with you there. They make sure that you're getting those checkups and those follow-up visits. They can get to things early so that it's not an ambulance roll or an emergency room visit. That's one thing. The second thing they do is, they make sure that you take your medication. That's actually the second top reason that people get readmitted to the hospital -- they don't stay on the regimen of the medication, something happens, and then they're right back in. That's where the high expenses -- if we're all constantly using the healthcare resources in an emergency mode, the expenses of that, we just can't catch up with that. They also do other things, like help you eat nutritious meals, reduce fall risks in the house. None of those are about a medical procedure, or a script, or an infusion, or an injection. Those are just good, common-sense things that, if we do all those things, we can take a lot of the expense out of the healthcare system. That's what people in hospitals are starting to figure out the importance of home care, and how it can drive down their costs, so that we can save the money for the people who need it the most.

Jones: Great. It really does sound like HomeCare.com is positioned very nicely right now to capture the aging baby boomer population. A lot of the focus on bringing down the cost. It also sounds like you're finally starting to see some coverage come your way as well. To close us out, Todd, I guess what's next? What's on the horizon for HomeCare.com?

Walrath: Well, we're continuing to grow the geographies that we serve. We're in over 10,000 zip codes across the country now. We can provide coverage for a good part of the country. We started in the Mid-Atlantic but we've now moved south into North Carolina, Texas. We're in the Midwest in Michigan, Ohio. We've opened up in the West in Arizona and Colorado. We're getting good geographic coverage. We're focused on that. We continue to drive the matching process so that we're getting families connected with the most caregivers. We're starting to help healthcare providers as well with their care needs. It's a lot. It's an important mission. We feel like we're mission-driven company that is making a difference in people's lives. We're excited that we get to do what we love -- working with technology, helping people, but also solve problems that families are experiencing every day. Those are some of the things we're working on.

Jones: Lots of exciting things to keep watch on. Todd, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to chat with us and for giving our listeners an opportunity to understand this space. Thrilled that you were able to take this time!

Walrath: Thank you, Shannon!

Jones: I appreciate it! Take care, Todd!

Alright, that will do it for this week's Industry Focus: Healthcare show. Thanks so much for tuning in! As always, people on the program may have an interest in the companies discussed on the show, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against stocks mentioned, so don't buy or sell anything based solely on what you hear. Thanks to Austin Morgan for his work behind the glass! For Todd Campbell, I'm Shannon Jones. Thanks for listening and Fool on!