Home health care firm grows

Local entrepreneur Michael Juceam says it's the right time to expand his home elderly care business, Right at Home.

The business is a franchise of an Omaha, Neb.-based chain and Juceam has owned Right at Home territories in Charlotte and Sarasota counties since 2004, with limited business in Manatee County. Seeing a need, he recently acquired the rights for full services in Manatee County, which cost about $50,000. “There are huge challenges we face in this industry,” Juceam tells Coffee Talk, “but despite that we are growing the services we provide.”

Those challenges, says Juceam, an attorney who also previously founded a Web-based document management firm that specializes in health care and financial services, include new U.S. Labor Department regulations. The rules, announced Sept. 17, will require home health care agencies to pay overtime and higher minimum wages to home health aides starting in 2015.