Ep 37 - Integrated Senior Care: Elevating Community Relationships with Janelle Jackson from Arosa

Join us for an inspiring conversation with Janelle Jackson from Arosa as she shares her journey from helping out at her father's home care agency to becoming the Area Manager for Miami and South Broward. Janelle offers insights into building meaningful community relationships and bringing joy to seniors through events, while also highlighting the extensive range of services Arosa provides—from care management to diabetes management and guardianship. Discover how Arosa's integrated approach ensures seamless healthcare coordination, making them a one-stop solution for clients seeking comprehensive senior care services.
 
 Planning for long-term care can be daunting, but Janelle sheds light on the importance of early financial planning to ease the burden on families. She discusses the options available, including veterans benefits, self-pay, and Medicaid, and underscores the value of candid family conversations to create effective care plans. The episode also features a compelling case study that illustrates the benefits of well-planned care strategies and Arosa's effective vetting process for caregivers. With a national presence, Arosa forms partnerships across the country, enhancing senior care services nationwide and ensuring client satisfaction remains at the forefront of their mission.

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Transcript

Josh Fertel

00:04

Welcome to the Angry Biller, a show where we explore the people in the businesses behind the scenes of healthcare, those men and women that are the catalysts that allow providers to concentrate on delivering exceptional patient care. Welcome to the Angry Biller. My name is Josh Fertel, I'm the owner of J3 Medical Billing and I am your host. We are here at the Visuals by Momo Studios in Fort Lauderdale, florida. If you've listened to any of the episodes before, you know I am a big advocate of talking about aging in America, the cost of it, what goes into it, and I'm very excited I have Janelle Jackson from Arosa, a large company that's into the home, health care and other things that they do, and just really excited that you could be here. So thanks for coming, janelle. 

Janelle Jackson

00:52

Thank you for having me. I'm so happy to be here. 

Josh Fertel

00:55

I know that your company, arosa, does many different things, but before we get into that, I want to hear about you. Tell us about your journey to health care. 

Janelle Jackson

01:04

Well, my journey started very early. In my early 20s my father actually started his own company and I helped him out with that, from getting it started on the back end, getting clients, marketing and all of that. So that's where it all started and then just gradually moving towards the industry, in different aspects but in the same way if that makes sense. 

Josh Fertel

01:26

Was that health care that he was in? Yes, it was home care, so he had a home care agency. Got it, got it. And so tell me about what transitioned you to a different instead of taking over that one. 

Janelle Jackson

01:36

Oh well, it was just far too far. And he actually serviced in Detroit Gotcha. Yeah, so I was just like no, I'd rather stay down here. 

Josh Fertel

01:48

Are you from Detroit originally? 

Janelle Jackson

01:49

No, I'm not. You're from down here. No, I'm down here. Okay, so tell us what you learned from your dad that you were able to take from to the new place. 

02:00

Yeah, what I learned from my dad is just the passion that I have for this business, and then also the patience because it does take a lot of patience, yes, um, to deal with both clients as well as, um, you know, caregivers, nurses, any kind of aspect of the business. So I took that along with me to all my different ventures in the industry and, um, it hasn't changed. I just love what I do. It's the best, it's really the best. 

Josh Fertel

02:26

No, it's noble. What you're doing is noble and it's for a great cause. What is your position at Abroza? What is it that you actually are doing? 

Janelle Jackson

02:35

Yeah, so I'm the area manager for the Miami and South Broward area. 

Josh Fertel

02:39

Okay. 

Janelle Jackson

02:40

So I'm building our territory in Miami, and that's basically what I'm doing out there every day sponsoring events, meeting new clients and their families and getting everything the ball rolling. 

Josh Fertel

02:53

What kind of events are you sponsoring? 

Janelle Jackson

02:55

So I do sponsor many different events. I love the events that I do in the communities. That's what makes me happy the most, because I actually do see seniors and put smiles on their faces, and that's the best joy that I could bring to my life and I know it brings joy to theirs as well and you, and where do, where do you hold these events? 

03:13

so they're at the community. So if there's an ALF, ilf, um, as well, as you know, any kind of facilities, um, I do host the events there and that gives me a chance to meet the community and also the people that run it as well, so your clientele is coming a lot from the facilities. Yeah, from communities word of mouth. Of course, some people don't live at communities, so it's always in-home as well, so we do provide in-home care. 

Josh Fertel

03:45

So all right, so give me the range of what you do. 

Janelle Jackson

03:47

Of course, all right. So we do care management. So that's a wide range. We can help with just basic like coordinating doctor's appointments, relaying information between the doctors, so everybody's on the same page when it comes to the medical conditions the client is going through. We do med management, diabetes management, so we do have a nurse that is overseeing every client, so they do have nursing oversight. We also do guardianship. 

04:14

So if we take an extra mile, if there's any clients that are needing help with, say, finances, putting their finances in order, or even helping them from say they were at a hospital and moving into a community. We go that route too. We also help with home care, so just basic non-medical needs as well Wow. 

Josh Fertel

04:35

Wow, so a lot of the home care people that I know they don't do the medical part right there are some. Yeah, you know non-skilled labor or physical, but you guys do all that. 

Janelle Jackson

04:47

Yes. 

Josh Fertel

04:48

That's different. That definitely sets you apart, I imagine. 

Janelle Jackson

04:51

Yes, it does. It makes us more or less like a one-stop shop, which is really great. That's something that we aspire to and what we've accomplished, we want to be able to promote, and you know provide that suite of service, so you're not having to go to one agency to do one thing, another one to do another, and you know bouncing from different places it makes sense? 

Josh Fertel

05:11

yeah, it makes sense, because we were talking about getting appointments. Just to see a doctor is work yes, it is and the day-to-day care that's being given. You're not doing that, you are overseeing that. 

Janelle Jackson

05:26

Yes, I'm not doing that per se. 

Josh Fertel

05:28

I am overseeing it. 

Janelle Jackson

05:29

What I would help with is if there's any care management needs, so if I need to coordinate doctor's appointments, I say that I'm their little personal assistant basically helping them coordinate pay their bills, things like that. 

Josh Fertel

05:44

The caregivers that are going to the homes or that's going to the facilities. How do they interact with you and what kind of feedback do they give you? Or that you need to say, oh, we need to do something about this. 

Janelle Jackson

05:55

Yes, of course. So our caregivers. I say they're the face of our community, our agency, because they are the eyes and ears. Sure, we go in, we do our own assessments, but if anything does change from the time we do an assessment to the start of care the caregivers are able to relay that information to us. So they are the ones that are there at the forefront. They're our little soldiers. We love them. 

06:18

We care for our caregivers. We make sure that they are well taken care of, and that shows in how they take care of our clients as well. 

Josh Fertel

06:26

Yeah, of course. Of course, the initial assessment of a patient right client. How does that go? Who's involved in that? 

Janelle Jackson

06:33

So our nurses included in that. When it comes to initial assessments, it's a wide variety of information that we need to gain Absolutely, that we need to gain Absolutely. Just from even hobbies something simple as hobbies interests all the way to like medication, allergies, medical conditions. So we get the whole nitty-gritty information that we're able to relate to our caregivers and also other nurses that are going to be partaking on the care of these clients. 

Josh Fertel

06:59

Gotcha and the determination as to you know this person is okay to be at home, but this person really should be in a facility and the conversation that goes on with the family. 

Janelle Jackson

07:08

Yes, yes, that is also included in the assessment. So if we have any professional recommendations, that's something that we do bring up Just to let them know. Full transparency is key. So, we want to make sure that they know everything, what we think would be the right choice. 

07:31

Of course, you know everybody is not able and willing to pay for, you know, going to a community and of course a lot of people want to stay in home as long as possible, right, so we try to incorporate that and how we can develop a care plan just specifically for them. 

Josh Fertel

07:40

I love the use of the word care plan. 

Janelle Jackson

07:42

Yes. 

Josh Fertel

07:43

The it's. I guess a client, a patient's going to be more comfortable in their own home. Of course the care is different, right, because it's more personal when it's at home. Do you have different caregivers that say, oh, this person is great in a home, this person is great in a facility, and do it that way? 

Janelle Jackson

08:03

Yeah, of course. So that's what we do in the initial assessment we try to gather as much information as possible. Then we go back to our drawing board. We have caregivers that um, based on their knowledge, as, of course, you know, their schedule as well, we match them based on also personality so we go in depth with, just not just like oh, this person is available to work. 

08:24

We're going to send them out, no, it goes much more in depth, and we have our care specialist, khadija, and she's the one that's really good at matching our caregivers, and we do take pride on working together collaborating as a team, because I feel that's very important. If we're the ones going in the home and meeting the clients and doing assessments and things like that, we want to be able to be part of that journey, throughout the whole process. 

Josh Fertel

08:49

Not just hand it off Right, right, right, and you want the relationship right between the caregiver and the client to be there. 

Janelle Jackson

08:57

Exactly, you don't want to keep changing. Exactly Because they don't get along, of course, exactly. 

Josh Fertel

09:02

That makes sense and it's nice that the organization has this all thought out. Yes, talk about guardianship. 

Janelle Jackson

09:15

Tell us when you think time is for you to step in and do those kind of things. So, when it comes to guardianship, we do get court appointed. 

09:19

We do have a few clients that we are guardians of, which is amazing, because we've helped them from being at a hospital not able to speak or, you know, able to make any decisions walk even, and then getting them from that point to going into, say, a community and getting we have a specific client that's just she's just doing so amazing, from not being verbal and not able to walk when we received her as our guardianship program and then just her thriving at this community. So we do go through. We have different relationships with different attorneys that are able to come to us and say, hey, we have a client that we think would be a great fit for you guys, and that's how we walk through that process, Of course. Then you have to get court appointed. 

Josh Fertel

10:06

You guys have definitely taken this whole industry to another level. 

Janelle Jackson

10:10

Yes, we try to, as I said earlier, be our little one-stop shop, because we want to be able to be there for every point of their journey. 

Josh Fertel

10:19

Right. Do you get pushback sometimes from the families when the guardianship is involved? 

Janelle Jackson

10:25

We get pushback all the time. 

Josh Fertel

10:26

Okay, I would expect that. 

Janelle Jackson

10:28

Yeah, of course, but then that's why you are in place where you're able to make those decisions, and even if you're getting pushback, we will take into consideration what the family's thoughts are. But we're looking at the client and that's what the best interest of that client is, what we're going to move forward with. 

Josh Fertel

10:48

Right, right, right. The facilities that you deal with when you're recommending, say, you know, I think this person would thrive at this facility or that facility. Is there a difference? Do you see that a lot? 

Janelle Jackson

11:03

Yeah, of course there's many different communities, so there's difference from, like, an independent living community, independent living facility or even assisted living. So we take into account how much they're able to spend. 

11:16

We're not going to send them to such a like a luxurious community if they're not able to spend that amount of money, but we also want to make sure that the care is what is needed and what they're getting. So that's how we kind of match. Of course, we do tours. We work with many different wonderful placement agencies that are able to help us throughout that process as well, but we do take pride on doing that as well and making the right match. 

Josh Fertel

11:39

Yes, I want to take a little that process as well, but we do take pride on doing that as well and making the right match. Yes, I want to take a little bit of a break. I want to come back. I really want to start talking about the financial side of what it takes. 

11:47

Visuals by Momo passionately brings your vision to life. With expert video production. We create impactful, community focused content for businesses and nonprofits, helping you connect and engage with your audience. From concept to completion, our dedicated team is committed to telling your unique story with creativity and precision. Elevate your brand, making a lasting impression, with Visuals by Momo. Visit visualsbymomocom or call 954-745-7922 to start your journey today. Your story, our passion. We are back with Janelle Jackson from Arosa. Janelle, you know I totally get and appreciate everything that your company's doing. There's always a cost right and being able to afford these things. If I've learned anything from having conversations with people like yourself, professionals like yourself, is that the planning was never there and there's going to be some financial burden somewhere. Take us through the steps of how you navigate that. 

Janelle Jackson

12:54

Of course. So we have clients that are very fortunate to have purchased long-term care insurance policies when they were younger, right. 

Josh Fertel

13:02

They're in the minority, for sure. Exactly. 

Janelle Jackson

13:05

But what I do want to push is that people do look into that, because you don't want to be a burden on your family. When you're older and the cost of living is more, of course it's going to get more expensive in the future, so why not take? 

13:18

that burden off of your family member. So look into the long-term care insurance. Say, the cost of living is more of course, it's going to get more expensive in the future, so why not take that burden off of your family member? So look into the long-term care insurance. Other than that, we do accept veterans benefits, which is great, and then self-pay. So I mean there's other aspects of the company that you're able to do. You know, like they have Medicaid providers, but we aren't one. So that's another way of getting you know the services needed, which is through Medicaid, but financially, if you're not hitting those marks like long term care insurance, veterans, yeah, self pay can be very pricey if you're not able to afford, of course, and then it becomes burdensome on your family members. 

Josh Fertel

14:02

Sure, and it's you sounding almost apologetic, but it's not you. 

Janelle Jackson

14:07

I know. 

Josh Fertel

14:08

You know it's, it's, it's travesty how much it costs to get old in America, and I've spoken about this a few times now. The are there facilities that you deal with, that some will take the Medicaid or the VA, or some that don't and say, okay, this is your options. 

Janelle Jackson

14:29

Yes, of course. So we do go through that. That's part of our care management. So we will be able to differentiate. Hey, these are some Medicaid providers. They will accept your insurance through Medicaid. Then, of course, long-term care insurance. There's many different communities that accept long-term care insurance, so that's not more of an issue, and I mean that's just basically how it works. 

Josh Fertel

14:53

So who's having the conversation with the family? 

Janelle Jackson

14:56

I am or my team members, Whoever is doing the assessment. We're having those kind of conversations upfront. Of course we find out ahead of time what they're looking for and then we try to you know, navigate through those areas that they're having. 

Josh Fertel

15:09

You have to set the expectations of. This is what it's going to be. Yeah, that, I mean. That's certainly got to be the most difficult part. 

Janelle Jackson

15:16

It is at times for sure. 

Josh Fertel

15:18

Give me a a good story about how you know you guys made a decision that this was the right plan for this person and it really. It just took off. 

Janelle Jackson

15:28

Well, I did mention earlier. So this is our like star client. We love her to death. We we actually did all the suite of services with her. 

Josh Fertel

15:36

Okay. 

Janelle Jackson

15:36

So she started off in the hospital, um, as I said, nonverbal, and she wasn't able to make any decisions for herself. She was taken advantage of by a friend of hers, stole a lot of money from her you hear it a lot in this industry when it comes to seniors and we were appointed as guardians and just getting her from that point, my team, my regional director, as well as our DONON, christopher's, my regional and Brittany's, our DON, stepped in and they got the ball rolling. 

16:09

They had to figure out what's the next step for her. So she had to move from one of her apartments and downsize Okay. So of course they went. This is how much we love doing what we do. So, we went the extra mile, not only just moving her, but we went um downsized, made sure we threw out all her cluttered um clothes furniture sold, organized, everything, um. And we also went ahead and found her a community that would be able to take her, and not only her, but she loves her little cat. 

16:41

Right so to see her happy and reunited with her cat after six months was something that was so. It was just so nice. It was really nice so doing that and working through that whole community, getting her acclimated and everything, making sure she's comfortable and then implementing home care, which is something that she didn't have prior. 

17:05

So, that's all the suite of services that we do offer and that was just in a nutshell with that one client and she is so happy. She's thriving. She's walking with assistance of a walker but she's still walking. She wasn't able to before she's talking. She's going down in the community making friends, so she's thriving and we just love to see her. 

Josh Fertel

17:26

You know, the highlight of what you just said to me was that you had two levels assuming above you that were involved in this one patient. 

Janelle Jackson

17:33

Yes. 

Josh Fertel

17:34

And I've never heard that before. 

Janelle Jackson

17:36

All hands on deck with everyone that's extraordinary and it's great. 

Josh Fertel

17:43

So she's home now and she's under. How do you determine how many hours in the day that say this particular person needs care? 

Janelle Jackson

17:52

So of course we take into account what she actually needs. So if she needs anything with total care, say activities of daily living, if she needs help with transfers, bathing, things like that, so this is all part of the assessment. Of course we give our professional recommendation and we let them know hey, we would suggest a certain amount of hours. Then they'll go back, think about it a lot of times. 

18:19

They'll take our professional recommendation and use it because we're not going to jip you, we're not going to tell you some extravagant amount of numbers and you don't need it, so we make sure that it is tailored to every individual yes um, based on what they need. Uh, we also want to know if they're living alone, because if they're living alone, then they might need more hours. What kind of medical conditions do they have? Alzheimer's dementia? What stage of the process disease process are they in? 

18:48

So there's many different factors that will put together that plan for that specific person, and then we let them know exactly how many hours they should have versus what they would actually want. 

Josh Fertel

19:00

Yeah, it's just nighttime, just if they have to get out of bed and go to the bathroom right Exactly. Somebody needs to be there in some cases Yep, the caregivers themselves. How are you getting them? How do you vet them? 

Janelle Jackson

19:13

That's a good question. We get it a lot, so we vet them very thoroughly as a matter of fact, we want to make sure that we do their fingerprinting background checks. We do local background checks as well, and we also do orientation training. So there's multiple steps before we even have anyone out in the field. Dee again, I want to mention Khadijah. 

19:36

She's our care specialist and recruiter, and she is the one that takes thorough sets of rules and regulations when it comes to vetting and onboarding caregivers. Not only do we go through all of that process, we also put ourselves in the other person's shoe. Would we want this caregiver to take care of our loved one? If we were in a situation like this. And if all those checks, checkboxes match, then they're a fit, Of course, you know. If they're not, we have to give them the little spiel. Sorry, but it's not for you. 

Josh Fertel

20:11

Yeah, it's not for us, yeah it's not a good fit. It's not a good fit. Is it hard finding caregivers like anything else nowadays? 

Janelle Jackson

20:22

I don't say necessarily it's hard finding caregivers. We do have a lot of caregivers that we have. There's many different, and then they all work at different agencies. It's the quality we want to make sure that we find quality. So that's what we pride ourselves on is the quality. And that might be a little bit harder than normal, because you're not just coming here and giving me paperwork and we're just getting you onboarded and staffing you. No, we want to make sure you're good quality. 

Josh Fertel

20:49

You're a good person. Right, you're to present the company in the best way. 

Janelle Jackson

20:52

Yeah, and you have the education and knowledge to provide the level of care that we need to have done. 

Josh Fertel

20:58

And Erosa itself is a national company. It's not just a. 

Janelle Jackson

21:01

Yeah, it's national. 

Josh Fertel

21:02

What are the advantages of it being a national company? 

Janelle Jackson

21:05

The advantages of being a national company is partnering with different communities nationwide. I think that's a great advantage, because not only are they looking different communities are looking for partnership, but they want to be able to rely on a company that will be able to take the extra step to make sure that their residents are happy. So I think that's a good advantage that we have. 

Josh Fertel

21:28

Do you have a good example? 

Janelle Jackson

21:29

Yeah, so we do have some clients. So I was in New Jersey, not New Jersey. I'm so sorry. I was in North Carolina. 

Josh Fertel

21:37

Big difference, yes, big difference, sorry. 

Janelle Jackson

21:41

Can we edit that? I was in North Carolina um for training and I was able to see so many different um clients when I was training many moons ago. Um and the partnership between the community and the actual Rosa um up there, it was just so seamless. We get it all the time I did in Chicago a couple months ago. I did a presentation with my regional and also somebody on the executive team and we had so many people speaking of Arosa and other different states saying that they had such a seamless transition and they were just so happy to hear that we will be coming to present and provide some kind of sponsorship and I think that's a testament to the type of work that we do For others. I didn't even know any of these people. 

22:34

It was like 45 plus people that we were doing a presentation for and for them to actually know Arosa. 

Josh Fertel

22:39

It was just really nice. I think another advantage and I have very good friends who are in the home health industry that it's their companies. But when you have that kind of gathering right, the education that you're picking up of things that you might not have known, that somebody else can say you know we're doing this and you're like that's a great idea, I can implement that down in South Florida, exactly. I mean, that's a big deal. 

Janelle Jackson

23:02

Yeah, it is a big deal. We do get that a lot too. We want to make sure that, even though we're visiting another state, maybe we can take something that would better our you always will. 

Josh Fertel

23:12

Yeah, exactly, you always will. What do you think are going to be the next steps in this health care field? 

Janelle Jackson

23:20

In this health care field? 

Josh Fertel

23:21

Yeah, what do you think is going to? 

Janelle Jackson

23:21

happen. I think what should happen is better care, better compassion. 

Josh Fertel

23:28

Right. 

Janelle Jackson

23:30

I would love to see that these seniors are better taken care of and not taken advantage of. That's what I would love to see. 

Josh Fertel

23:39

Yes. 

Janelle Jackson

23:39

Because I do get some horror stories that just put tears in your eyes. 

Josh Fertel

23:43

I'm sure it's so sad. 

Janelle Jackson

23:45

So I'm hoping that would get better over time. 

Josh Fertel

23:48

Right, I have a question about a magic wand that I always like to ask, but you kind of just answered it. What would you change and just make sure to protect, right? 

Janelle Jackson

23:58

Yes, to protect them, you know, and just to make sure to protect right, yes to protect them. 

Josh Fertel

24:00

If somebody wanted to contact you and ask about your services, where would they go? 

Janelle Jackson

24:11

Well, I do have my phone number. If you guys would like my phone number, my number is 786-304-3655. I am on LinkedIn. 

Josh Fertel

24:18

Okay. 

Janelle Jackson

24:18

Janelle, simone, jackson and Orosa. 

Josh Fertel

24:22

OrosaCarecom. Orosacarecom. So that's where they can look up the company and if they were looking up for somebody, if their, their parents were in a different state, it's the same website. 

Janelle Jackson

24:33

OrosaCarecom. There's a location, part of the website. 

Josh Fertel

24:37

That's, that's great. What, what's? What is the rest of the year look like for you? 

Janelle Jackson

24:42

The rest of the year looks like just a lot of grinding. I want to get out there. I want to make like clients and their family members happy. I want to get into these other communities that I wasn't able to do before. My goal is to get into so many other communities. I have a whole list right, um, and I have it. Uh, actually, my regional and I and some of the team he put together a list of all the communities that we would love to get into and just make a difference that's it, so that's one of my goals and all the holidays coming up yeah, and just doing something special for the caregivers, for the clients. 

25:17

We have a fall festival that we're doing tomorrow for our senior community. 

Josh Fertel

25:21

Oh, what's that? 

Janelle Jackson

25:22

We have a petting zoo so we partnered with Heart to Heart and Parkside Tamarack. 

Josh Fertel

25:26

I've had Heart to Heart. Yeah, yes, yes, yes, I love them. 

Janelle Jackson

25:30

And we partnered up to do a fall festival, right, and that's something that we're going to do for our seniors tomorrow. Wonderful tomorrow and we're able to do a petting zoo um contests, have food, just entertain and have fun with them and so you bring the petting zoo to the facility. We're gonna every yeah we bring it to the communities for sure, for sure that's great. 

Josh Fertel

25:51

That must be a fun time for it is fun see, is there anything else if I gave you that magic wand again, again, pick something else that you would want to change. 

Janelle Jackson

26:02

What else would I want to? 

Josh Fertel

26:03

change For your company or for. 

Janelle Jackson

26:05

No, I think that was basically it Just making everyone happy. I want all my clients to be happy. I want every senior to be happy, so the magic wand is make all the seniors happy. That's a good one. 

Josh Fertel

26:18

It's a tall order Make all of them happy. 

Janelle Jackson

26:20

That's a good one. 

Josh Fertel

26:21

It's a tall order. Make all of them happy. That's a good one. I really appreciate that. You came on and spoke with us and you know I always learn every time I do this I learn something that there is a next level when it comes to home health care or to health care in general for seniors. So I appreciate you teaching me something today and I wish you continued success. Keep doing what you're doing and hopefully we'll have you come back again. 

Janelle Jackson

26:47

Of course anytime and tell some more stories. Thank you so much for having me no. 

Josh Fertel

26:51

thank you for coming. 

Janelle Jackson

26:52

I really enjoyed it. 

Josh Fertel

26:53

Thanks. Thank you for listening today. Please follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn, and you can check us out at theangrybiller.com.