The Development Of Respitematch
By David Jayne, Thu Dec 8th

It was a beautiful spring afternoon seventeen years ago when Iwas seated on an examination table and the neurologist began tospeak. “You have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS. You mighthave heard it referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease.” Withoutraising my head I asked, “How long?” Void of hesitation, hisreply rang in my head, “Three to five years.” That marked thebeginning of a journey of many changes and challenges.

As I declined into paralysis my dependence on others increased.I have hired many caregivers in my nearly two decades ofdisability, some fantastic, some horrible. Unfortunately, thehorrible caregivers seem to leave the lasting impressions, butwhen your total existence depends on others and you are in needof a caregiver, the memory becomes short.

During the ‘90s, I became totally paralyzed, needed to use aventilator fulltime, and lost the ability to eat and speak.Living on a fixed income with increasing personal care needsmade it more and more difficult to afford qualified caregivers.According to the government, I am wealthy and do not qualify foradditional financial assistance, so all of my caregiver expenseis out of pocket. I struggle to make ends meet, a catch-22 alltoo familiar to many Americans with a disability.

In my efforts to hire and afford caregivers capable of my carerequirements, I have used every medium imaginable to locatequalified candidates: classified newspaper ads, personalreferrals, nanny services, agencies, mailbox fliers, articles,church bulletins, word of mouth, etc. Some methods have beenmore successful than others, but all have several drawbacks. Themost common problem is the lack of information that can beeasily accessed.

My caregiver of four years was leaving my employ early in 2004to marry. I began looking for a replacement several months priorto her departure. I decided to use the Internet thinking itmight be an excellent resource to find home health professionals.

To my disappointment, all I discovered on the Internet were afew classified-style ads scattered here and there on varioussites. These postings were still lacking the detailedinformation needed to save time and make informed decisions tohire the appropriate candidate.

I have been an entrepreneur since childhood, and my wheels beganturning. I thought if I, as an individual with a disability,experienced these frustrations, caregivers must wrestle with thesame problems. The idea came to me of creating a platform muchlike a singles’ website, but instead for home healthprofessionals and “patients” in the home setting.

The plans for RespiteMatch.com began taking shape. I developedprofiles that have the capability to

be extremely detailed,containing many variables important to the patient/caregiverrelationship. It is my desire to create one-stop shopping thatwill meet all home health needs and that will avoid the commonhome health pitfalls both patients and caregivers have endured.

Currently on www.RespiteMatch.com, patients and caregivers cancreate detailed profiles with or without photo-graphs (ifprovided) as members at no charge. They can add to theirFavorites List, receive email notification when their profilehas been added to another’s Favorites List, and also view theirpersonal MatchList generated by their requirements.

Subscribers to the RespiteMatch ser-vice ($19.95 for 30 days;$49.95 for 90 days; some additional fees for searches and suretybonds) receive all of the member benefits but have access to allof the contact information contained in the profiles, includingthe use of RespiteMatch’s private email and email notification.

Subscribers can search by many criteria in addition to specifichealth skills that are required or possessed. Mem-bers can alsosearch by location with GPS-powered zipcode searches.

Now available for subscribers include background checks, DMVchecks, credit checks, employment verification, professionallicense verification, education verification, criminal and civilrecords checks, sex offender checks, reference verification,etc. Soon domestic workers’ surety bonds will be available aswell as home health products.

SIDEBAR

As founder of the National Coalition to Amend the HomeboundRestriction (NCAHB), David Jayne prodded The Centers forMedicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) into conducting a two-yeardemonstration project called Home Health IndependenceDemonstration. It began in October 2004 in Massachusetts,Missouri and Colorado, with a maximum of 15,000 Medicarebeneficiaries (across all three states) eligible to participate.

The project is studying the benefits and costs of allowingMedicare beneficiaries with severe, chronic conditions to bedeemed homebound – for the purposes of remaining eligible forhome health services – even though they leave home more thanwould be allowed under the existing Medicare rules.

The demonstration permits individuals who are eligible to leavehome as often and as long as they like (except to work regularlyin a paid position full-time or part-time outside the home) andstill be considered homebound in order to receive Medicare homehealth services.

For more information and to check possible eligibility as aventilator user, log on to:www.cms.hhs.gov/researchers/demos/HHAPac10_8_04.pdf

About the author:David Jayne is a 17 year survivor of Lou Gehrig's disease. He isthe founder of RespiteMatch.com. David shares his extensiveknowledge of the home health industry and disability rights.