Interim HealthCare Franchise Review (2024)

Interim has experienced continued growth for the past 47 years with an average franchisee tenure of 18 years. This means new franchisees havethe opportunity to learn directly from a diversified network with an unparalleled ability to expand their reach and scope of services.

Interim services include: wide range of in-home care, physical therapy, specialized care, and staffing, in addition to other services.

Interim Health Care Management Team

Interim HealthCare is managed under the Caring Brands International umbrella, whose management has many years of experience in the healthcare industry.

In 2013, Caring Brands International was developed and launched as a future-focused healthcare enterprise to address the global shift that has begun. Forming the Caring Brands International platform base is Interim HealthCare, a leader in the U.S. care franchise industry for over four decades. The first acquisition in September 2013 under the enterprise umbrella was Bluebird Care, a well-known domiciliary franchise company in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. 

In October 2014, Just Better Care, a care franchise company based in Australia, joined the Caring Brands International enterprise. Today, three market-leading franchise care brands with more than 300 franchise owners operating 530 locations in seven countries generate nearly a billion dollars U.S. in combined system-wide sales under the Caring Brands International umbrella.

Franchise Health Care Services Industry Analysis

Franchise Strengths

• One of the oldest established brands in the Home Care industry, having been founded in 1966
• High quality care – one of the few home care providers to exclusively use home care employees with CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) certifications
• High margin, recurring revenue business where most costs are only incurred during home visits
• Wide range of potential clients

Franchise Weaknesses

• Due to there being no ad-fund it seems marketing is mainly done via word of mouth and networking, so more responsibility is put on the individual owner to succeed in this respect
• Reputation-heavy industry, which means that bad experiences with other franchise operators can significantly impact the system
• Success dependent on finding competent CNA’s

Franchise Opportunities

• Very large market, with over $88 billion in revenue a year that has grown an average of over 4% per year since 2011
• Over 96% of the population over the age of 75 have a chronic disease
• As hospitalization costs have increased and aging consumers have embraced the home healthcare trend, many new firms have entered the industry in the past five years, signaling opportunity
• As the brand is well established with a strong reputation, opening in an open territory that is growing can yield strong results
• Technology is expected to continue to allow for improved service in the industry

Franchise Threats

• Profitability can be negatively impacted by close location of like competitors
• Potential for government to implement more oversight and regulations within the homecare industry
• The IHC franchise system needs to continue remaining strong in order for the whole system to flourish

How much is an Interim HealthCare Franchise?

FDD Disclosure: “Below, we present gross sales data from our franchisees for the 2018 calendar year. We have compiled the information either from our franchisee’s software or based upon what franchisees have reported to us in the ordinary course of business through our sales reporting system. 

We assume that the information submitted is accurate, and complete and contains no material misrepresentations or omissions, but we have not independently audited this information. We have written substantiation of the information used to compile the financial performance representations presented below. We will make this written substantiation available to you upon written request.

The information below includes Areas that were in operation as of December 31, 2018 and that operated for the entire 2018 calendar year. As noted in Item 1, several of our existing franchisees offer hospice services that are not a part of the franchise offered under this disclosure document. 

Therefore, we excluded the gross sales associated with these hospice services from the data presented below, and we excluded any franchised businesses that did not report healthcare sales separately from hospice sales. We also excluded franchisees that only provided hospice or staffing services under the prior model, and franchisees that were not open for the entire 2018 year.

As of December 31, 2018, we had 192 Areas operated by franchisees that contained a total of 325 outlets. The information below represents the performance of 178 Areas that met the criteria described above (each Area is referred to as a “Qualifying Franchisee”). The tables below include average gross sales data for the Qualifying Franchisees for home healthcare sales and staffing sales. 

We also present separate tables for the 117 Qualifying Franchisees operated by franchisees owning more than one Area, as well as the 32 Qualifying Franchisees that do not have a Certificate of Need (“CON”) but operate in a state that requires a CON to accept Medicare sales. Please see Note 5 beneath the tables below for additional information regarding a CON. Each table is further subdivided by the number of years the Qualifying Franchisee had operated as of December 31, 2018.”

FDD Disclosure: “Of the 178 Qualifying Franchisees, 53 (or 30%) exceeded the Average Total Sales. Median Total Sales for all qualifying franchisees was $2,142,093. Of the 14 Qualifying Franchisees open less than three years, 6 (43%) exceeded the Average Total Sales. Median Total Sales for Qualifying Franchisees open less than three years was $469,946. Of the 26 Qualifying Franchisees open between three and five years, 9 (35%) exceeded the Average Total Sales. Median Total Sales for Qualifying Franchisees open between three and five years was $581,219. Of the 26 Qualifying Franchisees open between five and ten years, 7 (27%) exceeded the Average Total Sales. Median Total Sales for Qualifying Franchisees open between five and ten years was $1,075,217. Of the 112 Qualifying Franchisees open more than ten years, 34 (30%) exceeded the Average Total Sales. Median Total Sales for Qualifying Franchisees open more than ten years was $3,617,373.”

FDD Disclosure: “Of the 117 Qualifying Franchisees that operated more than one Area as of December 31, 2018, 39 (or 33%) exceeded the Average Total Sales. Median Sales for Qualifying Franchisees operated by a franchisee with more than one Area was $2,880,773. Of the 5 Qualifying Franchisees operated by a franchisee with more than one Area and open less than three years, 3 (60%) exceeded the Average Total Sales. Median Sales for Qualifying Franchisees operated by a franchisee with more than one Area and open less than three years was $691,914. Of the 10 Qualifying Franchisees operated by a franchisee with more than one Area and open between three and five years, 3 (30%) exceeded the Average Total Sales. Median Sales for Qualifying Franchisees operated by a franchisee with more than one Area and open between three and five years was $443,932. Of the 13 Qualifying Franchisees operated by a franchisee with more than one Area and open between five and ten years 5 (38%) exceeded the Average Total Sales. Median Sales for Qualifying Franchisees operated by a franchisee with more than one Area and open between five and ten years was $2,693,036. Of the 89 Qualifying Franchisees operated by a franchisee with more than one Area and open more than ten years, 29 (33%) exceeded the Average Total Sales. Median Sales for Qualifying Franchisees operated by a franchisee with more than one Area and open more than ten years was $3,786,284.”

FDD Disclosure: “Of the 32 Qualifying Franchisees that did not have a CON (but operated in a state that requires a CON) 9 (or 28%) exceeded the Average Total Sales. Median Sales for Qualifying Franchisees without a CON was $1,282,177. Of the 7 Qualifying Franchisees without a CON and open less than five years, 2 (29%) exceeded the Average Total Sales. Median Sales for Qualifying Franchisees without a CON and open less than five years was $882,141. Of the 10 Qualifying Franchisees without a CON and open between five and ten years, 5 (50%) exceeded the Average Total Sales. Median Sales for Qualifying Franchisees without a CON and open between five and ten years was $914,324. Of the 15 Qualifying Franchisees without a CON and open more than ten years, 5 (33%) exceeded the Average Total Sales. Median Sales for Qualifying Franchisees without a CON and open more than ten years was $3,426,505.”

FDD Disclosure: “Some of our existing franchisees operate in Areas that are substantially larger than the Areas offered under this disclosure document. However, many of these franchisees do not actively operate throughout the entire Area. As noted in Item 12, the standard minimum Area granted under this disclosure document includes a population of 175,000, of which 25,000 are over the age of 65. The total population of the Areas operated by Qualifying Franchisees ranged from 135,803 to 6,144,303, and the over 65 population ranged from 24,918 to 874,300. Additionally, many franchisees operate more than one outlet/office within their Area, generally by adding offices as they grow their business in the Area. The highest number of offices in an Area for a Qualifying Franchisee is 10.

As noted above, certain states require franchisees to obtain a Certificate of Need (“CON”) to accept Medicare sales. Franchisees in these states will not be able to generate Medicare sales until they obtain a CON, which can be difficult and time-consuming, and may not be possible in certain states that have placed a moratorium on the issuance of new CONs. Of the 178 Qualifying Franchisees providing Healthcare services, 41 operate in a state that requires a CON, and 9 of the 41 Qualifying Franchisees have obtained a CON.”