BAYADA Home Health Care, the largest at-home healthcare service provider in the U.S., started with just $16,000 in the pocket of a 27-year-old man.

However, the “success story” of raising the largest home healthcare company in America with $16,000 is not the only thing that deserves people’s attention.

It was in 1975 that BAYADA’s founder, Mark Baiade, awoke to the need for home healthcare service watching the American society where there were “numerous people needing care but few caregivers” and “many hospitalized patients wanting to go home but could not.”

The U.S. situation 48 years ago is amazingly identical to Korea’s reality today.

In 1975 when Chairman Baiade started his business, the share of home care stood at a mere 1.5 percent of the total U.S. healthcare expenditure. Now the comparable share doubled to 3 percent. The industry itself is maturing through specialization and segmentation. In the meantime, the average hospitalization period in the U.S. plunged from 13-14 days to five days or less.

In contrast, the business has just begun to take its first step in Korea. The nation’s pace of populating aging is the fastest worldwide, exceeding the global “longevity power” Japan, not to mention America, where BAYADA is based. The average hospitalization period in Korea was the second longest among OECD member nations after Japan, with 19.1 days, in 2020. The government stresses the need for home care before Korea enters a superaged society in 2025.

However, related policies have yet to break out of the pilot project’s frame, and home care providers are struggling alone here and there.

Against this backdrop, it appears natural for the largest U.S. home care company with 50 years of history and Korea’s first specialized society for home healthcare service to join hands. Accordingly, BAYADA has set about to seek ways for the Korean home care industry’s grow hand in hand with the Korean Home Health Care Association, which launched on April 2.

Korea Biomedical Review met with Chairman Baiade, who visited Korea in time for the association’s inauguration to share his experiences and visions.

In an interview held at BAYADA Korea’s home office on April 3, Baiade said his company’s services provided in eight countries are based on “compassion, excellence, and reliability.” The “BAYADA WAY” also opened the way for BAYADA Korea’s CEO Kim Young-min, who also has the title of Regional President of the group, to challenge the home care business.

BAYADA, which jumped into the Korean market with the proposal of Kim, is confident of a successful business here, not to mention the collaboration with the just-launched society. Korea faces similar social changes to America, marked by nuclearizing families and an aging population, as well as a comprehensive and elaborate payment system. The economic level is also high enough to back up the home healthcare service’s supply. Above all, it is the universal desire of people to “lead a healthy living in the place where they have lived instead of hospitals.” Chairman Baiade stressed that he would meet such demands with excellent service and contribute to improving Korea’s healthcare environment.

The Baiade founder and chairperson acknowledged that Korea’s home care industry faces a “more challenging environment than America’s.” Social awareness of home care is also insufficient in Korea, and there are too clear limitations to the payment system to provide medical and care services in integrated ways. In addition, unlike BAYADA’s U.S. headquarters provide integrated service for patients of all age groups, including home care for children, its Korean offshoot focuses on caring for long-term care insurance recipients for now.

This notwithstanding, home care is an inevitable trend. To meet the growing demand for medical and caring services amid population aging and pull down soaring medical expenses, experts stress that Korea should shift the hospital’s function to regional communities or homes. Home healthcare is the key to this “paradigm shift.”

Lee Keon-se, a professor of preventive medicine at Konkuk University Graduate School of Medicine who also heads the association, agreed.

“The trend of medical service centered on acute disease and nursing hospitals should be changed to home care,” Professor Lee said in a previous interview with this paper.

At stake is how to shape such a trend. Korea also has the task of “how fast” it could do so. Experts forecast that 2030 will be the watershed year when baby boomers are 75 and older. However, given the government's current policies, they are pessimistic that the nation will fix such a trend by then. “If possible, I feel like skipping some stages,” Lee told reporters in a news conference celebrating the association’s launch on April 2.

Chairman Baiade said he understood such concerns but cautioned against excessive attempts to change existing trends in a short time, as “Rome was not built in a day.” In addition, he cited that the perceptions and decision-making processes of the government and the insurance industry are more conservative than the private sector.

“It is important for them to decide directions together and take steps one by one,” Baiade said. “It is the role of the association and BAYADA to help key players make the right decisions in this process.”

It is impossible to “go fast” in institutions or businesses. It must take time for society to share the business’ goals and nature and select and educate personnel who will implement them, he pointed out.

"You cannot provide services that can satisfy thousands or tens of thousands of people without a mindset of ‘growing slowly but surely.’ So it is needless to say that holds for home care that will deal with millions or tens of millions of people,” Baiade said.

However, he explained that Korea could advance the reinvigoration of home care by streamlining related laws and regulations preemptively as they did in the U.S. and Germany. BAYADA also plans to establish a home care network with the association and induce policy changes by unifying their voices. He added that if the awareness of home care’s needs and importance spreads, they may produce significant results in two to three years.

BAYADA goes one step further from here, envisioning a society where it becomes “natural for every family to have BAYADA’s phone number.”

“As recently as several decades ago, there were no concepts such as compulsory education and state vaccination. However, there will soon come a time when every child can receive medical and caring services at home as they are now educated and protected from diseases. That’s the future of home care, as pictured by BAYADA. I hope BAYADA’s visions and experiences will take root in Korea, too.”