What is CareDrain?
CareDrain is the five-vector phenomenon — Economic, Talent, Time, Stability, and Energy — through which disconnected home care platforms simultaneously drain a Medicaid HCBS agency's daily operating margin and suppress its exit valuation. Each vector costs you today and reduces what your agency is worth to a buyer tomorrow.
What is the Screen Tax?
The Screen Tax is the hidden administrative overhead consumed by operating disconnected scheduling, billing, EVV, and compliance platforms. For a typical 15-caregiver Medicaid agency, the Screen Tax averages approximately $247,000 per year — zero care delivered, zero exit value built.
How is exit value suppression calculated?
Pure Medicaid, owner-dependent agencies typically command 3x – 4x SDE multiples — the floor. Diversified-payer agencies with a management layer command 6x – 9x EBITDA — the ceiling (Mertz Taggart Q1 2025). On $200,000 EBITDA, the gap between floor and ceiling is approximately $600,000.
What is the 5-Drain Exit Protocol?
The 5-Drain Exit Protocol is the five sequential conditions — sealing the Economic, Talent, Time, Stability, and Energy drains — that make a Medicaid HCBS agency transferable to a buyer at premium multiple. The protocol was identified by studying agencies that successfully transferred; the same five conditions appeared in every successful exit.
What is a Care Business Advisor?
A Care Business Advisor is a CareBravo team member who conducts thirty-minute consultations with HCBS agency owners following completion of the CareDrain Diagnostic. The Advisor reviews the agency's specific numbers and provides honest guidance — including telling the owner directly when CareBravo is not the right fit.