A Complete Guide to Opening a Group Home in the United States

Group homes are facilities that have long helped individuals in the United States needing some level of personal or medical care.

Whether they need personal care, medical, or psychiatric assistance, group homes let people access needed resources while still living with a level of autonomy.

If you have a penchant for helping people in need and want to build your own group home, here’s what you need to do:

1. Find a Qualified Location

The first thing you’ll need to do is find a location that’s both safe and acceptable for residential use. If you’re planning to house people who require medical or psychiatric help, consider looking for a place near an urgent care center or medical or psychiatric facility.

In most cases, these facilities will have both the equipment and the staffing required to provide the resources you’ll need.

2. Obtain a Business License

Since running a group home is a business, you may need to obtain a business license. This might also require you to register a formal business name with your state.

You can find out more about how to go about this by contacting your state bureau of commerce.

3. Decide Between Medical or Psychiatric Care

If you plan on offering medical or psychiatric care, you’ll need to find a facility, doctor, nurse, or other medical professionals that can provide the care that’s required.

You might even be able to partner with an existing institution to offer a wrap-around service or one that provides both residential and outpatient care.

This means that after your residents finish receiving treatment, they can return to the group home for additional care or to have the medications necessary for the treatment administered.

4. Apply for Medicaid

Before you can open a group home, you have to decide whether or not you want to use Medicaid.

Remember that Medicaid is a federal program managed by the states, and it’s not free money. There will be administrative costs associated with running a Medicaid business. You may have to increase your salaries to cover some of these expenses since Medicaid has a cap on wages.

On the other hand, though, you’ll also have access to a lot of money, some of which you can use to subsidize your business.

5. Find Residents

You may be tempted to reach out to friends or your family to find the first people who will share your home, but it’s actually against the law to do so.

Instead, you’ll need to go through the state’s mental health office and request that a representative of the state come to your home to conduct a clinical assessment.

You’ll have to pay for this assessment, but it will help you to determine whether or not your prospective residents need to be in a group home setting.

6. Contest a Denial

If your residents are denied access to your group home, you can appeal this decision by contesting the decision. This can be done by filing a complaint with the appropriate agency in your state after receiving an official notice of denial.

You’ll have to wait a set amount of time before you can file the complaint, and you’ll have to submit your complaint in writing, with copies of all official documents you have. While there will be additional administrative costs, you won’t be charged a fee.

Conclusion

Starting a group home is a complex process, and you’ll have to deal with many different agencies to ensure that you’re allowed to do so. However, once you’ve found and trained your residents, you may find that it’s one of the most rewarding experiences you’ll ever have.

Group Home Riches provides group home resources that empower others by showing them how to not only make a living but make a fortune by serving those in need. We do this by providing free content on our blog and website, as well as a free ten-part course on starting your own group home. If you want to know more about how to start a small group home, we’ve got your back! Get in touch with us today and let us know how we can help!