The Home Care Experience with T&A

Amy Taylor: 00:00

Welcome to the very first episode of the home care experience with TNA. I'm Amy Taylor, and together with my cohost, Troy Brooks, we're excited to kick off this podcast adventure with you. Here on the home care experience, we'll explore everything from stories and challenges to successes and tips in home care and hospice and maybe just a little bit of humor. We'll help you navigate this ever changing industry. In today's episode, we'll talk about why we decided to launch this podcast, what you can expect from future episodes, and why this industry is one of the most impactful and important spaces to work in.

Amy Taylor: 00:35

So grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and let's dive into episode one of the home care experience with TNA. Hi, everybody. I am Amy Taylor, and this is, Troy Brooks with me, and this is our very first podcast of the home care experience with TNA. And so we wanna spend today talking about why we wanted to do this, why we, think we've got some interesting insights to share with everybody. We've both been in the industry a long time coming from different perspectives.

Amy Taylor: 01:10

And so we just feel like we've got some good information to share. And, you know, those of you that know us, we also think we're pretty funny. And, we'll do

Troy Brooks: 01:17

We are funny to us.

Amy Taylor: 01:18

I mean, to us, we are. Yeah. So so we'll see. Maybe you'll think we're funny too. We are not going for the comedy slot slot, though, so don't worry about that.

Amy Taylor: 01:28

So, Troy, why don't you get us started? Tell us about your time.

Troy Brooks: 01:31

You know, we met twenty years ago in two, like, over the February, and, right around that. Because I like I said, I remember that was that Aug. 0 met you and then, like, that Aug. 0, Texas Association for Home Gear had its annual meeting in Austin. And I was working in Austin at the point at that time, living and working in Austin.

Troy Brooks: 01:52

You're living and working in Austin. And I remember when we met, like, we started talking about different situations we were dealing with. And then we realized after we talked a little bit, we were talking about the same people, and that's when we realized we represented a lot of the same people. Yep. And, so so the thing that has for me, that's happened so I had worked for the state, the department of human services, which is now, has rolled into the Texas Health and Human Services Commission four or five years.

Troy Brooks: 02:32

And that's sort of like after law school, that was my, that was my graduate school. And so you had a similar, guess what you wanna cut your teeth or whatever on a in a in a in in home care accounting. Anyway, so for me, it's like there's something that's happened recently where a lot of that experience has gelled. And so I see things very differently than I did even five years ago where and the only thing I can attribute to it is just, you know, the this experience. And as the way I talk to clients has changed.

Troy Brooks: 03:07

And so I've gotten to where I like to share insight from that experience. And so that's part of my reason for wanting to do the podcast is just to be able to share that because I I find there are a lot of little things that people knew about if they're in the industry and they knew these little things, that it would help a lot. So I like

Amy Taylor: 03:29

I like the idea, and I'll go back to my, background in a minute. But I have so in my accounting world, I have a really strong group of accountants, CPAs, accountants. I call them my CPA buddies. And while we don't have a podcast, we're very well very much connected, and I really compare it. I've got my accounting group, and I've got my home care hospice group, which would be, for the most part, Texas TAC, Texas Home Care,

Troy Brooks: 03:54

whatever. Texas Association of Home Care and Hospice.

Amy Taylor: 03:56

Yeah. It's too much to say. So we call it TAC or some people call it TAC, but we're going we're team TAC. My people know who they are. And, anyways, But I love the idea of the community and giving back to the community, but also bringing more resources and bringing a bigger voice.

Amy Taylor: 04:15

And but sharing those inside stories and sharing the, like, don't do it this way because that was a bad experience. And and, hey, this seems to be working. And I really wanna see more. I think in Texas, which we have clients elsewhere, but, you know, we're based in Texas. I'm from Oklahoma, so I've got a good experience there too.

Amy Taylor: 04:38

But in Texas, it's very there is a very good home care community. And so when I say home care, I'm talking very globally that covers home health, PAS, hospice care in the home, those things. So I use that term broadly. But there's a great community, but I wanna bring it I wanna amplify it more, and I wanna bring more people in to share their stories and, you know, who who do we plan on having on here? Now we have not confirmed any of these, but we've got some ideas.

Amy Taylor: 05:08

Yeah. Some people from TAC, maybe some people from HHSC, some providers that have good stories that they wanna share.

Troy Brooks: 05:16

I mean, for some reason, people like us.

Amy Taylor: 05:18

They wanna talk

Troy Brooks: 05:19

to us. I've I've some of that, I don't know. Because some of these people like with the I've sued them before and they still talk to me and like me. But, that yeah. That's an exciting another exciting thing is just to be able to share that with people too.

Troy Brooks: 05:32

This is just a unique way for us to be able to share some of that that we talk about all the time. We talk about

Amy Taylor: 05:39

it all the

Troy Brooks: 05:39

time. You know, so it's it's a nice little outlet. Yeah. But, you know, the people that we deal with, you gotta think about we're talking about our clients. It's throughout that industry.

Troy Brooks: 05:51

The one common denominator is they're going into people's homes. They're going to where they live. Yep. And there's something pretty unique about that, and there's actually something special about that, I think. And, you know, people patients do better in their home.

Troy Brooks: 06:05

They do better when they're you know, and now a lot of times, it'll be they're living in a nursing facility or something like that. But they do better if they're in a home environment, they do better. And to me, there's something really powerful about that. So there's something very powerful about the industry and as a whole.

Amy Taylor: 06:22

And and I can't do wound care. So this is my way of participating and and trying to give you know, I don't wanna say give back, but give back and be involved. And and my team kinda likes it too because they think I've got a couple different team members that have had special experiences with home care or hospice. And then to be able to be part of a team that services that industry exclusively, they think it's really cool because we're number crunchers. And even Katie at tax, she knows, like, on the like, I'm serious about wound care.

Amy Taylor: 06:54

Like, don't even put my exhibit table next to the wound care or across from it.

Troy Brooks: 06:58

Yeah.

Amy Taylor: 06:59

Recently, I was across kinda

Troy Brooks: 07:01

pictures?

Amy Taylor: 07:01

Yes. And they have videos and they have demos. It's not demos, but, like, fakes. It's gross. I can't stomach it very well, guys.

Troy Brooks: 07:08

So Yeah. I never knew when I left law school that I was gonna learn so much about wound care and not be a clinician. Just had no clue.

Amy Taylor: 07:15

I mean You know what? And that's another thing about our clients that, what I love is for the most part, and this is starting to get less and less, but in the beginning, everybody's a caregiver, maybe a marketer, but they are caregivers of some sort. It's not it wasn't as common as it's starting to be now that you get, like, outside, like, business people coming in. And I'm not saying that they're not business savvy, but they're there's not a degree in home health management. There is a degree in nursing home administration.

Amy Taylor: 07:50

So my nursing home guys, because we do have a a handful of nursing homes that we work with, they're degree nursing home administrators. That's what they went to school for. But I feel like so many of our clients probably worked for another agency at some point Mhmm. And then started their own. And I love working with those kind of people that are entrepreneurial spirits.

Amy Taylor: 08:11

That's what I am. I somebody's gotta keep me tied to the ground. Otherwise, I'll be starting all kinds of stuff. So I do have big bigger bigger plans for a whole thing. But

Troy Brooks: 08:21

But what the I'm getting all that. What you're talking about though with that entrepreneurial spirit is I have a lot of times, trying to explain to lawyer friends who are representing maybe a a a well established company. There's a difference. And if you're dealing with that person who started the company and they're very driven, They're they're unique they're unique type of person. So, there's that.

Troy Brooks: 08:48

I mean, but but, yeah, that's one of the you just hit on one of those things where if you understand that these people, for the most part, started from a caregiving perspective. They're very giving people. They wanna help. I mean, that helps in dealing with them and helping to advise them. And, the other thing that I've noticed is that over the past, I don't know how long it's been going on, probably more probably the whole twenty years that I've been in the in private practice is that private equity buys into health care because from looking at it from far, it's it's profitable.

Troy Brooks: 09:23

The the private equity groups and that have done the best in from my perspective in Texas are the ones who have maintained on the op at the operational level, people who are familiar with the environment. And because as we'll talk about a lot, it's just different. So, the way it the so home care in Texas is gonna be different from a lot of other places. The private equity groups who have done well in Texas are people who have invested. They maintain their oversight, but the people who are actually carrying out the operations are familiar with that Texas environment.

Amy Taylor: 09:59

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Texas, remember, was its own little country down here. So yeah.

Amy Taylor: 10:04

Well, on my background so I graduated in December '96 and jumped right into work in, And we have some puppies in the office. And so Emma Lou is standing up on Troy's, leg over there. Emma. Okay. And the bulldog's snoring in the background.

Amy Taylor: 10:23

I don't know if anybody can hear that. But, anyways, that's that's my house. That's how it is. But I landed in home care from the get go, and it was way back in '97. And that was a time and it back then, it was really home health, Medicare home health.

Amy Taylor: 10:38

I was in Oklahoma. Oklahoma is the wild west when it comes to business. I've been through a couple of different things there that attributes to that, but that other business venture would it was nowhere near home care, so we'll save that for another day. But being there, people were so that was right in the middle of going from cost reimbursement to the PPS system. So we were under IPS, interim payment system, and it was really annihilating agencies left and right.

Amy Taylor: 11:10

I think we lost 30% of our, you know, freestanding agencies, in the country. So anyways, that's all. That's just where I landed, and I got introduced into the you know, the first introduction was what not to do because these people were going to jail. They were going to prison for being fraudulent. And because back then, you got reimbursed what you spent.

Amy Taylor: 11:32

And so they were, this particular company was doing a lot of, management fees. So they were taking all their profits and paying them out as management fees to their own management company. And they got busted, but that was my first introduction into the, into the industry. And then that's I have stayed here ever since.

Troy Brooks: 11:51

Well, the what I try to tell people what I'm, you know, trying to describe you to people, which, you know, can be a chore. Anyway, I tell them it's about your accounting experience that you you you were you started out in the you you went into the deep end. I mean, for when it back when cost reports had a significant effect on what people made, and they had big ramifications. Whereas now they're in bed in on the Medicare side, they're required and they're important, but they don't have, like, a direct impact. And so, learning cost reporting from that perspective, I think, at that period, I think probably gave you started your journey of insight.

Troy Brooks: 12:40

Also, you started during would you start it before the interim payment system? Right?

Amy Taylor: 12:47

So I don't know when IPS was at I feel like it was, like, '97, '90 08/00, '90 09/00. I know PPS was 02/. Yeah.

Troy Brooks: 12:53

And that's when a lot of people went under. Yep. Even when I was in I started in private practice in 02/4. And so for even a few years after that, I was dealing with people who had gone under overpayments. Yes.

Troy Brooks: 13:07

I was dealing with overpayments even at that stage. Yeah. They were at the tail end and the businesses were long gone. But, that's

Amy Taylor: 13:15

what I Once we got to IPS, overpayments went away for home care. Now and then that's when hospice came online for us because they all of a sudden in twin in 02/, they had to start filing Medicare cost reports. Prior to that, they didn't. So then we started getting hospices. And then now, just that pendulum, either in my when I explained it to, like, my friends, I said either hospice is getting hammered or home health is getting hammered, like, with regulations and oversight and trying to shut them down and, you know, and so we now I'm seeing a lot more people coming into hospice.

Amy Taylor: 13:53

And our for a long time, we had a whole lot more home cares and hospice kept building. This past year or this year, 2024, we filed as many home health Medicare cost reports as we did hospice Medicare cost reports. Exactly the same number. So we're kind of at a fifty fifty split.

Troy Brooks: 14:08

Well, that's another thing is is this by insight I mean, I see because I deal with all the programs in home care, whether it be it's hospice, pediatric private duty nursing, pediatric therapy, personal assistant services. Then you got Medicare skilled certified home health, and you got just reg licensed only home home health, which is also skilled. I see a lot of the commonalities, and so that helps and sort of like because you can see the common the the things that are common, you can compare and contrast and it helps me to understand and hand and make better decisions or help my clients make better decisions. But, one of the interesting things and that's another reason for doing this podcast is that it which are there at some point or another, one of the area in home care is getting hammered.

Amy Taylor: 15:04

That's exactly that's like

Troy Brooks: 15:06

Right now, hospice is on the rise.

Amy Taylor: 15:07

Yep.

Troy Brooks: 15:08

Pediatric therapy has been hammered. Pediatric private duty nursing and pediatric therapy are both now coming under more scrutiny on the managed care side from the Medicaid managed care organizations, the MCOs. So there's always something, the one constant and the businesses change. Yeah. Absolutely.

Troy Brooks: 15:24

It's always changing. And then And

Amy Taylor: 15:27

if other industries, they say that Yeah. I'm like, you have no effing clue. Like, get come on over to home care side.

Troy Brooks: 15:34

Well, this is a this is a business where that revenue stream of the way you make money, you you depended on for a long time. All of a sudden changes. Yeah. Now you're gonna get notice of that change, but it's gonna change, And then we have to shift gears.

Amy Taylor: 15:46

You know, this is so silly. Here's what it reminds me of. So in college, I waited tables. Right? And I worked at Outback.

Amy Taylor: 15:54

So I was at Outback all that all those years, all the way through college. Outback menu never changed. My sister worked at Chili's, and their damn menu changed every quarter. You had to learn a new menu. And that reminds me of, like, like, my CPA world, sure, we have changes, but it's I mean, pre COVID.

Amy Taylor: 16:11

COVID blew everything out of the water, but pre COVID, you know, you had to get a change. It was five years in the future. You had a lot of time to react. Whereas I feel like in home care and hospice, they get changes every other month something's changing. It it it's it's constant change, and I can't I don't know how they do it.

Amy Taylor: 16:30

The actual operators I don't know.

Troy Brooks: 16:31

That's one of the things though about people in the business that I have been fascinated with and I've come to really appreciate is they're they are very agile.

Amy Taylor: 16:41

Yeah.

Troy Brooks: 16:41

That is a word that you you you for you've had you were with someone who came up with that word, and I I use it now a lot because you have to be agile to be in this business. Yep.

Amy Taylor: 16:52

Yep. And and to stay smaller and it it it helps when you're smaller to be agile. I mean, when they get really big, they're still slow to move. But but yeah. So The

Troy Brooks: 17:03

ones who have done best are the ones who who who brought to a certain size are the ones who maybe that size that growth has been organic. They weren't always that big. So they are they at their core, they still have that agility. Yes. That's but but, yeah, there's a lot of, one of the other things about the industry is just I'm I'm I'm not gotten over how friendly people are and how how kind people are as to each other and to, I I mean, to deal with, I probably shouldn't say this because it's gonna probably end it.

Troy Brooks: 17:41

But over the past twenty years, I can probably count on both hands that I've gone to dinner with a client and I paid. And normally in the legal world, if I take a client to dinner, I pay. See, I shouldn't have said that because now they're gonna expect it. But but that to me is a sign that I mean, it's just part of the way that it's part of that giving nature, I guess.

Amy Taylor: 18:03

Yes. And I love that, on that line. Like, we become friends

Troy Brooks: 18:09

Yes.

Amy Taylor: 18:09

With a lot of our clients. And I've got a I've got a tight little friend group and in my little home care world, and and we're really tight. And it's funny where because they're all providers, and only two of them are actually clients out of a bigger group, but I don't care. We still go out, and they a couple of the guys, at the last annual meeting were very kind to, protect me. And there was somebody who made me feel a little uncomfortable at the bar, and so I had some guys step up for me.

Amy Taylor: 18:39

And so I felt like I got some big brothers.

Troy Brooks: 18:41

Yeah. It's a it's a it's a great group to be friends with.

Amy Taylor: 18:44

Well, the guy was handing out drink tickets, so you know I was right up in front. And then I was like, oh, wait. I need to back up a little bit. He's getting a little creepy to me. So Yeah.

Amy Taylor: 18:54

You want my attention. You hand out free drink tickets. I got

Troy Brooks: 18:57

Well, you're there.

Amy Taylor: 18:57

Yeah. And Troy's my chaperone.

Troy Brooks: 19:01

So, well, as much as I can. It's like, you know, hurting a cat of one. But we got stories. So I guess one of the things that I've come up with that that I've I've realized from all this insight is I was trying to explain to a client this week, there's more than one way to go about this. You have a you at the end, you have a destination.

Troy Brooks: 19:26

You have a you have a a point you wanna reach. I've always and so when it comes to decision making in the business, in the home care business, there are different routes that you can go. And this is one of the struggles I have with clients is sometimes trying to give them all the options confuses them.

Amy Taylor: 19:42

Yeah. But I

Troy Brooks: 19:43

have to remind them, like, okay. Look at the solution. What I've used to tell people, is in that okay. In Houston, if you ask for for okay. How do you get to the airport, intercontinental up north?

Troy Brooks: 19:58

People are gonna tell you different ways. Now you're going to the same place. Yeah. One may take a little bit longer than the other. Unless you're going, like, completely out of the way, it's not gonna be that big of a difference.

Troy Brooks: 20:10

And so that's what I have to explain to people is that in the legal decision making process, and the business making the process, there are different options along the way, which is the goal is the same. And I think one of the things that I've experienced, it's really hit me lately in the past couple years, is that this insight sort of helps me advise clients on those options and which might be best for them and that kind of thing.

Amy Taylor: 20:37

I think that's why people come to us. Right? Is because we've been doing it for a long time, and they they ask me regularly. Well, what are your other clients doing? Well, what are, you know, what what does their DME per patient day look like?

Amy Taylor: 20:50

Like, they'll ask those questions like, well, what's what are other people doing? Does anybody else do this? And I love it when somebody's got a really clever idea. Usually, the ones I'm thinking of always revolved around, like, employee appreciation and how to take care of your staff. And, and then and then they're like, yeah, you can share it with other people.

Amy Taylor: 21:10

You know, we're far Texas is big enough and everybody's not everybody, but far enough apart. I see a lot of camaraderie with the home care agencies here in hospice that I don't necessarily see in the other states.

Troy Brooks: 21:23

I've noticed that that I've actually had clients in one part of the state go and visit with clients and other just to tour their operation or whatever. It's it's sort

Amy Taylor: 21:33

of amazing. What I mean about my accounting group. So we do that every year, or sometimes multiple times a year. Somebody will have a firm visit. And when it's not Patrick having a firm visit firm visit, I am there because I'm a lush and Matt Patrick has a full bar in his office.

Amy Taylor: 21:51

And I said, no. We're not doing that. He said, that's a bad idea. But anyways but seriously, to be able to see, like we do team huddles and to see his big group do their team huddle. And some people are remote, some are in the office, or the way he has this like, will that they spend for like little prizes and stuff, and they gotta ring the bell.

Amy Taylor: 22:10

So, like, if they sell a big deal or close or meet a big deadline or something, they get to ring the bell. All this stuff they do, it's priceless. And that's what I wanna bring more people together to talk about that. I understand two providers in Houston may not wanna go share all their secrets. But when you're in Houston and Amarillo, I mean, let's have a conversation.

Troy Brooks: 22:32

That's that's the benefit. Of that. You know?

Amy Taylor: 22:34

And even I wanna go cross state lines because I'm not being biased. I am from Oklahoma. I am an Okie at heart. I'm not moving back, mom. And but they don't have the association that we have in Texas.

Amy Taylor: 22:50

So many other states don't have what we had. I saw that the year I moved here. So I moved here in 02/00, started the firm in 02/00, by the grace of God, landed a really cool client right off the bat, Hope Andrade, down in San Antonio, who then went on to be, like, secretary of state and the first Hispanic woman commissioner of TxDOT and, like, really cool stuff. Right? So that's my claim to fame.

Amy Taylor: 23:14

Well, and also the girl that does, Kendra Scott's nails does my nails, or now her husband doesn't, but that's another story.

Troy Brooks: 23:22

You're just one step away. You're one manicure away from, from pain.

Amy Taylor: 23:27

From pain. And now I totally forgot what my point was anyways, but bringing everybody together. Oh, but that like Texas really leads the way. And I that's one thing I tried to stress when I first got here was, like, to other people, I was like, you don't understand what you've got here. Like, you don't understand how good it is here.

Troy Brooks: 23:45

And Well, I I had a client who sold her business in Texas. She wound up moving to Florida. She wound up opening in Florida and thought she was gonna get the same kind of support from the industry association there, and she didn't. I mean, it's a good industry. It's a good association.

Troy Brooks: 24:03

They have good conferences and things like that, but they don't have the they don't have the staff that provide the resources. You know, I have clients. Well, another thing I was gonna say, I have clients come to me too, and they tell me what their other other their competitors are doing. It's usually something shady.

Amy Taylor: 24:21

Yeah.

Troy Brooks: 24:21

They want me to know about.

Amy Taylor: 24:23

And then do they ever ask, okay. Well, they're doing it. How can I do it?

Troy Brooks: 24:26

Not so much. They they don't see the thing about doing it because one of the things that I do is I have compliance. And so being a compliance lawyer is sort of like being a preacher. Nobody wants to tell you they're sinning. Nobody wants to tell you they're thinking about sinning.

Troy Brooks: 24:39

So they sort of like keep it on the up and up, at least, you know, in conversation. So but they're real keen on telling you that somebody else is deep into the sin pool. Okay. And so but the other what you're talking about, there's another phrase that I've started using a lot lately over the past few years is what is something gonna look like. And having the the concept of how something works, and that that goes along with the constant change in this business.

Troy Brooks: 25:09

If you can talk to other people and we can share with you what something looks like on how it works out, that helps a lot. Yeah. I mean, I don't know what it is about that. I think it for me, if I'm dealing with the situation and I know how it's gonna work, what is it gonna look like? There's something about that that relieves a lot of anxiety, and it helps me plan.

Amy Taylor: 25:29

Yep. Yeah. Provides a lot of comfort. Well, so we plan on having some folks on. Again, we don't have anything finalized, but we plan on doing some interviews.

Amy Taylor: 25:41

We plan on what are we gonna try to do? One episode a month?

Troy Brooks: 25:45

Yeah. That's the plan right now.

Amy Taylor: 25:46

Right now. And, so

Troy Brooks: 25:48

And any and we also talked about anything any hot issues that come up that we'll we'll try to do some sort of, you know, ad hoc breaking news kind of thing.

Amy Taylor: 25:56

Thank you. I mean

Troy Brooks: 25:57

and there's generally something. I mean, it doesn't happen all the time, but there's something out there always.

Amy Taylor: 26:03

Yeah. There's always something. We've got a big list of topics to go through. We will not always be here in my beautiful podcast studio in South Austin, almost Driftwood, with my beautiful wall. Almost dripping spring.

Amy Taylor: 26:16

Yeah. Kinda kinda dripping spring. You're in

Troy Brooks: 26:18

Hays County.

Amy Taylor: 26:19

I'm in Hays County. Much closer to Driftwood, though. It's just right there. Salt Lake right down the street. So, anyway, so we will carry on.

Amy Taylor: 26:26

And, anything else to close out here? And

Troy Brooks: 26:30

no. It's just that I really hope that people are able to glean from our experience. I mean, I tell people say, hey. You learn from your mistakes. Well, I ought to be as freaking genius by now.

Troy Brooks: 26:42

Yeah. But I've also learned, one of the things I've gotten to in my career in life is that being able to share with people how mistakes that have happened in the past, not my mistakes, sometimes other people's mistakes, cautionary tales. One time somebody asked me, why should I hire a lawyer for this? And at the time, I mean, like, well, I could think of several reasons. I mean, it was sort of like one of an obvious one to me.

Troy Brooks: 27:09

Quick answer to that is usually you're better off with a lawyer than without. It really depends on how much something's gonna cost and it's it's a cost issue. Now when someone asks a question, give given all the given whether it be a transaction or whatever, I can tell them some bad things that would have that I've seen happen. Yeah. And that that helps a lot.

Troy Brooks: 27:30

So those cautionary tales, I mean, I mean, I like telling sorted stories, but, I mean, there's something to learn in there too, and they're sorted. And so and in this business, as I talk with some of my clients, I mean, none of my clients have the same problem. Every call I get is different. Every I mean, they might be in the same area, but this the the basis of the problem is gonna be different. And there have been times and I have a dark sense of humor, but there have been times that clients call me up and tell me their problem, and I start laughing.

Troy Brooks: 28:02

It's something horrible. And I just start laughing because it's just funny to me because, I mean, who could think this who could make this up? I mean, and that's just one of those things. And there are, I don't know. It's that's one of the things I like about the industry.

Troy Brooks: 28:17

Everything's different. I mean, I'm never dealing with the same thing every day. That's frustrating because some days, I'm always recreating the wheel. Yeah. And Ours is

Amy Taylor: 28:25

a lot more standardized. It's, you know, kinda day in, day out. But then we there's always something exciting.

Troy Brooks: 28:30

But you're dealing with the same people I am, and they have crap that goes down that is just I mean, it's you're in people's homes.

Amy Taylor: 28:40

Yep.

Troy Brooks: 28:41

And sometimes with some of these programs, you're you're on the Medicaid side, you're in some very, poor folks' homes, and I grew up poor so I could talk about this. And so it's like, you know, there it's it's a different world.

Amy Taylor: 28:54

Did you grow up in a trailer?

Troy Brooks: 28:55

No. I did not. But I wanted to because everybody in my family had a trailer. My parents had built a house, like, years before I was born, but I still wanted a trailer because they had air condition. And so, but all my aunts and uncles at first, they all had trailers.

Troy Brooks: 29:09

That was their first starter home. And so, I wanted a trailer so bad, but we didn't get one. But, anyway, but, no, I grew up in the Florida Panhandle. That's where the accent comes from. And so I and that's what we Everybody's always trying to place my accent.

Amy Taylor: 29:24

I know. I was like so we first when we first met, we had talked on the phone. We hadn't met in person. And we started comparing notes and stories, and we're like, it sounds like the same people. Right?

Amy Taylor: 29:34

And then but I remember say, I almost remember what I wore.

Troy Brooks: 29:39

I remember you we we were at lunch. You were running the waiters around like crazy because you wanted olive oil and balsamic vinegar and bread and doing stuff with it. And

Amy Taylor: 29:48

Yes. It just hit me. I remember when I

Troy Brooks: 29:50

Luis one zero one. I think they're closed now.

Amy Taylor: 29:52

Luis one zero one. They're right. But I was like, I have to go meet this guy in person because I gotta figure this accent out. I think I was in a little skirt, like a little mini skirt.

Troy Brooks: 30:03

I just remember us but the biggest thing I

Amy Taylor: 30:05

in a skirt now.

Troy Brooks: 30:05

I just remember us talking about situations and realizing that we do the same people.

Amy Taylor: 30:12

Yep.

Troy Brooks: 30:13

And

Amy Taylor: 30:14

A lot of the

Troy Brooks: 30:15

same people. And and the funny thing is is those people keep popping up in my life through the years. People that I'm you know? And and I have clients that I've never seen face to face. Yeah.

Troy Brooks: 30:26

I mean, that's another thing about this business is, like, when everything trans transition to virtual, it was pretty easy for me because I had clients that, I'm thinking about one, the space in Virginia that I talked to this guy, the the CFO, and the CFO is the people a lot of times I deal with the CFO because CFO knows they get they have the bird's eye view. They and the CEO have the bird's eye view of the operation. The CFO and I, we've talked for years. And I don't even we've never even done Zoom together. I mean, because I met him well before people started doing Zoom.

Troy Brooks: 31:03

But he is somebody who has given me some insight over the years because, for instance, on how to use cost reports in on the on the Medicaid side when they used to do them more frequently, he would use cost reports to look for potential acquisition, stuff like that. There are little things like that that I I love sharing. And, you know, it's, I just I mean, what I've got to, you know, is in a a place in life where I really would like for some of the mistakes I've made and other people have made to be a benefit to someone. There's gotta be some good that comes out of this. Yeah.

Troy Brooks: 31:41

And so but also the success stories of people who did things right, and there's a lot more of that out there, people who did things right.

Amy Taylor: 31:49

And we don't hear about those.

Troy Brooks: 31:50

Yeah. That's that's another that's one of the things we can talk about.

Amy Taylor: 31:54

Yeah.

Troy Brooks: 31:55

But, but, yeah, it's a very cool industry. I did not realize how much a Texan I have become until I moved to back east in in New Orleans now and which is another story in and of itself. But it's has its own little culture in New Orleans even within the state of Louisiana. But, I got but what I've learned over the past couple years, what I've started noticing is there are certain things that are just very Texan. Very Texan.

Troy Brooks: 32:26

But at the same point, we also represent people all over the country.

Amy Taylor: 32:29

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've also become a little more Texan than I ever thought because this weekend is the start of the college football playoffs for 2024, and we got Texas and Clemson. And I'm rooting hard for Texas.

Amy Taylor: 32:47

I mean, I still can't throw hook them horns and any of that. I'd it's I can't do that, but I'm rooting for them.

Troy Brooks: 32:53

And you went to see Robert Earl King last night. I'm kinda as more Texan as that gets.

Amy Taylor: 32:57

I sure did. I don't know. The Pat Green was pretty good too.

Troy Brooks: 33:00

Well, that is. Yeah.

Amy Taylor: 33:01

But then I had to look up their ages. Pat Green's like twenty years younger. I was like, okay. Well, maybe not quite that much, but a lot younger. So I was like, yeah.

Amy Taylor: 33:09

Because Robert Earl had a sit down and and it was funny too, because he started. So So it was a Christmas special. He started with just a traditional Christmas story, song like, oh, holy night or something. And y'all, his voice. So before I moved here, you know, I was coming to visit all the time.

Amy Taylor: 33:25

I was dating a guy that lived here. And, and he was a big music guy. And, so we were always going out. And I, like, didn't get Robert Earl King. Like, I just didn't get it.

Amy Taylor: 33:35

And I was like, you guys, like, he can't even sing. What are what is the deal here? And then, like, then you're here and you just get it. So Denise went with me last night. She didn't know.

Amy Taylor: 33:45

She didn't know him. And so a coworker said, here, listen to this. So she listened a little bit. But she told by the time we left, she was like, I get it. And I don't it was it was a lot of fun, but I was up in the balcony, and it was a lot of lot of gray hair up there.

Amy Taylor: 33:58

And I was getting frustrated that they were not getting excited enough about the good songs that were coming on. And I could see down. I was like, we need to be down there next time. Yeah.

Troy Brooks: 34:06

Isn't it interesting that you pick you know, you automatically pick tickets in the geriatric section. Yeah. Right. That's I don't think that's a comment right there.

Amy Taylor: 34:15

So, you know, I have potential clients next to me. Yeah. That's right. Alright. Well, we're gonna wrap this one up because we can sit and talk for hours and hours.

Amy Taylor: 34:24

So thank you guys. We hope that you will join us. It will consistently be Troy and I. We'll, there may be somewhere we do them separate or whatever. We may not always be in the same place, but we hope to be not we hope to be entertaining and informative.

Troy Brooks: 34:39

That's No. That's the way I have my career has been. It's been entertaining and substantive. And so, that's I think and for both of us, I think that's one of the reasons we've been friends for so long is that we have that same approach. And hopefully there's something that folks can glean out of that.

Amy Taylor: 34:55

Yeah. I think we also have the same sense of humor.

Troy Brooks: 34:57

That's pretty

Amy Taylor: 34:58

I am very proud. I've kept it clean.

Troy Brooks: 35:01

We didn't use one bad word.

Amy Taylor: 35:02

I know. I don't know what to think about that. I cannot we might have to put an explicit label on it because I cannot promise to always stay that way. And I know some of my besties in the industry are even

Troy Brooks: 35:17

more

Amy Taylor: 35:20

they talk worse than I do. They're more colorful. Yes. They're even more colorful, so I think they might be disappointed if I'm too straight laced.

Troy Brooks: 35:28

Well, yeah. It's it's it's part of the vernacular. Let's just put it back.

Amy Taylor: 35:32

Alright. Thank you, everybody. Thanks. Thanks so much for joining us on the Home Care Experience with TNA. We hope you enjoyed today's conversation and found it insightful.

Amy Taylor: 35:44

You can find more episodes of the Home Care Experience wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. We'd love it if you could share this podcast with your network and or leave us a review. It really helps us reach more people who are passionate about home care and hospice. Visit the homecareexperience.com for links and resources in the show notes. Until next time, take care and keep making a difference in the lives of those you serve.