Scaling smarter: Intelligent workflows that power home-based care growth

Key insights from AlayaCare’s webinar featuring Avid Health at Home’s CTO Rob Snyder and AlayaCare VP of Customer Growth Tim Van Meer.

Home-based care organizations are being asked to grow faster while doing more with less. On March 31st, AlayaCare brought together Avid Health at Home’s CTO Rob Snyder and VP of Customer Growth Tim Van Meer to unpack what scaling smarter actually looks like in practice — from M&A integration to AI agents handling EVV workflows. Here’s what you missed.

The market moment: Why execution is everything right now

The conversation opened with a clear-eyed look at a market under pressure. Private equity deal activity in home-based care has been steadily rising since 2017, and with more competition and density in local markets, the bar for operational excellence has never been higher.

“Looking ahead to 2026, buyers are leaning much more heavily on proof of execution — workforce stability, documentation discipline, and measurable performance — while remaining highly active across the continuum.” Capstone Partners, cited by Tim Van Meer

Tim framed the stakes clearly: the M&A premium is no longer going to organizations with the biggest growth story — it’s going to those that can prove they run tight operations and scale without things breaking. That’s the environment Avid was built for.

Poll results: What’s most limiting your growth?

62% of attendees identified workforce capacity and retention as their #1 growth constraint — consistent with broader industry data

Rather than defaulting to hiring more people, Avid’s response has been to redesign workflows and lean on technology — a mindset Rob says has to come from the top down.

“Most people don’t like change. I see organizations trying to solve these problems by adding more people rather than looking at workflows and tech for better solutions. You have to be willing to think differently. It’s a cultural mindset that comes from the top down — your leaders have to believe it, support it, expect it, and be willing to pay for it.” Rob Snyder, CTO, Avid Health at Home

Avid’s origin story: Building the blueprint before the first acquisition

Avid Health at Home launched in 2023 with an intentional, technology-first thesis. Before making a single acquisition, the leadership team designed a scalable operating model built on AlayaCare and a small set of key technology partners.

“We launched Avid as a holding company with the blueprint to build a tech-enabled home care agency. We designed an efficient, scalable operating model built on AlayaCare and other key tech partners before we made our first acquisition.” Rob Snyder

The result is a playbook that Avid has now run eight times across three states — North Carolina, Illinois, and Michigan. Each acquired organization has been brought into the same operating model, running on the same technology, with consistent workflows and reporting structures. That consistency is what has made growth manageable at pace. It’s also what has allowed Avid to layer on organic growth and de novo locations on top of the acquisition activity, because the operational foundation doesn’t need to be rebuilt each time something new is added. As Rob described it: “We learned from each acquisition, refining our model and expanding upon what we had built.”

Avid health at home on AlayaCare: Growth by the numbers

Tim highlighted that the 22% improvement in caregiver caseload efficiency is perhaps the most telling figure; it shows Avid isn’t just adding volume, it’s using technology to help staff support more clients sustainably.

M&A integration: Going live on day one

One of the most practical insights from Rob was how Avid handles technology integration during an acquisition. The key: don’t wait for the ink to dry.

“We try to get our teams in there weeks before the actual closing date, with the idea to be live on Avid — on all of our systems — on day one. Working alongside them before close helps speed along the transition. They’re getting familiar with it while they’re doing their existing work.” Rob Snyder

Rob also shared a compelling example of winning over newly acquired staff through demonstrated wins. One acquisition had a cash application process so complex it consumed nearly an entire week of a senior staff member’s time. After implementing AlayaCare Connector, that same process now runs in under a minute and takes a few hours total.

When staff learn an acquisition is coming, there’s nervousness — justified nervousness, he acknowledged. The technology transition is one of the first tangible things a newly acquired team experiences, which means it has an outsized effect on how they feel about joining Avid. The goal isn’t just a clean technical cutover. It’s building confidence and trust early, demonstrating through concrete results that the new platform is more capable than what they’re used to. Avid has a strong M&A diligence and integration playbook, including working weeks in advance to pull data from legacy systems so that nothing is lost in the transition and teams can be supported smoothly from the moment they go live.

“Being able to show demonstrated improvement in process and capability really helps to smooth the transition. We rely on the quality teams of the companies we’re acquiring — so being able to convince them with tangible things that this is going to be better is a tremendous help.” Rob Snyder

Building an integrated tech stack

Avid’s philosophy is straightforward: data should move automatically to wherever it needs to go next. No manual re-entry, no pseudo-automation.

The stack Tim outlined includes AlayaCare as the core platform — covering scheduling, visit verification, documentation, and billing — with Connector serving as the integration and automation layer. On top of that, Avid has layered in TapCheck for same-day earned wage access, Relias for training, and Activated Insights for satisfaction surveys and caregiver experience management.

“Our data already exists — it should just move by itself to where it needs to go next. We shouldn’t have to be picking it up and putting it down manually. That takes the friction out and eliminates human bottlenecks and re-entry errors.” Rob Snyder

Rob also highlighted two specific AlayaCare features making a direct impact: Layla, AlayaCare’s AI assistant used by clinical managers to summarize care histories before visits, and the new Maximize Authorizations feature, which helps scheduling teams ensure every authorized hour is actually serviced.

On measuring whether the tech stack is truly working, Rob’s framework was refreshingly grounded:

“First: are we growing? Week-over-week billable hours and net client census are the simple KPIs. If our tech stack is supporting that growth, it’s making systems easier for our staff so they can focus their time on human-to-human interactions, problem solving, and seizing opportunities.” Rob Snyder

AI strategy: From embedded intelligence to autonomous workflows

Results closely matched a recent AlayaCare survey with Home Health Care News — about 42% of respondents in that survey also reported not currently using AI.

Tim walked through AlayaCare’s four-tier AI framework — a roadmap from simple embedded tools to fully agentic, autonomous workflows:

Avid has been part of AlayaCare’s AlayaFlow Early Access program, actively testing AI agents across three high-volume workflows: electronic visit verification (EVV), vacant visit scheduling, and care plan creation.

“With EVV, our testing has gone very well — I can see it taking on half or more of the EVV issues we currently handle manually. With care plan creation, our clinical leaders are very pleased with the agent’s ability to review our documentation and make solid recommendations. This will save our nurses at least half an hour on each care plan, and ensure nothing is missed.” Rob Snyder

Change management: Bringing your teams along

Tim asked how Avid is rolling out AI learnings across an organization where some staff may be fearful or resistant. Rob’s approach: choose your champions carefully.

“We need to demonstrate to our teams that these are tools to help them handle their simpler tasks, and give them more time to handle challenges and focus on opportunities to grow.We’ve been foreshadowing these changes for a while now, and our teams are very excited about what’s coming.” Rob Snyder

For each of the three AlayaFlow beta projects, Rob assigned a dedicated operational or clinical leader who had a strong grasp of existing workflows, was personally motivated to improve them, and carried credibility with their peers across the organization. Those individuals are leading the betas, gathering frontline feedback, and will eventually carry the implementation across all of Avid’s offices and states. The logic is straightforward: if the people your teams already trust are genuinely excited about what they’re experiencing, that enthusiasm travels further and more durably than any top-down directive.

5 Key takeaways

1. Build the platform before the first acquisition. Avid designed its operating model and tech stack before closing a single deal. Making every subsequent integration faster, cleaner, and more predictable.
2. Go live on day one. Getting teams familiar with the new tech stack weeks before closing reduces fear and accelerates adoption. Demonstrated quick wins turn skeptics into believers.
3. Data should flow, not be carried. The goal of an integrated tech stack isn’t just eliminating duplicate entry; it’s freeing staff from low-value tasks so they can focus on human-to-human work.
4. Start AI with high-volume, high-friction workflows. EVV resolution, care plan creation, and vacant visit scheduling are where AI delivers the clearest ROI, measurable time savings with manageable risk.
5. Trust is the bottleneck, not technology. Agentic AI adoption is less a technology challenge and more a trust-building exercise — internally with staff, and systemically as the industry gets comfortable with reliable agents.

Want to see the full conversation? Watch the complete webinar recording featuring Rob Snyder and Tim Van Meer and go deeper on every insight covered here.