Expanding access to reliable, trusted home care for Veterans and their loved ones
— William Martin, SVP of business development, Sharecare
I’ve spent nearly a decade at Sharecare because I believe in what we’re doing — building innovative digital enablement platforms and programs to help the healthcare system actually work for people, not around them. I’m proud of that effort.
Our team recently announced that Sharecare’s Veteran caregiving program has delivered more than 1 million hours of care through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Community Care Network.
What we’ve accomplished with our Veteran caregiving program is the most personally meaningful work I’ve done in my career. I don’t say that to diminish any of the other ways Sharecare helps people manage their health and improve their well-being; rather, I say it because I’m a Veteran, and I know what it looks like when someone comes home not quite whole. And I’ve always believed those who serve our country deserve better than the often limited care options available to them once their service concludes.
Most home care models send a stranger to your door. Our model starts with a different question: who does this Veteran already trust?
Through our home care service, CareLinx, and in partnership with Red Duke Strategies, we enable Veterans to designate their own caregiver, whether it’s a spouse, a sibling, a close friend; those who are already showing up for them every day, unpaid and unrecognized. We then train, certify, and compensate that person, giving them the education and support they need to do the job well. And we create a formal pathway into the healthcare workforce for those who provide arguably the most important — and the most undervalued — patient care.
One of our award-winning caregivers said it best in an interview with Home Health Care News: “In fact, non-medical caregivers are perhaps the most under-appreciated human resource in healthcare…they provide indispensable care that positively affects patient outcomes and quality of life.” And according to AARP, trusted family and friends provide more than 50 billion hours of unpaid caregiving annually, which amounted to over a trillion dollars in invisible and unpaid labor in 2024 alone.
That labor deserves to be visible and valued, and more often than not, those providing that labor require additional support – from financial to emotional – to remain viable.
What we’ve found, is the solution isn’t simply providing better care — but truly helping Veterans and their families build better lives through a choice-based caregiving model, while strengthening the entire network of care around our military service members.
And the results show our approach is working. An evaluation published in the Journal of Applied Gerontology found a 44% increase in Veterans accessing in-home care through this program. Veterans rated their experience 8.6 out of 10. Nearly eight in ten said they’d be extremely likely to recommend it. And the caregivers themselves — more than 75% of whom are family members who became newly certified professionals — reported earning over $3 more per hour on average than in previous roles.
The VA offers meaningful, funded support, but a lot of Veterans aren’t aware of their home care benefits unless someone tells them it’s there and helps them understand how to access it. So, when a Veteran is discharged from an acute care hospital, that’s a critical inflection point; if the case management team knows to mention their VA-funded in-home care benefits, outcomes can improve.
More importantly, it’s better for Veterans, physically and emotionally, when they get support from a trusted and chosen caregiver in the comfort and safety of their own home. And it’s better for hospitals, health systems, and payors, because in-home care reduces the likelihood of readmission within 30 days and, ultimately, helps lower the overall cost of care and avoid more serious complications down the line.
Sharecare’s Veteran caregiving program currently operates in the Eastern United States through Optum’s community care network, and we’re actively working to expand nationwide. The demand is growing and the need for more choice is urgent, as the U.S. is projected to need one million additional caregivers by 2030.
Our model is proven, and the assignment is straighforward: Give more Veterans the care they deserve, delivered by people they trust, to heal and age in place happily and with dignity.
To learn more about the program or explore caregiver options, visit carelinx.com/veterans.
