The Fain Standard
Seven commitments to New Jersey families.
Why the framework exists
I built The Fain Standard because private duty home care in New Jersey suffers from a promise problem. Every agency's website promises warm caregivers, careful matching, and responsive scheduling. Almost no agency publishes the operating specifics behind those promises. The Fain Standard is the operating specifics, written down and made checkable. It is the answer to the question a family in crisis actually needs answered before they sign anything: what will you do, in named registries and published dollars, that another agency will not.
How each pillar was chosen
The first three pillars are clinical and structural. Every case at Fain's Private Duty Home Care has a Registered Nurse Supervisor of record. Every caregiver is checked against the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs license registry before the first shift and re-verified monthly. The published shift minimum is four hours and it is the same for a first-time client and a client we have known for a year. These three pillars decide whether the care is safe. Without an RN, the plan of care is a scheduler's best guess. Without live license verification, the caregiver's credential is a photocopy that might be a year expired. Without a published minimum, the family cannot predict the invoice.
The next two pillars are financial and relational. Invoices come every Monday for the prior Monday-through-Sunday week. Rates are published in dollars on the pricing page, not "call for a quote" or "starting at." ACH is free and card is available with a 3 percent surcharge. Caregivers are matched to families by a human who reads the plan of care, not by an algorithm that reads only a schedule. Families interview candidates before the first shift and can swap the caregiver in the first week without a fee. These two pillars decide whether the working relationship survives the first invoice and the first personality mismatch.
The final two pillars are structural and honest. Cancellations, on either side, use a 24-hour window. If a family gives less notice, the shift minimum is billed. If a caregiver cannot make it, the RN Supervisor calls the family personally and the on-call roster dispatches a covering caregiver. And FAINS serves private pay families and long-term care insurance holders exclusively. We do not participate in Medicaid or Medicare. That last commitment is the one families sometimes push back on, and I understand why. It is not a market judgment. It is a fit judgment. The commitments above cannot be delivered inside the reimbursement ceiling those programs set, and I refuse to advertise a service I cannot deliver.
Who The Fain Standard is not for
FAINS is a fit-for-purpose agency, and part of what fit means is that we are honest about who fits and who does not.
If your primary payer source is Medicaid (including the NJ FamilyCare Managed Long Term Services and Supports program) or Medicare (including Medicare Advantage home health benefits), FAINS is not the right agency for you. This is not a judgment on the payer source. It is a judgment on the operating model. When you call, we will spend the time on the phone to make sure the referral we give you is a strong one.
If your case needs less than four hours of care in a visit, FAINS is not the right agency either. The economics of a two-hour visit do not support the RN supervision, the license verification pipeline, and the chemistry matching that the four-hour minimum is designed to fund. There are excellent visit-based providers in New Jersey and we will name one for you.
If your case needs skilled nursing services that are governed by NJ Board of Nursing regulations at a level that requires a licensed home health agency rather than a Health Care Service Firm (for example, high-acuity wound care under a physician's active order requiring certified home health agency oversight), FAINS is again a referral, not a fit. The private pay and private insurance only pillar page has more on this distinction.
How families verify each pillar day to day
Every commitment on The Fain Standard is checkable. Below are the verification methods a family can use, without our permission, from the first week of the case.
- Ask for the RN Supervisor's name and license number. Every case has one on file at intake. You should be able to name that person on day two of the case, not day thirty. Cross-check the license at the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs verification portal.
- Look up your caregiver's license the same way. Type the caregiver's name into the same verification portal. CHHA, LPN, and RN credentials are all publicly searchable. If the caregiver's status is not "Active," the RN Supervisor and I both want to hear from you the same day.
- Read the weekly invoice line items against the shift log. The line items on the invoice should match the caregiver's clock-in and clock-out times to the minute. If they do not, that is a bug we want reported, not a hidden fee.
- Ask about the on-call roster before you sign. Who covers if your caregiver is sick. What is the average response time. Who calls you. If the answer is vague, the on-call structure is vague.
The seven pillars, in one place
The pillar cards below are the working commitments. Each card links to the deep page for the pillar. If you read only one page on this site, read the pillar that maps to the question you have already asked yourself twice this week.
RN-supervised
Every case has a Registered Nurse Supervisor of record.
Private duty care without RN supervision is a scheduler, not a care team. FAINS assigns a Registered Nurse Supervisor to every case at intake. The RN reviews the plan of care, credentials the caregiver, and remains the family's clinical point of contact through the arc of the case.
License-verified
Every caregiver checked against the NJ Board of Nursing registry before the first shift, re-verified monthly.
New Jersey publishes a live registry of every Certified Home Health Aide, Licensed Practical Nurse, and Registered Nurse authorized to practice in the state. FAINS runs every caregiver through that registry before the first shift, then re-verifies monthly. If a license lapses, the caregiver comes off the roster the same day.
Four-hour minimum shift
The published shift minimum. No hidden per-visit fees, no minimum-billing-in-fine-print.
The private duty industry standard in NJ is four hours. FAINS publishes it up front on every page. If you need less than four hours we tell you honestly that another service model fits better, and refer you when appropriate. Transparency is a pricing pillar, not just a marketing word.
Weekly transparent invoicing
Monday-through-Sunday billing, published rates, ACH free, card plus 3 percent, no surprises.
FAINS invoices weekly on a Monday-through-Sunday cycle. Rates are published on the pricing page in dollars, not 'starting at' or 'call for quote' language. ACH is free. Card is available with a 3 percent surcharge disclosed at invoice time. The invoice line items match the shift log. Families see what they are paying for.
Chemistry-matched
A human matcher pairs caregiver with family. You interview. You can swap without penalty.
Chemistry between caregiver and family is a working requirement, not a bonus. FAINS uses a human matcher, not a scheduling algorithm. Families interview candidates before the first shift. If the fit is wrong after the first week, we swap the caregiver at no cost and no notice fee. The match is our responsibility.
Twenty-four-hour cancellation notice
Standard notice period. Published. Applied both ways.
FAINS operates on a 24-hour cancellation window for both sides. If a family cancels a shift with less than 24 hours notice we bill the minimum. If a caregiver cannot make a shift the RN Supervisor calls the family personally, then dispatches a covering caregiver from the on-call roster. The window is a discipline, not a penalty.
Private pay and private insurance only
No Medicaid, no Medicare. A firm brand rule, not a market limitation.
FAINS serves private pay families and families with private long-term care insurance policies exclusively. We do not participate in Medicaid or Medicare. This is not because those payer sources are lesser. It is because our operating model, with weekly transparent invoicing, RN supervision on every case, and chemistry-matched staffing, cannot be delivered inside the reimbursement ceiling those programs set. Families needing Medicaid or Medicare services deserve a fit-for-purpose provider and we refer them to one.