The full transcript of Episode 2 of What the Numbers Miss, with every figure in the episode and the primary document it came from.

The full transcript of Episode 1 of What the Numbers Miss, with every figure in the episode and the primary document it came from.

The median direct care worker earns $17.36 an hour and about $26,000 a year. The ten thousand dollar gap between those figures is hours, not rate — and it changes what a turnover number means.

Operating policies rarely get overturned. They get exceptions, each one reasonable, granted by whoever is solving today's problem and looking at none of the others.

Short visits carry the same overhead as long ones on a fraction of the revenue. A minimum-hours floor costs cases at intake and returns it in retention.

In service businesses built on trust, a mismatch is visible and correctable. Over-attachment looks like success and compounds quietly. Both are expensive.