What is understaffing actually costing you?
Two bills arrive every year you can't hire: the replacement cost of caregivers who leave, and the private-pay revenue you never billed because you had nobody to staff the case. This puts a number on both.
Your agency
Defaults are industry medians — change any of them
Replacement cost defaults to $3,200 — the midpoint of the $2,600–$5,000 range reported in the Enginehire 2026 staffing report. Turnover defaults to 77% (Activated Insights 2024 benchmarking).
Where the defaults come from
77% annual caregiver turnover (Activated Insights 2024 benchmarking; the 2023 peak was 79.2% per HCAOA). $2,600–$5,000 to replace one caregiver (Enginehire 2026 staffing and retention report) — we default to the $3,200 midpoint. Private-pay billing of $28–$35 an hour is what agencies in our target metros publish.
What this doesn't claim
It isn't a promise of savings. It's the size of the problem in your own numbers, so you can decide whether a $997 build and $497 a month is a serious expense or a rounding error against it.