End-of-Year Checklist for Home Modification Therapy Practice Owners

Finish Strong: Essential Year-End Tasks for Your Practice

December is more than just holiday celebrations—it’s your opportunity to close out the current year strategically and position your home modification practice for success in 2026. Whether you’re a solo practitioner or managing a small team, these end-of-year tasks will help you wrap up administrative loose ends, maximize tax benefits, and start the new year with clarity and momentum.

Financial Housekeeping

Review Your Books: Schedule time with your accountant or bookkeeper to review your profit and loss statements, outstanding invoices, and expenses. Identify any uncollected payments that need follow-up before year-end and consider whether to write off uncollectible accounts for tax purposes.

Maximize Deductions: Make final equipment purchases, software subscriptions, or continuing education investments before December 31st to capture current-year deductions. Review mileage logs for home assessment visits, as these often represent significant deductible expenses for home modification specialists.

Prepare Tax Documents: Organize receipts, business expense records, and 1099 forms for contractors or referral partners. Creating a digital folder system now saves hours of stress during tax season.

Administrative Priorities

Verify Credentials: Check expiration dates for your OT/PT license, liability insurance, CHAT certification, and any other professional credentials. Set calendar reminders for renewals due in Q1 2026 to avoid lapses that could interrupt your practice.

Update Insurance Panels: Review your Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance credentialing status. With the recent telehealth extensions, ensure your National Provider Identifier (NPI) information is current across all payers.

Review Contracts: Assess agreements with referral partners, equipment suppliers, contractors, and any service providers. Are these relationships still beneficial? Should terms be renegotiated for 2026?

Clinical Documentation

Complete All Notes: Ensure all evaluation reports, progress notes, and discharge summaries are finalized. Outstanding documentation creates compliance risks and delays reimbursement into the new year.

Audit Documentation Quality: Review a sample of your clinical notes from each quarter. Are you consistently documenting skilled intervention, functional outcomes, and medical necessity? This practice protects you during audits and strengthens your clinical reasoning.

Marketing and Business Development

Analyze Referral Sources: Which physicians, case managers, senior living communities, or other partners generated the most appropriate referrals this year? Plan to strengthen these relationships in 2026 with thank-you notes, updated marketing materials, or educational presentations.

Review Marketing ROI: Evaluate which marketing efforts—your website, newsletter, social media, networking events, or speaking engagements—generated the best return. Eliminate what didn’t work and double down on successful strategies.

Plan Content Calendar: If you publish blogs or newsletters (like this one!), outline topics for Q1 2026 now while insights from this year are fresh.

Equipment and Supplies

Inventory Assessment Tools: Check your measurement tools, assessment forms, sample grab bars, and other equipment for wear or obsolescence. Order replacements so you’re fully stocked for January assessments.

Update Resources: Review your library of handouts, patient education materials, and resource lists. Are phone numbers, websites, and local service providers still current?

Professional Development

Track CEUs: Verify you’ve met continuing education requirements and maintain certificates in an organized file. Document CHAT graduate meetings attended and specialized trainings completed.

Set Learning Goals: Identify skill gaps or emerging trends in home modification practice. Will you pursue additional certifications? Learn new assessment technologies? Expand into new service areas?

Strategic Planning

Reflect on 2025: What were your biggest successes? Most challenging cases? Lessons learned? Document these insights while they’re fresh.

Set 2026 Goals: Establish specific, measurable objectives for revenue, number of clients served, new referral partnerships, or service line expansion. Break annual goals into quarterly milestones.

Review Your Why: Reconnect with your mission and values. Does your current practice structure align with why you became a home modification specialist? Make adjustments to increase alignment and satisfaction.

Conclusion

Completing these tasks before the end of the year allows time for contemplation and review. Is the business meeting your needs and goals? What are the business strengths and weakness? How do these reflect your strengths or weakness? As much as we view therapy from the perspective of enhancing the life of the individuals we serve, as a business owner we must also consider the health and wellbeing of the business we operate and ourselves. Stay tuned for a live business planning session in January.