By: Rhett Davis, Region 6 Advocate
The Office of Advocacy recently conducted two small business forums in Lake Charles, Louisiana to find out what regulatory burdens smaller firms in the area face on a daily basis.
A company that attended one of the events provides various forms of in-home health care for acute, short term or chronic medical diseases, disorders or illnesses.
The firm’s owners said that the paperwork burden resulting from federal regulations is the company’s primary challenge. They now have more employees handling paperwork than actually servicing clients in their homes.
“We’ve been around for 40 years,” one owner said, pointing to the mountain of paperwork required of them today compared to a few brief documents that were the standard four decades ago. The firm just wants to focus on caring for its patients, not on endless clerical requirements that cost an enormous sum to handle, she said.
Rhett Davis serves as the Region 6 Advocate for the SBA Office of Advocacy, representing small businesses in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Davis works with small business owners, state and local governments, and small business associations to bring the voice of Region 6 to Washington DC. He can be reached at Rhett.Davis@sba.gov.