Page 24 - HMEB Business, February 2017

challenges? If you cannot report regularly on these elements and report them back to healthcare professionals and payers, sooner or later you will be left behind. The ability to leverage data for decision making and growth is an essential element of being a modern, innovative provider, and some- thing referral partners and payers will rightly come to expect.”
ANGELA GIUDICE, RPSGT, DIRECTOR OF CLINICAL SALES AND EDUCATION, 3B MEDICAL INC.
“Traditionally, HMEs secured referral sources by old-fashioned salesman- ship with a complement of donuts, coffee and luncheons in an effort to build relationships,” Giudice, who stresses that is now changing.
“At the end of the day, referral sources are primarily interested in the level of care and support provided to their patients,” she says. “One way to drive referrals is to demonstrate increased compliance with their patients. CPAP therapy has a large drop off rate and an HME that can show their referral sources concrete metrics of improvement likely develops an edge with the
“Patient feedback and word of mouth goes a long way to making providers feel comfortable with an HME company. Hosting events, such as A.W.A.K.E. meetings for PAP therapy gives patients a forum to interact with HME and clinical staff and other sleep therapy patients.”
— Angela Giudice, RPSGT, 3B Medical Inc.
referral. Demonstrating a willingness to go beyond the minimum necessary (i.e., hosting patient therapy support meetings, patient educational forums, etc.) demonstrates an HME provider’s commitment to sleep.”
Giudice also highlights staging patient education events as a key way to foster strong relationships between providers, patients and referral partners. “Patient feedback and word of mouth goes a long way to making [refer-
rals] feel comfortable with an HME company,” she says. “Hosting events, such as A.W.A.K.E. meetings for PAP therapy gives patients a forum to interact with HME and clinical staff and other sleep therapy patients. These meetings encourage good faith between the patient and the HME company playing host.”
JIM DOTY, SENIOR DIRECTOR, FIELD MARKETING NORTH AMERICA, PHILIPS RESPIRONICS
“For the vast majority of providers, physician referrals drive their sleep busi- ness,” Doty says. “We hear the top ways to drive referrals are to support each patient’s use and make life easy for the doctor’s staff. HMEs can market themselves more valuably with their referral relationships and, in doing so, can have greater patient management success.
“Before we had connected solutions that let providers measure patients’ adherence to therapy, referral sources would evaluate providers simply on the service they provided to their office,” he continues. “While this remains important, being able to know the specific patients who may respond to therapy has increased intervention and has made providers more efficient while also improving the number of patients who continue to use therapy.”
When working with physicians, Philips Respironics hears that they like to work with sleep providers who educate their patients thoroughly, according to Doty.
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What’s Inside:
S p e c i a l I n s e r t : W o m e n ’ s H e a l t h . . . . 3 7 News, Trends & Analysis . . . . . . . . . . 8 RAC Audits Version 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 MedtradeProductShowcase ...... 16 Orthozone’sCoolXChange...........47 National Bidding’s Ripple Effect . . . . . 50 HME Providers Must Redefine Their Businesses and Industry Each year, HME Business meets with various members of its editorial advisory board to profile
the key trends, challenges, obstacles and opportunities that the owners and management of HME provider businesses should consider as they formulate their business strategies for the next year. And, each year, our EAB members share a variety of extremely eye-opening and useful insights.
This year, we’re starting to see a new trend develop: several of our
EAB members are saying that in many respects the future of HME is what providers make of it. Certainly, many existing challenges remain, such as competitive bidding, audits, and protecting complex rehab products, and our EAB members address those topics. But there is a larger, prevailing sense that the industry is in a state of transition, and it is up to providers to redefine what they do.
Of course retail is a key example of that redefinition. There are now HME provider businesses that are cash- only; they don’t handle any patient fmuingdhitnhgaovfeabneyeknintda.lkTinhge ainbdouustryetail sales for years, but some providers now stake their entire businesses on it. Read this month’s EAB roundtable to learn how and why many industry experts believe that, going forward, providers must build their own future. Annual Advisory BoardRoundtable . . . . Page28
O c t o b e r 2 0 1 6 V o l u m h me 2 e 3 - b , u N s u i n m e s b s e . r c o 1 m 0
What’s Inside:
O r t h o p e d i c O p p o r t u n i t i e s . . . . . . . 2 2 News, Trends & Analysis . . . . . . . . . . 8 Building a Senior Product Lineup . . . 12 ManagingReferrals ............... 14 DiabetesProductSolutions ......... 25 Understanding ERP Software . . . . . . . 30 Providers Have Hefty Patient Data On-hand. How Can It Help? The HME industry’s adoption of information technology
has been nothing short of revolution- ary. Not too long ago, providers were using cobbled together spreadsheets and off-the-shelf business manage- ment applications to wrangle complex billing, documentation, operations, accounting and recording keeping challenges related to running a health- care business. It wasn’t enough.
Then software companies began offering HME-specific billing tools, and soon those tools soon matured and expanded to help them manage their entire businesses. Now, HMEs use IT to manage deliveries, handle billing, mitigate their audit exposure, and ensure patients are getting the best service possible.
And in the process, providers started collecting mountains of information about their patients. From demographic information to billing history to prescribed DME to retail purchase histories, HME businesses know a lot about their patients. Moreover, all that healthcare ipnrfovrimdeatriso’nITisycsetnetmrasl.izWedhaint cHaMnEit tell providers about their patients and how can they use it to help improve outcomes? What other innovations are developing? Read this month’s cover story to learn more from some of the industry’s software experts. Leveraging PatientData . . . . . . . . . Page16
N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 6 V o l u m h me e 2 3 - b , u N s u i n m e s b s e . r c o 1 m 1
What’s Inside:
2 N 0 e 1 w 6 s N, T e r w e n P d r o s d & u Ac t n Aa l w y s a i r s d . W. . i n . n . e . r . s . . . . 1 2 8 TOhxeygFeineMr PaorkinettsOofuetl-oCookm.m. .e.rc. e. . . . . 2171
Fisher&Paykel’sEson2..............31 BillingNon-Assigned .............. 34
As the HME Industry Changes and Evolves, so Do Its IT Tools
s I a t y ’ s t h a b t e t h c e o o n ml y c e o n c s t l a i n c t i h s c é h a n t o g e ,
but in the HME marketplace, that well-worn expression rings true. Of course reimbursement is the biggest change. Programs such as competi-
tive bidding, rental caps and audits
not only constitute massive changes,
but complete up-endings of the home medical equipment market.
And those changes aren’t isolated; they have a multiplier effect. A good example would the TRICARE program, which cranked up its reimbursement
the moment CMS’s full rate reductions via the national bidding expansion
were implemented on July 1. And TRICARE is just one example of many
of those “Medicare multipliers.”
Funding cuts aren’t the only
changes the industry faces. There are changes in care; changes in product; changes in terms of supply; changes
in patient lifestyle needs. The list of change goes on and on and on.
But there is one tool that helps providers manage that ever-shifting, ever-expanding sea of change: information technology. The software
a e n m d p t l e o c y h t n o o m l o a g n y a gt o e o t l h s e t h i r a b t u p s r i o n v e i s d s e e r s s
let them not only stay on top of these changes, but get out in front of them. Once again, we take our annual look
at how those systems are evolving to keep pace with change.
ASonfntwualre Roundup . . . . Page 20
V o l u m e D 2 e 3 c , e N m u b me r b e 2 r 0 1 1 62
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24 HMEBusiness | February 2017 | hme-business.com Management Solutions | Technology | Products
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Remote Patient Monitoring . . . . . . . 20 News, Trends & Analysis . . . . . . . . . . 8
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hme-business.com
Taking Shape
Each January HMEB profiles 10 key trends that will impact the industry. This year will probably be one of the more exciting ones that we’ve profiled since we started out Big 10 list in 2008.
10 Trends that Will Frame the Year to Come
For starters, the United States will have new Presidential administration, as well as a new Congress. Add to that the fact that longtime industry champion Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) and CMS Administrator Seema Verma
will be heading up U.S. healthcare, and the industry can hold onto some well-founded expectations that it will be working in a more accommodating public policy environment.
What’s Inside:
The New Year Could Bring
Big Changes for HME Providers
That environment will surely impact at least some of the industry and market trends that we’ve outlined for this year’s installment of the Big 10. That list includes: The outcome of rural relief efforts; the continued effort to reform competitive bidding as a whole; changes in Medicare audits; the ongoing evolution of retail HME; emerging verticals, such as women’s health, sports therapy, orthopedics, wound care and pain management; connected care and remote patient monitoring; and cost vs. quality pressures in the private payer world.
And those are just some of the trends we examine. Make sure to dive into this year’s Big 10 list to see the key trends that will impact your HME business over the next 12 months.
Annual Big 10 . . . . . . . Page 20
January 2017 Volume 24, Number 1 hme-business.com