Page 21 - HME Business, May 2017

“Beyond operational reporting, the next generation of data collection will require us to leverage our specialties to make DME relevant in our broader clinical community.”
— Andrea Stark, MiraVista LLC
Data Collection 2.0:
A Q&A with Andrea Stark
Andrea Stark is a managing partner of MiraVista LLC, a consulting firm dedicated to serving the HME industry, including helping providers to understand and use their data for business success.
HME Business: How are HME providers using their collected data?
Andrea Stark: Providers are still struggling with knowing where their money is coming from and where they are losing money by payer and
by product. I find that a lot of providers struggle with getting acceptable management reporting that helps them make their business decisions. Some people need a third set of eyes to be able to point them in the
right direction. They don’t have that high-level, bird’s-eye view. They are very close to the numbers and sometimes it can be helpful to get an expert to help you go over your numbers and make sure that the report- ing you’re getting is consistent. I see a lot of providers go after data to answer one specific question and that leads them down a rabbit hole to go after more information. Without direction, we end up getting lost in all of these custom, one-time reports that keep us from monitoring the up-and-down trends that happen over time. If you don’t have a consis- tent reporting package, you will miss important changes and can’t really benchmark success or failures.
Beyond operational reporting, the next generation of data collection will require us to leverage our specialties to make DME relevant in our broader clinical community. For example, if you have a respiratory specialty practice, how will you use your data to make yourself marketable to area hospitals? It is important to establish ourselves as partners that make a dif- ference with patient outcomes. We need to demonstrate with data how we are reducing the amount of readmissions and the length of hospital stays.
We should also be mining for data within our own software to market additional products to existing customers. If you have customers that you know are diabetic, and you carry diabetic shoes, make sure they know you can help them. Just because you set them up with a CPAP doesn’t mean you shouldn’t market diabetic shoes. We can increase sales by sending targeted mailers to customers with relevant diagnoses for when they next need that service.
Data can be used to solve lots of problems. As we just discussed, there’s a host of metrics to help the owners and the management make better business decisions and to hold people accountable within the organization. There’s other information that we can use to help grow the business, make it profitable and also expand product offerings. We can even use data to promote better clinical outcomes if we track and measure consistently.
HMEB: What should all providers be doing today to make better use of their data?
Stark: Collection percentage has proven to be the most important metric. What are you putting to the bottom line and how you get there
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While on-site with providers, Commito says she has asked them, “how many new referrals did you receive last month that you did not actually accept and why?” Many times, she says, providers do not realize that their given platform provides a mechanism by which they can collect this data, whether it is simply implementing that function or adding user defined fields to accomplish the goal.
“There is so much data available within an HME’s electronic billing system that is not being utilized to the fullest to help identify and engage key referral sources,” says Ryan Ball, director of VGM Market Data. “Tracking physician referral volume allows for the creation of engagement plans if you can identify a decrease or change in volume attributable to key physicians.”
Ball says patient contact information is also a largely untapped data resource for marketing purposes.
“Many HMEs don’t market additional products that could help the patient they are already serving,” he says. “CPAP resupply items or cash items like cleaners and additional masks are a great way to generate addi- tional revenue.”
Melissa Wagner, senior consultant with Brightree LLC, says, “Simply put, data helps providers keep a financial and operational pulse on the business. By analyzing the data, you can provide visibility to areas of the business
that may not be operating efficiently or may be contributing to unnecessary costs or decreases in cash flow, such as denials. In today’s reimbursement environment, any excess costs or decreases in cash flow can put the survival of the business at risk.”
Why Aren’t Providers Digging Deeper?
Phil Deschaine, marketing director of Universal Software Solutions Inc., says that the No. 1 reason HME providers are not using collected data to its fullest potential is that they don’t have the time to do the analysis and then articulate the right questions.
“I would venture to guess
that at least 60 percent of data collected is not put to good use analyzing the success of business operations. ”
— Kimberly Commito,
Mediware Information Systems Inc.
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