Page 19 - HME Business, January 2018

sleep data have been downloaded using its AirView patient monitoring platform. Why is remote monitoring taking off?
Because sending patients home with a PAP therapy device that lets them, the HME provider and the referring physician or clinician track their care delivers results. They can see how they are performing against various performance metrics on
a daily basis; trend that data; and work
to correct events that are happening during their sleep and improve overall compliance. It can help patients manage their care, give referral partners action- able data on patient compliance and progress, and create real business value for providers in the process. Providers must continue to sharpen their remote monitoring game during 2018, and if they aren’t implementing it to a broad degree, they must make it a top priority.
Referral Development
Depending on which studies you read, we know that despite dif culties with funding, patient compliance and other barriers, sleep providers continue to
see growth in the volume of their busi- nesses, but they also know that growth is slowing, according to most reports. This ies in the face of other studies showing the massive scale of OSA patient popu- lations. So what’s the story? Why are providers seeing volume growth taper if the patient population is still huge?
Referral development. For 2018, providers must place a premium on driving increased patient volume. The question is how do they approach that? Fortunately there are a lot of ways that providers can increase their referrals.
To start, they can increase their efforts to regularly educate prospective and existing referrals about their business. This isn’t just talking about how they help patients and the sorts of products and services they provide, but providing actual hard numbers about their patient outcomes. Referrals want data that helps them make smart decisions, and providers that offer that information will get the business.
Playing up the provider’s connected care services is a good way to advance this kind of data-driven approach to sleep therapy. Once a provider shows the numbers it is generating, if it can then start communicating how it is collecting that data, it should strike a chord with referral partners. The kind of hands-on care offered by remote patient moni- toring and management is revolutionary, and any provider offering it should use that as a business differentiator.
Also, providers should strive to help referral partners educate patients. They should provide physicians and other sleep therapy specialists with educa- tional resources regarding sleep apnea, treatment options and solid, how-to reference materials. This will not only help the referral partner reinforce its rela- tionships, but hopefully driver referrals and establish the providers’ expertise in the patient’s mind.
Put Patients in the Driver’s Seat
Speaking of patient education, sleep providers must strive during 2018 to help their patients better manage their condi- tion and care. This effort should combine both education and technology tools.
Where education is concerned, it
must be the foundational element of the patient relationship. Some basic consid- erations: Once a patient is referred to the provider, staff should help the patient understand the funding process, nancial responsibility and answer any questions they might have. Give a complete tutorial on the device and its use and cleaning
in explicit detail. Help them understand which items can be replaced and how to set up their resupply. Work on not only instructing the patient regarding the
use of their sleep therapy device, but on identifying what will help motivate that patient to stick with his or her therapy.
Then as the patient starts on therapy, technology can start to step in and enhance that patient’s care. For starters, many sleep equipment makers now include smart phone apps that help patients self-manage their care. And of
course remote monitoring and manage- ment solutions will help the provider, sleep specialist and patient ne tune the patient’s care. But the key is to put the patient in the driver’s seat. The more ownership he or she can take in terms
of care management, the more invested that patient will be in his or her compli- ance and outcomes.
Balanced Resupply Programs
Just about any sleep provider recog- nizes the absolute importance of resupply when it comes to the sustain- ability of their business. They know that in order to get past any reimbursement cuts they must maximize the revenue derived from each patient, and that means ensuring that those patients are getting the allowable resupply items coming to them. And providers are working to get their patients enrolled in their resupply programs.
The problem is that a poorly designed or managed resupply program can actu- ally chase off patients. There’s a discon- nect. If a provider continues to sign up new patients, but is churning them on the back end of the business, the resupply program is likely failing at some point.
The problem might be automation. Providers are using all sorts of methods such as outbound and inbound IVR calls and email to get patients enrolled and set up in resupply programs and to help them self-manage their resupply. This has been a phenomenal advance that has helped drive cost from the manage- ment of resupply programs and helped wide margins for those programs. At the same time, it might be turning off some patients that might need more special- ized customer care or have a problem that requires some hands-on attention. If they can’t get that assistance, they’ll go elsewhere for that care.
This means that providers still must provide some live assistance for a percentage of their resupply patients. Some patients will need it all the time, some patients will need it on a case-by- case basis, and some won’t need it at all,
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