Page 14 - HME Business, September/October 2020

for the customer. If our customers can’t get to us, then let’s make it easy to get to them.
REENGAGE REFERRAL PARTNERS
Ty Bello, president and founder of Team@Work
Providers need to be focused on gaining access to the referral community and getting their sales team back in the game. There will be pockets of referral sources that will continue to refer sight unseen, but there are others who could be
approached and engaged by the competition and might transition their referrals elsewhere.
This means the HME provider needs to proactively and effectively develop a strategic sales plan that gets their team in front of the referral community. Access referrals with a message of service, compli- ance, ease of referral, and convenience will differen- tiate a providers business from the competition.
Providers should also increase the number of sales calls required today, because access is still limited. Sales Professional may need to make 20 plus attempts to get 15 calls. Also, providers need an in-service plan and strategy for both virtual and face-to-face in-services.
COVID-19 WILL CONTINUE IMPACTING RESPIRATORY
Joseph Lewarski, MHA, RRT, FAARC
Senior Vice President and General Manager, Global Business, of Clinical Care & North American Manufacturing for Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare
It is hard to discuss any prevailing trend in 2020 without starting with COVID-19 and its impact on the healthcare systems. For homecare providers, it’s clear the pulmonary complications associated with COVID-19 infections have created
an unprecedented, global demand for stationary oxygen concentrators.
While the data and science are still evolving, there is an obvious, direct correlation between spikes in COVID-related hospitalizations and demand for home oxygen therapy. This pattern is similar but appears significantly more pronounced than a typical respiratory season (influenza, RSV) but complicated to forecast because COVID-19 doesn’t appear to follow any seasonal pattern.
As we head into Fall and Winter, COVID-19 will be joined with influenza to create a potential for causing an increase in severe pulmonary infec- tions, especially for high-risk individuals with chronic medical conditions.
While no one has a crystal ball, and this year has been difficult to predict, it seems likely we’ll see another spike in COVID-19 related hospitalizations this Fall and Winter that will be compounded by influenza, which will continue to stimulate demand
for oxygen therapy and other respiratory services and equipment. This should drive planning for staffing, PPE and oxygen therapy devices and supplies.
LEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY IN NEW WORKFLOWS
Rob Boeye, executive vice president of HME for Brightree LLC
Our bi-monthly intra-company Coffee Talk webinars with providers have shown how we could help them implement new workflows and protocols early into the COVID-19 situation, such as contactless delivery.
We initially made some changes to our mobile delivery management platform, including updating delivery tickets with the infectious disease indicators ensuring the delivery agents wore the appropriate personal protective equipment.
We still had providers either dropping off at the curb or dropping off on the patient’s doorstep. So, we added the capability within the mobile delivery application for pictures at delivery to show a delivery was made in lieu of a signature.
Looking at remote set-up, I think it’s still in the infancy stages. People are saying, ‘Okay, I have a complex system here. How do I do the training: via videos or online?’ Then they have to figure out the logistics of setting up that training and getting patients on board. Certainly, compa- nies are looking into that, but that’s not a direct Brightree application. Those applications would come more from the manufacturers ... but I know providers are pushing for it.
In working with referrals, I think right now the HME industry is showing our referral sources and payers what can be done with remote monitoring, scheduling, training and repair work. We as an industry are cutting down the operational costs right now and really putting a focus on virtual care and virtual repair.
Plus, apps such as Patient Hub that help patients interact with HME providers and take charge of their homecare and equipment, as well as get training on their equipment, also help providers demonstrate their value to referrals.
COVID-19 MEANS ACCREDITATION ADJUSTMENTS
Sandra Canally, RN, the founder
and CEO of The Compliance Team
The most important thing impacting accreditation is COVID-19 and the public health emergency has altered day-to-day operational practices. That’s directly related to accreditation, because we’re
looking at not only what’s in HME providers’ manual with their policies and procedures, but whether they’re actively performing those processes, according to the written policies and procedures. And certainly what we found over this period is providers have had to alter not necessarily what they’re doing, but how they’re doing it.
If providers are coming up for renewal, The Compliance Team has a real-time, remote virtual program that we’re utilizing for the survey process as long as the public health emergency exists. Once the PHE is dropped, we still have to go out and perform an on-site within a certain time period for these same providers. But that said, right now, they’re submitting their policies and what plans they put in place, which we’re then reviewing. And then, using technology, we’re actually doing a survey looking at their warehouse, talking to staff, etc.
Also, we already have an accreditation backup due to the PHE, but now we’re going into a heavy, three-year renewal cycle year that is typically double the amount of on-sites that we have in the off years. Also, CMS has given us a timetable that says it needs to be either done six months from the date of the virtual, or within a calendar year, or six months from when the public health emergency is lifted, or within a calendar year of the virtual site survey.
So you can see accrediting organizations have all these people that we’ve had to extend. That’s not even counting the new people that have come into play that got their numbers without accreditation.
MAXIMIZE THE STRATEGIC VALUE OF SLEEP DATA TO Gary Sheehan, MBA, President and CEO of Cape Medical Supply
Sleep providers of all shapes and sizes should be seeking ways to manage and model their data into actionable insights. We are drowning in information and data points, but too few providers are taking the time to translate that
data into process improvements or using it as a tool for enhanced and targeted patient communications.
The information we have within our systems offers sleep therapy providers the power to better manage cost, compliance and patient experience, but it takes a concerted effort to use it effectively to map how your organization is performing on
a macro level and how individual patients are performing on a micro level.
Data management is the key to building a differentiated sleep therapy practice and remains the difference between building real solutions and simply selling PAP devices and accessories.
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