Page 36 - HME Business, November/December 2022

Business Solutions
disease management programs. We need to have the capability for outcomes reporting in all of those areas.”
And then that information needs to become the foundation of an entirely new sales process, according to Bello.
It’s a completely different type of selling today.
“We’re always going to be building the relationship,” he says. “We’re always going to be earning the trust, the top part of the sales funnel, that that’s never going to go away.
“But what’s going to change with the provider is that the referral community is going to want outcomes data from you, and you are going to have to present that in a way that’s meaningful for them,” Bello explains. “Also, you have to present the process that you have in measuring those outcomes and how they hold to the standards that Medicare is going to provide for us by 2028.
“So, the sell is different,” he adds. “It’s more educational; it’s more in service; it’s more update.”
This approach will also have a multiplier for providers’ referral sales efforts, because that data will resonate just as strongly — if not more — with third-party payers and other funding sources as well as referral partners. Everyone in the care continuum will be transitioning to an outcomes model regardless of their spot on that spectrum.
“Medicaid, private insurance, the managed care plans, etc. are all going to be asking for the same data, and it’s the providers that can produce that data that can prove that they’re keeping their patients out of the hospital,” Bello says.
BEING PREPARED
With the worst days of the Covid-19 public
health emergency hopefully behind us, Sandra Canally, RN, founder and CEO of accrediting organization The Compliance Team says providers need to do a lot more to build businesses that are more “future-proof” when it comes to unexpected problems.
“Whether we have a PHE or we don’t, the old Boy Scouts motto stays, ‘be prepared,’” she says. “Well, just because you don’t have an official PHE doesn’t mean that you stop doing those things that we put into place to ready your business.”
For instance, while Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra extended the Covid-19 PHE for another 90 days until Jan. 11, 2023 and has also committed to providing at least 60 days advance notice before ending the PHE, CMS has also published guidance advising providers to start planning for a post-PHE future. How many providers will be ready, even with that guidance?
“I believe that a lot of the relaxation of certain requirements has been beneficial to both the provider and the patients they serve,” Canally says. “And would love to see things like telehealth be more readily avail- able because it improves access across the board. That said, after the waivers expire, it goes back to whether or not CMS chooses to keep those things.”
In other words, providers have to be prepared for any eventuality. And that includes a possible surge in patients that are finally feeling safe to resume normal activi- ties, including visiting their provider.
“There are a lot of chronically ill patients that, because of the pandemic, were not managing their disease and not going to the DME when they really needed to,” Canally says. “When we do away with the PHE, the providers will once again then get those people back in their stores. I mean, visits have gone down considerably with physi- cian appointments, wellness visits, with immunizations, with all sorts of visits that the chronically Ill really needed.
“This is where the DME HME provider should be ready to shine once again to bring them back to where they need to be in terms of managing their disease,” she notes. “So, it really gets into more value-based and patient-centered care being delivered by our providers.”
Canally says she looks at this prepared- ness as more of an effort to maintain
continuous quality improvement. The industry has learned some lessons and should absorb them and make them part of standard operating procedure, rather than tabling them until the next PHE.
“If anything, raise the bar, keep going, keep moving forward,” she advises. “It’s always about moving forward.”
GETTING CREATIVE
With all the challenges facing providers, Ron Resnick, president and owner of Blue Chip Medical Products, says it is incum- bent upon them to constantly search their
local marketplaces for new opportunities to provide care.
“The provider has to get out of his store, and go out and market,” he advises. “They can’t be too busy to sell.”
For example, facilities-based supply is closely aligned with what HME providers already do. Enterprising HME businesses can reach out to hospitals, sub-acute facili- ties and long-term care facilities and meet with them to explore their facilities-based care needs, he says.
“There are other avenues in which to become successful, but you have to take a start,” he says. “But you have to get out there.”
Similarly, providers can get creative about bringing new clients into their storefronts. For example, they can work with assisted living centers to provide them with a product-education event, Resnick suggests.
“They can bus them in, get two or three vendors to come in there, have some food with some coffee and tea, and demonstrate some products for them,” he advises. “There are a lot of facilities that will take patients on a field trip that is 10 minutes away as long as there is some educational value.”
Ron Resnick, President and owner of Blue Chip Medical Products
Sandra Canally, RN Founder and CEO, The Compliance Team Inc.
24 HMEBusiness | November/December 2022 | hme-business.com Management Solutions | Technology | Products