Posted by HEALTHCAREfirst Blogger on Mon, Aug 09, 2010 @ 08:30 AM
by Bobby Robertson
So, you’ve started thinking about how to deal with the inevitable revenue cuts (Medicare payment cuts). I know this, because in June my company implemented software for almost 20 new companies and July was about the same. All of these companies are preparing for the coming cuts by looking for efficiencies to be gained by web-based software and point of care documentation. I’m asking all of these agencies, and you, “Have you started to think about how to deal with looming increases to your costs that could be just as, or more, significant?”
Recently, I had an opportunity to attend a conference with CEOs of approximately 80 different industry leading companies. One of the speakers was a well known economist and he framed up a scenario that I feel compelled to share with not only my company’s 1200 + customers, but with the entire home health and hospice industry. His message, and my concern, was one of the impending inflation.
I’m not going to try to explain the reasons why this leading economist believes that we will see indications of inflation by early 2011, with a surge in inflation over the next couple of years. You can do web searches or listen to the news to form your own opinion. However, for the purposes of this blog, let’s assume inflation will happen.
The single biggest cost for home care companies is people (payroll). In times of inflation, the cost of people increases sharply. Here is why:
Inflation raises the cost of living for your employees. Your employees can cut back on entertainment and other discretionary spending, but they still have to eat and drive to work. If they’re paying more for food and gas, they have less money for monthly payments on their cars and homes. If they are struggling with monthly payments on their cars and homes, they start to panic and begin looking for jobs that pay more. If they find a job that pays more, you’ll have replacement costs for recruiting, and you’ll be recruiting other home health employees that won’t make a move to you unless they can get paid more (just like your ex-employee did). It’s a cycle that occurs very quickly during times of inflation and you need to start getting ready for it now. Next week, I will share with you some ideas on how you can prepare.
Bobby Robertson is the President and Chief Executive Officer of HEALTHCAREfirst, Inc., a company that provides the nations’ most complete set of software and service solutions to the home health and hospice industry, and the recipient of the 2008 Frost & Sullivan Healthcare Innovation Award for Emerging Technologies. Over 1200 home health and hospice companies use HEALTHCAREfirst software and services daily. Bobby was one of the first industry leaders in homecare to recognize the industry’s need for high quality home care software applications accessible over the worldwide web and has 15 years of healthcare performance improvement and business process experience. Bobby also serves on the Board of Directors for Continuity Health, a company that develops technology associated with remote patient monitoring via the web.
Posted by Cheri Whalen on Thu, Dec 03, 2009 @ 01:27 PM
Healthcare Reform may be the new word on the streets, but what SHOULD it mean for Home Health and Hospice agencies?
The House and the Senate have passed bills regarding healthcare reform and will be working together to create a unified piece of legislation that will affect providers in the coming months. Ultimately, it still remains there are changes on the horizon that can be viewed as bad and harmful OR can be used to the benefit of the patient and the agency to provide exceptional care. Agencies need to ask themselves: "Do I want to be a healthcare provider that STRIVES for more or one that is merely surviving?"
Changes happening now in the Home Health and Hospice industry are ones many providers embraced before the regulation was provided. Measuring outcomes, comprehensive assessments including fall risk assessments and depression, bereavement services, pain management monitoring ... have long been quantifiable measurements any agency can use to determine the quality of their services and the satisfaction of their patients. Now that these are required to do business with Medicare, some agencies find themselves asking "What do I have to measure?" when the real question should be "What SHOULD I be measuring?".
Looking beyond the le
tter of the regulation will be imperative for agencies who wish to STRIVE for more. Are there areas in your business you feel are lacking? What are you doing to measure the success or failure of those areas? Have you asked those employees responsible for that area what they feel is lacking and provide suggestions for improvement? Is that improvement measurable? Don't just wait for the new Home Health Compare, CAHPS survey, or Hospice Patient Satisfaction scores to tell you where your business needs work.
The software used in your agency today may provide reports you can use to help get started. There might not be one single report that encompasses all your needs, but you may have multiple reports that can be used in conjunction with each other to give a fuller picture. I encourage you to review each of the reports you have available and determine how they can help you measure the success of your efforts!