Ask the Home Care Data Guru: My re-cert rate appears to be lower than the national benchmarks I’ve seen in industry newsletters. Should I be concerned?
Q: My re-cert rate appears to be lower than the national benchmarks I’ve seen in industry newsletters. Should I be concerned?
A: First, these published rates usually come from organizations that aggregate the client information. Unfortunately, because of the limited sample size, their client bases may not be reflective of all service providers.
Second, healthcare is local and home care sits at the bottom of the healthcare food chain. That means home care agencies have little control over:
- The types of patients they get.
- When they get patients during the recovery process.
- How long patients are under their care.
Additionally, each local market has its own patient demographics and epidemiological factors, which are indicative of the overall health of its patients. Geographies with a more chronic population, for example, will likely result in more long term cases.
Therefore, you need to compare your agency’s results to your local market benchmark—the sum of your agency and all your competitors. A review of re-cert rates nationally shows an almost 15-fold difference between the highest and lowest situations. Several of the reports offered by Healthcare Market Resources could identify the benchmark rate for your service area, including our Market Share Report and Key Indicators by Diagnosis Report. Further, we suggest you download our free white paper, Disease-Adjusted Financial Benchmarks Report, which will show you what is causing any variation in your organization’s performance from market norms.