Market Research Letter: May/June 2010
Providing insights for home care and hospice
May/June 2010
In This Issue
Feature Article: Is Diversification Right for Your Hospice or Home Health Organization?
Metrics Matter: The Incidence of Diabetes, Endocrine, and Metabolic Diagnoses in Home Health Patients
Ask the Home Care Data Guru: Where Should I Start Up or Acquire a Hospice?
Is diversification the best way to grow your home health or hospice business? To help you answer that question, we show you how to construct a diversification model by plotting the maturity and competitiveness of your local market in this month’s feature.
Rich Chesney
President, Healthcare Market Resources, Inc.
Feature Article: “Is Diversification Right for Your Hospice or Home Health Organization?”
Trying to grow a hospice or home health care business in today’s competitive market is tough work. And thanks to federal legislation that threatens to lower Medicare reimbursements in the near future, many home-care agencies are now beginning to question their viability. Is diversification the solution for your organization? To help you answer that question, this article presents a diversification model that is based on the maturity and competiveness of your local market. Read more.
Metrics Matter: “The Incidence of Diabetes, Endocrine, and Metabolic Diagnoses in Home Health Patients”
There has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States over the last 20 years. Because obesity is the primary risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus, we’re also seeing a corresponding marked increase in the prevalence of this condition. In this month’s Metrics Matter, we look at the incidence of diabetes, endocrine, and metabolic diagnoses in Medicare home health patients. Read more.
Ask the Home Care Data Guru
Looking for some hard-to-find data? In Ask the Home Care Data Guru, we share questions from our subscribers – and our answers. Send us your question today!
Q: Where should I start up or acquire a hospice?
A: Here’s how one of our clients approached this situation. Using our national Web-based database, he assessed all the markets in the United States by the level of hospice utilization, market size, number of competitors, and degree of concentration. He then grouped counties together, based on governmental definitions of markets – Core-Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs). He also referred to other data sources, such as Money Magazine’s Best Places to Live list, to insert quality-of-life factors into the equation. Using this information, he compiled a list of attractive markets and recently entered the Charlottesville, VA, market.