Market Research Letter: November/December 2009
Providing insights for home care and hospice
November/December 2009
In This Issue
Feature Article: Drive Home Health Sales with These 3 Key Account Management Changes
Metrics Matter: The Most Important Diagnostic Categories for Home Health Referrals
Ask the Home Care Data Guru: Should I be concerned that my re-cert rate appears to be lower than the national benchmarks in industry newsletters?
Thanks to pressures from the proposed healthcare reform movement, major changes may soon to take effect in the way hospitals are reimbursed for certain patient groups. This could also have a significant effect on the way home health services are perceived and utilized by hospital administrators. In this month’s feature – “Drive Home Health Sales with These 3 Key Account Management Changes” – we discuss how you’ll have to change the way you sell to hospitals to compete and survive in today’s quickly evolving healthcare environment.
Rich Chesney
President, Healthcare Market Resources, Inc.
Feature Article: “Drive Home Health Sales with These 3 Key Account Management Changes”
Key account dynamics for home health agencies is on the verge of major change. Thanks to pressures on hospitals caused by today’s proposed healthcare reform movement, the individuals you are selling to and the primary benefits used for selecting your agency will no longer be the same. This article discusses new Medicare proposed reimbursement rules, plus 3 important changes you should consider in developing your key account strategy for 2010 and beyond.
Read more.
Metrics Matter: “The Most Important Diagnostic Categories for Home Health Referrals”
While patients are admitted to hospitals for a multitude of conditions, the key issue for home care agencies is determining which diagnostic categories are most important for home health referrals. Since discharge-planning resources are typically organized by clinical area, this month’s metric – Medicare Hospital Discharges to Home Care by Diagnostic Category – can help indicate which discharge planners likely offer the most potential for referring cases to your home care.
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: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.
Read the entire answer.