Finishing First

Reimbursements are decreasing. Competition is increasing. So what’s an HME to do?

When our staff asks this question of providers, the answer we get most often is the only one we would expect: the right thing, of course.

But what exactly is that right thing? Because home health companies are as different as the customers they serve, providers tell us that means caring for patients in the best possible way on an individual level.

For years the industry has struggled to define its role in the health care continuum, and to explain that role to those in Congress and at regulatory agencies who make the rules under which providers must operate. There has been little understanding from government (though recent industry efforts are beginning to yield some progress). And now providers must continue to serve patients well in a market that will undoubtedly toughen as provisions of the Medicare Modernization Act roll out.

It is clear that extra care and services will not mean extra reimbursement dollars. But showing good patient outcomes can certainly mean more business — not to mention ending the day with the feeling you have helped someone, the feeling that has led so many caring providers into this business in the first place.

“Outcomes are what make us all feel better about what we do. They are the reason we celebrate our work and the feeling we get when we have provided the right product for the patient,” says HomeCare columnist Louis Feuer. What’s more, he continues, measuring good outcomes, or showing how products and services positively affect patients’ lives, can turn into “the message” that attracts and keeps the attention of referral sources — and that brings in more business.

Hospitals, rehab centers and pharmaceutical companies are all involved in understanding and tracking outcomes, Feuer points out. “Now it is our turn to develop outcome information that can be used as a selling and marketing tool.”

Today’s increasingly knowledgeable and demanding consumers want more than product delivery. They need and deserve the care that goes with home medical equipment to achieve the outcomes they expect. That is something providers can definitely supply.

It seems that one solution to success in HME’s new landscape could result from that special patient attention most providers give so naturally. By “selling” the outcomes — quantifying how equipment and services help to further patient goals — maybe for once, the good guys in this business race will finish first.