Evaluating Software Vendors

With the recent announcement of Round 2 contract award winners from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), it is more imperative than ever that HME providers find ways to do more with fewer resources. Efficiency is the key to establishing and maintaining long-term viability. Gone are the days when businesses were run with a heavy emphasis on paper and manual workflows. Now, just as important as winning the bid is ensuring that your organization is prepared to handle the increased volume of business that a bid contract promises.

Choosing a software vendor becomes paramount to the success of HME providers, yet many providers must step out of their comfort zone to make such a decision. Let’s face it, your core competency is in patient care, not software. And many times the wrong factors are taken into account when such a decision is made, which could lead to unnecessary frustration down the road.

Many HME providers fall into one of two categories when it comes to software utilization. Either they don’t currently have HME software—choosing instead to use free billing software and spreadsheets or to do everything by hand using paper only—or they have an HME software vendor but for myriad reasons may be unhappy with their current vendor relationship. In either case, the provider could find himself thrown into the often confusing process of evaluating HME software. The following tips can help when evaluating and selecting an HME software vendor.

Pick three or more: This should not be difficult to do. Everywhere you turn there are advertisements, mailings and e-mails from software vendors in the HME space. A handful of them have established themselves as leaders in the market, and it won’t be hard to discover who they are.

Schedule a discussion, not a demo: Your initial dialogue with any software vendor should always be about you and not about them. What are your goals as an HME provider, what therapies are you delivering and how do you as a provider want your vendor to best communicate with you? All of these are essential pieces of information for the vendor/client relationship.

Gather and review information: Do your homework. Ask the vendor for information on their software that includes all standard and optional features and components. Go to the vendor’s website to find important information such as company history and its strategic direction.

Schedule a second discussion: This time the software provider should be leading the conversation by providing an initial high-level demonstration. The software vendor should also discuss how their solution will best meet the needs of your organization, which were detailed in the initial discussion.

Second demo… dive deep: Now that you’ve gotten a high level overview of the software, it’s time to engage other stakeholders within your organization to determine if the solution will be a good fit. Involve all departments that will utilize the software, and make sure all of the questions they have are answered during this phase. Now is also the time to make sure you ask about features you may have seen elsewhere but have not yet been discussed by this vendor.

Ask for references: Ask the software vendor for a list of reference accounts that you can call. You should create a list of questions you’d like to ask each reference prior to the conversation taking place. Ask the reference about how the software is meeting their needs. Ask them about the things they’d change about the software if given the opportunity. Don’t stop there, though. The key to a strong and enduring vendor/client relationship is the support you receive once the purchase is complete. Ask the reference about customer support. You want to know things like: how often do they have to call back in order to fix a problem?; what is the turnaround time to get solutions?; and what is the knowledge level of support staff? These are critical aspects of the ongoing relationship.

Decide, then negotiate: Vendor selection should be a bit easier after completing this process. My recommendation is always to decide first and negotiate second. Once you’ve decided on the vendor of choice, initiate the negotiation process. Too many HME providers are making decisions based on which vendor negotiated the most, and quite honestly, that’s backwards. The software must meet all of your needs first, then you can discuss the terms of the agreement.