In a recent article published in McKnight’s, consultant Betsy Rust writes “Fading fast are the days of post-acute healthcare providers viewing patients as their primary customers.” The bundling of post-acute services with hospital payments will transform the hospital — along with special managed care programs, health plans and accountable care organizations — into your real customer.
Ignore this payor shift from direct Medicare and Medicaid to other providers at your own peril. Doing so will certainly lead to decreased sales. This is because your agency’s revenue will be your new payor’s cost and they want to keep their costs low.
Think of it this way. A hospital admission day can exceed $5,000. Surely you provide in-home services for less than that. A Medicare episode rarely exceeds $5,000 for 60 days of care. Making that case may be easy but the key will be not only to package your services in a financially attractive way, but also to communicate what sets your agency apart from others, so hospitals will trust their patients to you instead of your competitor.
This means learning a new skill, how to play the "Game of Sales." And it means every member of your staff, not your sales staff, your entire staff, must learn the game. Every person who sees patients, answers the phone, or explains to friends and family what their company does, can Learning sales skills will require education and coaching like any other new skill.
If you are attending the Ohio Council for Home Care and Hospice Annual Conference & Tradeshow on September 12-14, stop by the Home Care Technology Report booth and receive a ticket for admission to a sales training workshop being held in Dublin, Ohio on October 5, from 1-3pm. This type of training is essential for Home Health Administrators. Sales Trainer Lewis VanLandingham of Sandler Training by Sharper Edge Advantage, LLC will teach your agency administrators "How to Sell... Even If You Are NOT a Salesperson." Many have paid as much as $250 for this workshop, but Lewis is offering this training session to our subscribers at no cost, so stop and see us at the Home Care Technology Report Booth # 600 to pick up your ticket.
©2016 by Rowan Consulting Associates, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Tim Rowan's Home Care Technology Report. homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use; further reproduction by permission only. editor@homecaretechreport.com