Home Health & Hospice Week

Maximize your marketers' impact by keeping them in the loop.

With prospective payment system changes hitting Jan. 1, home health agencies have been swamped with clinical and financial staff training. But don't make the common mistake of failing to educate sales staff too, or you could miss out on revenue-enhancing opportunities under the new system.

The problem: HHAs are leaving sales staff out of PPS training. "Most agencies are focusing on the training for their clinicians, coders and billers," notes Stephen Tweed, CEO of Leading Home Care based in Louisville, KY, which helps agencies with business strategy and marketing issues.

"Agencies have historically operated that way," laments Mike Ferris with Home Care and Hospice Marketing Solutions in Chapel Hill, NC. Sales and marketing training "gets pushed further down the list" in times of change, Ferris tells Eli.

The solution: Now is the time for you to make sure your sales and marketing staff are on top of the PPS changes, experts advise. "There is huge upside potential for those agencies that also provide some training for their sales and marketing representatives," Tweed stresses.

Use Your Marketing Resources Wisely

While marketers don't need to know the intricate details of the PPS changes, they should have a broad overview, especially focusing on how your agency's services may change for patients, Ferris counsels providers.

Tip: Sales reps and marketers can look at the changes and identify patients that will have higher revenue per episode under the new system, Tweed recommends. "A clearly focused sales representative will then take that into account when planning her or his sales week."

A rep has only a limited amount of time to sell--probably 32 to 35 hours per week, Tweed notes. "Why not use those limited selling hours to call on the referral sources with the greatest potential to make referrals that turn into admissions, and those referral sources that can give you patients with the highest revenue per episode?"

If your staff are squeamish about IDing profitable patients, they shouldn't be, Tweed maintains. "We're not talking about 'cherry picking' the market," he says. "We're talking about sales and marketing focus." Providers should spend their limited sales and marketing resources on those referral sources that will give them the most advantageous referrals, he insists.

Figuring out who will make a favorable patient will be trickier under the PPS changes, Ferris notes. The "sweet spots" in the old system of easy-to-find, highly profitable patients--such as patients with 10 or 11 therapy visits--are gone.

Tell Your Story To Referral Sources

Reps can also use this payment change as an opportunity to get out and speak to referral sources face to face, Ferris suggests. They can explain briefly how the new system will change things.

Emphasize the positive: Be sure to frame your discussion about what new things you may be able to do for referral sources. For example, maybe now with separate Non-Routine Medical Supply (NRS) reimbursement, you can better manage some wound care patients.

Or you can emphasize how your agency will be able to work more flexibly with patients of different therapy level needs under the new three-tier system.

If referral sources have been asking for something in particular that you can now do under the PPS changes, be sure to emphasize how you have heard their concerns and are reacting positively to them, Ferris advises.

Logistics: Ferris recommends integrating PPS refinement information into training sessions you already have for sales reps. For instance, when reviewing information on how your agency can service patients with a certain diagnosis, you can talk about how PPS reimbursement for those patients differs under the new system.