3 Steps to Financial Success in HME Resupply

A sleep care medical equipment provider’s business might be performing well. But “performing well” is not the goal. What keeps business owners up at night is not how well they’re doing, but the dollars they aren’t capturing — and the patients who suffer as a result.

“Simply put, there are many places where a provider can be hemorrhaging money,” says Michael Lorenz, VP of ReSupply at Brightree. “And they may not even be sure where.”

Lorenz is alluding to one of the most powerful steps to reversing course financially on resupply challenges:

Here is a look at the common causes of providers losing money in resupply, and three steps they must take to reverse their financial prospects.

Why HME providers lose money in resupply

When providers are losing money in their resupply process, the first question they face is: why? Common reasons include:

• Manual labor is driving up costs
• Patients are falling through the cracks
• Automating outreach alone does not solve the problem
• Inconsistent processes can drive up denials

“What happens too often today is that someone has either a rolodex or an Excel spreadsheet, something that is not wrapped in automation, and they are trying to manually keep in touch with what patients are coming due for resupply, when they should call and how often they should call,” says Addison Perrymond, Head of Product, Brightree. “If they can instead use a solution like ours, they will only have to use manual processes by exception.”

Three steps to financial success in resupply

Step 1: Self-evaluation part 1 — understand the metrics

To improve financial performance in resupply, providers first need to define what success looks like. Without clear metrics, it’s difficult to assess performance or identify where processes are breaking down.

Taking an objective view helps position leadership to best identify and prioritize financial goals — whether that is a top-line goal like monthly revenue, or a bottom-line goal that is associated with controlling costs and margin.

“If you go to your staff and say, ‘Are we doing a good job?’ they’re going to say yes,” Lorenz says. But if your staff members don’t know what constitutes “a good job” for you, then they have no way of knowing if they’ve achieved that good job.”

Without that clarity, the HME provider also lacks a reliable way to measure performance.

Step 2: Self-evaluation part 2 — find all areas of resupply where AI can assist

Once a provider has defined how success will be measured, the next step is determining execution. This includes developing an end-to-end workflow driven by automation and AI. Because the goal of AI is to simultaneously increase productivity while reducing bottlenecks and errors, an HME provider can apply AI strategically to minimize human involvement in tasks that are better suited for machine learning.

This allows staff to focus on work that requires human expertise — such as referral management and patient support.

When people do work that is best suited for technology, the cost of labor rises while the outcomes can fall. Brightree Resupply therefore places its emphasis on areas that are repeatable, scalable and don’t require as much human creativity and ingenuity, such as:

• Scheduling and fulfilling orders
• Revenue cycle management
• Patient outreach and follow-ups

“Software works 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Lorenz says.

Step 3: Add AI and automate

Once the provider has determined what can be automated, it’s time to dive in and do it. By automating across an end-to-end workflow, the provider can help the business run more quickly, accurately and economically.

This begins with intake and flows through customer communication, renewal and even tracking shipping. Rather than having to worry about a representative determining who to call and what the payer will allow, the system does it automatically, making sure an order is completely filled, patients are getting everything they’re eligible to receive and a consistent schedule is followed.

“When I think about how providers lose money, I think about the challenges of patient retention, and providers that lack the systems that allow them to maintain touchpoints with every patient,” Perrymond says. “Leveraging Brightree for resupply allows them to implement systems that maintain those touch points on a personable level.”

The economic benefits of resupply 

Whatever the cause of financial shortfall, a robust resupply program is a strong first step to helping resolve any number of issues that may be plaguing HME providers in their efforts to achieve their business goals.

“The more that patients resupply, the more they stay on therapy and the more they are going to live healthier lives,” Lorenz says. “But the provider is going to reap some economic benefits from that as well.”

Brightree enables out-of-hospital care organizations to improve their business performance and deliver better health outcomes. As an industry-leading cloud-based healthcare IT company, Brightree provides solutions and services for thousands of organizations in home medical equipment and pharmacy, home health, hospice and home infusion. To learn more, visit www.brightree.com.