Given the benefits that home
infusion therapy represents
to post-acute healthcare
providers, and particularly
to DME pharmacies, post-acute software
company Brightree LLC (brightree.com)
recently unveiled major enhancements
to its Brightree Business Management
Solution for Pharmacy that are aimed at
improving efficiencies and profitability
for home infusion provider organizations.
The enhancements include more than
a dozen new features covering intake
through reimbursement designed to
improve efficiency, reduce manual data
entry and errors, and expedite claims
and reimbursement processes.
Key enhancements include comprehensive
patient intake, discharge and
patient status mechanisms, and contract
pricing. Let’s take a look at them a little
more closely:
COMPREHENSIVE
PATIENT INTAKE
New customizable, role-driven workflows
the enhancements are designed to guide
staff members through their portion of
the patient intake process, with indicators
for required information at each
stage. The aim of these enhancements
is to ensure key information related to
payer requirements and patient medications
are captured upfront to reduce
downstream errors, improve clinical
interactions and make it easier to train
staff regardless of role.
DISCHARGE AND
PATIENT STATUS MECHANISMS
These features help DME pharmacies
maintain accurate records of patients on
service, share discharge summaries with
prescribers and trigger necessary actions
that must be completed once a patient
is discharged. This helps DME pharmacies
meet expectations of accreditation
bodies and improves communications
with other providers in the care network,
while lightening administrative workloads
for home infusion organizations’ highest-paid
resources.
CONTRACT PRICING
This revenue cycle tool lets DME pharmacies
establish rule-based pricing that reflects
unique payer contracts. Everything
provided to patients, whether a prescription,
a piece of equipment, or a visit, is
priced automatically and used throughout
the workflow on test claims, delivery
tickets and claims. This feature eliminates
the burden of manually tracking and
inputting published price updates from
industry leaders, while maximizing the
revenue opportunities that come from
them.
PATHWAY TO REIMBURSEMENT
The care and revenue benefits of home
infusion are clear, particularly with CMS’s
new home infusion benefit in mind. That
said, home infusion pharmacies have to
navigate a series of complex processes
in order to get reimbursed for servicing
their patients, notes Nupura Kolwalkar,
chief product officer at Brightree.
“With the updates announced today,
Brightree Business Management Solution
for Pharmacy helps connect those otherwise
disjointed workflows to revolutionize
organizational efficiencies and pave the
way for greater gains with fewer complications,”
she says. “These efficiency
drivers are a key step in Brightree’s home
infusion connected care vision and one
we plan to build on throughout the year
with further innovations to support providers
from referral through payment.”
OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCIES
Brightree Business Management Solution
for Pharmacy also comes with features
designed to help DME pharmacies
measure productivity and operational efficiencies
with customizable dashboards
covering intake, pharmacy operations,
nursing, billing and reimbursement.
Pharmacies can view and analyze trends
to more accurately measure profitability,
better understand their staffing needs
and track progress on key business goals,
among other benefits.
Brightree Business Management Solution
for Pharmacy also offers connections
to the broader healthcare ecosystem to
help pharmacies digitally communicate
with their referral sources, streamline
processes and ensure continuity and connectivity
of care.
