As the HME industry enters the era of competitive bidding, companies must look to the future of technology to improve operations. The only question is what companies will do with the technology at their fingertips. Product lines such as document imaging solutions and sales team tracking mechanisms can make a positive impact.

Many companies look at the price of these products and determine that cost outweighs benefits. However, if managers take a good look at their current operations, they would find that future gains outweigh initial costs. To survive in the face of competitive bidding, HME companies must analyze the costs involved in all aspects of their operations—not just the cost of their inventory.

Activity-based costing looks at the costs involved across the operation. Investigating the time your staff spends performing all the tasks needed to provide equipment/services to end users is required to determine all of the costs involved. Functions such as sales, intake, paperwork completion, delivery/setup, patient training, medical documentation retrieval, and billing must be analyzed as well as the actual cost of the equipment/supplies.

TRUE COSTS

In June 2006, AAHomecare enlisted Morrison Informatics to determine the costs and resources used in providing oxygen services. Providers used this information to fight the effects of the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005. Morrison Informatics Inc surveyed 74 oxygen services providers delivering services to more than 1.7 million Medicare beneficiaries and more than 600,000 beneficiaries receiving medical oxygen at home, and completed a detailed survey that identified the costs and resources used in providing oxygen services.

Survey findings demonstrated that oxygen systems (equipment) alone represent only 28% of the cost of providing medically necessary oxygen to Medicare beneficiaries (source: Morrison Informatics Inc).

This study proves you must be knowledgeable on the total costs involved in providing care across all product categories, not just oxygen. Every aspect of your organization can benefit from reduced costs, improved efficiency, and increases to your bottom line. Without requiring a large upfront capital investment, products using the Software as a Service (SaaS) model allow you to quickly leverage flexibility, mobility, and scalability.

DOCUMENT IMAGING

Once you have fully implemented your document imaging solution, all members of your staff will no longer be wasting time searching for files. They will be able to access patient information with a few clicks of the mouse.

The cost savings will not be as easily identified on the front end—with regard to the filing process—unless the solution has an auto-index feature. This feature uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology, which allows the system to automatically file the documents in the appropriate patient file. Cost savings will be dramatic on the back end of the retrieval process. Other savings will be achieved long-term because you no longer have to buy filing cabinets and store records in expensive office space.

Document imaging solutions vary, and there are two system platforms: Web-based systems and installed systems that run on servers and PCs in your office.

SALES: INCREASE THE TOP LINE

The fastest way to increase your bottom line is to increase your top line. Want more cash in your pocket? Improve sales. This can be a daunting task, especially considering all the factors working against you. However, you did not get where you are today by sitting around waiting for customers to pour in.

Face-to-face interaction with referral sources, getting your name recognized in your market, and giving priority to activities directly related to your top line are the things you do to sell your company, products, and reputation. You have worked hard to screen and hire successful sales reps to perform these duties. You have spent considerable time and resources to get them generating business. Now the challenge is making sure they have the tools available to be the most productive they can be.

Caleb Dixon

A sales tracking tool is vital to ensure that the interactions with referral sources are as productive as possible, the rep is producing, and your sales are increasing. Furthermore, it must be simple to use, have robust features, and be 100% mobile.

Using a turbocharged version of an e-mail client will no longer suffice. You must go above and beyond the norm. You must "wow" the referral source every chance you get. Your competitors are trying to do the same thing. You need a streamlined way to get new leads to reps in the field, documentation regarding your referral sources, and all of it done in a truly mobile environment.

Internally tracking the sales reps' activities and quickly ramping up new hires represent two of the biggest challenges for the sales manager. Once your sales team leaves the office, you really have no idea where they are and what they are doing. You need a tool that can give you a real-time view of where each rep has been today and what has taken place with each referral source they have visited. Tracking productivity, managing expectations, and training sales reps with this type of tool will result in cost-saving efficiency improvements.

Sarah Hanna

What about turnover? Your system needs to be able to associate details of sales visits with the referral source, not the rep. When the rep leaves your company, you do not need all the details of interactions with the referral source leaving with them. A robust sales tracking system gives you historical data per referral source, per interaction, and allows new reps to ramp up on the intricacies of each. Each day you can eliminate where the new rep is not producing cash, you put more to the top line.

There are many questions facing us each day. How do we survive reimbursement cuts? What is my biggest cost liability? How do I improve cash flow? Closely investigating areas of your business to improve efficiency and save money makes perfect sense. Making improvements in efficiency involving the people and processes that can make the greatest potential increase to your top and bottom line is an ideal step in the right direction. n

Sarah Hanna is a reimbursement consultant and vice president of ECS Billing & Consulting Inc, Tiffin, Ohio. She can be reached at . Caleb Dixon is the director of operations for RemitDATA Inc, Memphis, Tenn. Dixon can be reached at .

For more information and articles on software, go to the free online archives section. Some of the additional software articles from this year's issues can also be found in the "Related Articles" box below.