The global pandemic of COVID-19 stalled huge portions of the American healthcare system. We can’t know if the storm is passed or if we are simply in the eye, and that uncertainty will prolong patients postponing care and the economic assault on healthcare providers. DME suppliers, however, have the ability to do something about it. Here are three ways any DME supplier can use sales order data to combat revenue declines and build strong relationships with referral sources.
1. Identify and Collaborate With Large Referral Sources
A small group of referral sources generate a large portion of sales for many DME suppliers. Any employee can rattle off the names of high-volume referrals, but most are shocked at the actual concentration. Order data from the billing system makes quantification straight-forward:
1. Identify and Collaborate With Large Referral Sources
A small group of referral sources generate a large portion of sales for many DME suppliers. Any employee can rattle off the names of high-volume referrals, but most are shocked at the actual concentration. Order data from the billing system makes quantification straight-forward:
The above order analysis from early May is representative of what we see across the board. This supplier has a heavy concentration in its top three referring physicians. That can be a good thing or a bad thing in times like these. While a targeted effort can yield big benefits, the loss of a key referral source can be particularly devastating.
The referrals with the biggest overall decreases are likely prominent physicians, sleep labs, and ancillary hospital centers that shutdown as states discouraged or banned non-urgent and elective healthcare. These practices are hurting, but suppliers have a unique opportunity help:
The big, squeaky wheel often gets the grease, so it is not unusual that suppliers are often unfamiliar with lower-volume referrals. Now is a great time to do something about that.
The referrals with the biggest overall decreases are likely prominent physicians, sleep labs, and ancillary hospital centers that shutdown as states discouraged or banned non-urgent and elective healthcare. These practices are hurting, but suppliers have a unique opportunity help:
- Share telehealth education and observed best practices used by other referral sources.
- Adapt intake processes to make it easier for physicians to refer telehealth patients needing DME; meet them more than halfway because the transition to patient encounters without a traditional office visit requires doctors to alter most of their routines.
- Send referrals to the referrals! Identify patients these doctors have referred in the last year that are due for physician visits to:
- Certify PAP compliance.
- Approve oxygen recertifications.
- Replace equipment after the useful life expires.
- Renew Medicaid authorizations.
The big, squeaky wheel often gets the grease, so it is not unusual that suppliers are often unfamiliar with lower-volume referrals. Now is a great time to do something about that.
We can also see from the above order analysis that many of the lower-volume referral sources send orders sporadically. While suppliers assist these practitioners in the same ways as those with larger relationships, smaller practices may provide the greatest opportunity for sales growth. Independent practices are often able to make the transition to telehealth more quickly. They also have the most to gain by seeing more patients. Prioritizing a new relationship becomes easier to identify and subsequently nurture when analysis shows orders are not trickling in uniformly and instead reflect one-time pops late last year or late this year. Discover what is happening to the orders for patients seen in between.
3. Send Patients to Referrals (so they can refer to you)
Everything is changing. Practitioners must try to keep their doors open while treating patients in new environments with unfamiliar protocols. Suppliers have a unique opportunity to connect the dots for referrals as to which patients they can see and which services might be medically necessary and appropriate in the current environment. To properly match supplier services to the orders referrals can generate and prioritize, suppliers must be the first to make the connection between how their service lines fit into a COVID-19 world.
For example, orthopedic clinics are delaying knee, shoulder, back, and neck surgeries for patients in chronic pain during state lockdowns. These patients remain at home suffering. While surgeries aren’t an option, doctors have to either prescribe pain meds or, alternatively, stabilizing braces. With the opioid issue at the forefront, braces are the much safer and practical route. Doctors consumed by the loss of surgical revenue, however, may not make the connection to telehealth visits or how to keep their patients safe and comfortable in the interim.
Sales order data from the billing software is an accessible opportunity for all DME suppliers to strengthen referral relationships, ensure top-quality access to patient care, and ultimately survive.
3. Send Patients to Referrals (so they can refer to you)
Everything is changing. Practitioners must try to keep their doors open while treating patients in new environments with unfamiliar protocols. Suppliers have a unique opportunity to connect the dots for referrals as to which patients they can see and which services might be medically necessary and appropriate in the current environment. To properly match supplier services to the orders referrals can generate and prioritize, suppliers must be the first to make the connection between how their service lines fit into a COVID-19 world.
For example, orthopedic clinics are delaying knee, shoulder, back, and neck surgeries for patients in chronic pain during state lockdowns. These patients remain at home suffering. While surgeries aren’t an option, doctors have to either prescribe pain meds or, alternatively, stabilizing braces. With the opioid issue at the forefront, braces are the much safer and practical route. Doctors consumed by the loss of surgical revenue, however, may not make the connection to telehealth visits or how to keep their patients safe and comfortable in the interim.
Sales order data from the billing software is an accessible opportunity for all DME suppliers to strengthen referral relationships, ensure top-quality access to patient care, and ultimately survive.
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