The Medical Manufacturer’s Role in Medicare Readmission Penalties

In the second wave of medicare readmission penalties, Fierce Healthcare shared some staggering statistics:

2,225 of the nation's 5,700 hospitals will receive payment reductions totaling $227 million starting on Oct. 1. Of those hospitals, 18 hospitals will lose 2 percent of Medicare reimbursements, the top penalty, while 154 will lose 1 percent or more.

What does this mean to the business side of healthcare?

1. Don’t Panic: We’ve always been a very resilient industry and have gone through many trials over the years. Face this head-on, as an opportunity to help provide products, education, tools, and support necessary to avoid those dreaded payment reductions.
2. Strategize: How you lead your team through this, will make or break your success. Meet with your sales teams and leaders and develop a list of solutions you can provide.
3. Develop Case Studies: Do you have research that will address a means of improving patient outcomes? List them out:
   1. Infection control
   2. Improved patient outcomes via xyz
4. Do you have education that will make clinicians more efficient and patient’s more comfortable, possibly improving patient experience? Will they gain accredited continuing ed? List them out.
   1. Workshops
   2. Labs
   3. Analysis support
5. Develop Additional Educational Content: Take all of the information you’ve gathered, develop into blogs and easily navigated case studies, e-books and checklists.
   1. Provide the content to all of your organization for them to share with existing customers, social media, and prospects.
   2. Put it out on social media.
   3. Target your personas
   4. Target places they go for information: conferences, organizations, linkedIn groups, Twitter, Google+
6. Keep going: You will need to have the mindset of this being your new normal way of connecting and building community with your prospects and existing customers. Make sure your leadership is on board. If you’re not driving a steady stream of prospects into the top of your funnel, your existing leads will dry up.
   1. Make certain that your CTA’s (calls to action) avoid using the word “submit” its intimidating and feels like too much of a commitment.
   2. You need to keep nurturing new and existing customers through the sales funnel. This is achieved through gaining credibility and trust.
   3. You’ll continue to have qualified leads to forward on to sales, and sales will continue to feel like a valuable asset to your team.
7. Ask for Help: Marketing automation is very strategic, timely, and requires an expertise to hit the ground running.
   1. Research for help from a qualified team.
   2. Only buy an automation software if you have the means to manage it, or you have consulted an authority on the most appropriate tools for your specific needs.

The healthcare industry is in the midst of a very challenging time, with a lot of uncertainty. Everyone is seeking direction and won’t be too quick to meet with a representative, or take a call. That call will rarely be answered: Cold calling is dead.

Instead, help our healthcare industry providers find you. Your longevity is worth the investment.

Image source: Pixaby