The mantra from Home Care 100 Intelligence Group Managing Director Tim Bateman when it comes to building value for home-based services: Accountability, Saleability, and Scalability. Home Care 100 speakers addressed the execution of all three of these “super-disciplines” - from how to participate in the evolving accountable care industry to the corporate backbone needed to support profitable managed care contracting, the Home Care 100 community shared their successes, challenges and path forward approaches.
Key Takeaways & Action Steps
#1: Providers Still Haven't Cracked the Code on Shared Savings
While home-based care remains a critical lever in reducing total cost of care, providers have yet to share in the potential savings from avoiding utilization of hospitals, emergency departments, and other facility-based services.
Action Step: Devote resources on your corporate team to evaluating your potential gain from higher value contracts against the cost of building the corporate backbone needed for success.
#2: Accepting Unfair Reimbursement Has a Long-Term Ripple Effect
Reimbursement has ramifications beyond the immediate impact on profitability and impacts our sector’s long-term ability to invest in innovation and value.
Action Step: Evaluate your margin mix against your unit delivery cost to ascertain whether the level of profitability will support both sustaining investments and future investment in innovation.
#3: Outcomes Data is a Foundational Element of Accountability
Action Step: Define the metrics needed by the payers in your markets. Then, set a target investment level in the business intelligence and analytics infrastructure needed to track these metrics that you can maintain across a multi-year horizon as you ramp up.
#4: Core Efficiency is Top of Mind Given Revenue and Cost Climate
Action Step: Create awareness around unit processing cost by mapping out the workflow for key areas - such as scheduling, revenue cycle and clinical documentation - and identifying high-leverage areas for automation.
#5: Expense Management is Top-of-Mind Given Revenue and Cost Climate
Action Step: Evaluate common vendor and overhead expenses annually to ensure that contracts are necessary, appropriate, and competitively bid.
#6: Personal Care is a Priority
Personal care is an integral piece of value-based care arrangements due to its high level of presence in, and visibility into, the home environment.
Action Step: Providers looking to participate in accountable care, particularly around the care of Medicaid or dual eligible individuals, need to either own or maintain a tight partnership with the PCS service line.
We are energized discussing these topics and hearing the provider community's perspective. If you’d like to connect to discuss any of our recommended action items, and how we can help you accelerate them, contact us.