“I send referrals to the last person who brought me lunch.” Even if a doctor has not been this forthright with you, most of you probably have wondered if this is not true.  The referral-based provider might think this doctor is just being selfish.  In truth, this doctor is really saying that he does...
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Entrench Your Place in the Minds of Your Customers Market positioning is arranging for a brand to occupy a clear and desirable place, relative to competing brands, in the minds of target consumers.  Medical professionals are overloaded with information about products and services.  They cannot re-evaluate providers every time they make a referral decision. ...
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“Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.” – Robert Schuller - For busy administrators and practice managers, an easy mistake to make is failing to execute a strategy because you are planning something better or, worse yet, something perfect.  This is especially applicable for small practices with tight budgets.  Healthcare procedures...
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A new study completed this week provides continuing validation of a marketing strategy that Brazzell Marketing Agency calls the “Referral Doubling Strategy.”  The study finds that home health care agencies using the strategy are more likely to experience growth and that their rate of annual growth is 375% above average (38% vs. 8%). One...
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On May 20, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released an advisory opinion that calls into question discharge referral systems currently in popular use by hospitals and home care agencies.  Automated, electronic referral systems have recently grown in popularity.  Hospital discharge planners use these systems to input the details of a patient being...
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The practice of referral-based healthcare providers giving gifts and meals to referral sources is a regulatory minefield at best.  Various authorities have noted increased scrutiny from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in the home health industry of late.  The relevant regulations, however, apply equally to all referral-based healthcare providers accepting Medicare or...
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Over the last 10 years, industries outside home health have found ways to save money by using software solutions to route their service and delivery staff along the most efficient paths to their destinations. Case studies demonstrate savings of up to 30% or more of transportation costs. Despite the existence of low-cost solutions that...
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“Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence, only in constant improvement and constant change.” – Tom Peters, a renowned management consultant - Business always has been and always will be about “What have you done for me lately?”  From the way you respond to your employees to the way your referral sources respond to your...
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By Michael Giudicissi, CSC, CHCSP, CPDSP We’ve been getting this question frequently over the past 6 months…”How do we integrate social media into our sales and marketing strategy?” Good question, and one with many answers depending on how you currently employ social media in your agency. Here are a few thoughts… 1. The more...
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Health News Digest reports that the number of patients who needed home health care after being discharged from hospitals surged by about 70 percent (2.3 million to 4 million) from 1997 to 2008, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).  Get the full story here:...
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