Making Accreditation Pay For You

Unlike competitive bidding, accreditation is not going away.  Accreditation is synonomous with quality and everyone is in favor of quality.

So you will have to get accredited but it does not have to be a burden.  Done correctly accreditation can make your business operate more efficiently, increase staff morale, raise your image within your community, and make you more money.

That sounds like a tall order but in my seven years of helping healthcare facilities get accredited, 90% have reported these improvements after going through the accreditation process.  There are always 10% who don’t get the message, but we will assume that you are not in that group.

How does this work?  Good business processes need to be embedded in your organization through written policies and procedures.  This is the core of the accreditation process.  Employees need to know these, follow them in their daily duties, and know where to find them when they have questions. 

Quality improvement is an essentil element of accreditation.  As you are working on QI you will acquire data which will tell you the level of quality you have achieved.  This can be used to tell payers, patients, and providers that you are a high quality organization.

By networking with other accredited DME companies it is possible to get private payers to admit you to their networks.  This quality network can also bring new revenues to you from referring physicians and hospitals.

My next blog will talk about why you should get accredited by the biggest, oldest, and best recognized accrediting body, The Joint Commission or JCAHO.

CMS Important Message

Well, a couple more shoes dropped last week.  I talked to Bob Achermann at CAMPS about the rumor that CMS had announced dates and he said he had seen “a piece of paper” from one of the accreditation vendors.  This led me back to the CMS website and lo and behold there it was.  May 14 is deadline to apply for accreditation and October 31 is deadline to be accredited if you want to be a competitive bidder.

This triggers some interesting dynamics for those who are just getting started on the process of preparing for survey.  It takes months to prepare so most will not be ready by May 14, but if they apply before they are ready they run the risk of an unannounced survey before they are ready.   Undoubtedly we will see a lot of risk takers apply just before the deadline and then cross their fingers or perhaps say an extra prayer.

The October 31 deadline is really immaterial.  If you applied on May 14th or before you will probably be surveyed long before then.

The big question for the agencies and those of us who help with preparation is how many are going to show up between now and May 14th.  It should be thousands and I am not sure the industry is ready for that.  We have an advantage with our web approach because it is much easier to scale up than an on-site approach.  The people selling policy and procedure manuals will get an initial rush but many of their clients end up needing more help.

Now all we need are the numbers from the 2007 contracts so people can try and figure out whether the margins are sufficient to support their business models.  I would expect a large droput rate and then new providers with newer business models entering the market.

At any rate, let the games begin.

No CAMPing

I just got back from the CAMP meeting at the Morongo Casino outside of Palm Springs.  The CAMP folks tried hard and the meeting was well organized, but very low attendance.  The exhibitors were bummed at spending a fair amount of money with not much possibility of a return on that investment.

Maybe all these kind of trade shows are doomed.  I attribute a lot of this to the avaiability of information on the Internet, plus the doom and gloom in this industry.

 There were lots of accreditation folks there, eyeing each other, and wondering when the “tidal wave” of applications was going to happen.

The big rumor at the end of the show was that CMS was going to announce that all competitive bidders must be in the accreditation process by the end of May and accredited by October.  I can’t find any corroboration for this.

I think casinos stink, literally from the smoke, and just as a bad vibe.  It seems  like every gambler is issued a cheap cigar when they come through the door.  Also the folks cashing their Social Security checks so they can play the slots is a real downer.

I got a good deal on a room in a resort in La Quinta, which was quite a pleasant contrast to the casino. 

So eight hours of driving each way, 3 leads, and free nachos at the pool party.  Laissez le bon temp rouler!

DME: Whither or wither?

I have entered a strange new world called DME or Durable Medical Equipment and I feel like Robert Heinleins book “Stranger in a Strange Land”.  DME companies supply equipment and services to people in their homes.  Medicare (CMS) believes that not only is there fraud and abuse but there are also a lot of haphazardly run companies in this field.  We once did  a telemarketing blitz in Southern California from Medicare’s list of providers and found that at least 25% of the phone numbers listed were disconnected so I think they are on to something.

So now CMS is requiring all of these companies to get accredited (a good idea) and to participate in competitive bidding (not so much of a good idea).  This is causing great turmoil, consternation, hand wringing, whining, and general angst in the industry.

So the question is which title fits; whither goest DME? or DME withers on the vine.  I think it has a chance to reinvent itself with a smaller number of higher quality providers.  According to HME News there are approximately 114,000 suppliers that bill CMS.  107,000 bill less than $300,000 per year.  So we could lose 50,000 and probably not even notice the difference.  The survivors will get more business and deliver higher quality because they are accredited.

Tune in next week for the reason that providers need Helpers.