Rev Up Your Revenue

Now that Medicare's oxygen cuts have finally arrived and we know that this will mean an average 8 percent reduction nationwide, were you ready? Although the industry knew the cuts were coming, ready or not, you were given approximately one week's lead time from notification to implementation date.

Whether or not you found the decrease palatable, the reality was that you expected a cut of some kind. Even so, you had to confront the new reality very quickly — you would be doing the same work for less money.

In coping with the reimbursement cuts, a look inward at your operation is imperative. To compensate for lost income, now and in the future, consider adding revenue to the bottom line by tapping into your existing patient base. In other words, adding revenue from your current respiratory patients is one way to recoup the loss in oxygen income.

QUERY

The first question is how much revenue per respiratory patient do you currently garner? Easy to calculate, this figure is the result of your total respiratory revenue divided by your total active respiratory patient census. Once you know this figure, how can you begin to drive up revenue?

CONSIDER THIS

It is important to recognize that as the insurance industry changes and Medicare cuts continue, patients will become more involved financially with their own health care management. Unless they go without or find limited accessibility, they will pick up some of the slack for what their insurance doesn't pay. Therefore, as patients grow more accustomed to paying, they will want products to improve their quality of life.

How does this impact you and your company? It provides you an opportunity to assist your respiratory patients in this pursuit by offering more ancillary products that can make them more comfortable.

DETERMINING NEED

How do you determine what the patient needs? You first have to know what equipment the patient is currently using. Your software should enable you to generate a report of respiratory patients by payer, by product.

For instance, you can see which patients have nebulizers but no oxygen, and vice versa. A COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) patient may very well need both. Some nebulizer patients prefer an ultrasonic nebulizer if they are ambulatory. They may be willing to pay for it since Medicare won't. (Remember to issue an Advance Beneficiary Notice and file a non-assigned claim if you elect to dispense one.)