4 minute read
DMEPOS BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES IN THE COVID-19 ENVIRONMENT
By Ryan Ball, Director, VGM Market Data, a division of VGM & Associates
COVID-19 continues driving change to our daily lives and will likely cause significant disruption to DMEPOS business operations in the coming months. While patients in need of products like ventilation, oxygen, and hospital beds in certain areas are likely to see significant volume increases due to the pandemic and eased billing restrictions, providers are finding difficulty formulating plans for when and how they will be able to resume sales activities with key referral sources in their markets. To be sure, this pandemic will change to how providers plan for and communicate with referral sources in their markets. With uncertainty surrounding the timing of the resumption of elective surgeries, sleep testing, and physician visits across the country, now is the time for providers to focus on training, planning, and market analysis to position themselves for future success and take advantage of pent-up demand to ensure a more rapid business recovery.
Focus on Data, Market Analysis, and Planning
With many physician offices and facilities operating in a remote environment or currently limiting face-toface interaction, providers are left largely unable to perform traditional business development activities. Understanding sales personnel have additional time on their hands, many have challenged their business development teams to focus on planning and better understanding where new opportunity exists in their markets to set themselves up for future success.
Quantify and Identify Market Opportunity
Providers can harness the power of targeted claims data to focus on identifying geographic areas where they are underpenetrated or where relevant referral sources are likely to be underserved with an influx of additional patients needing in-home equipment. VGM Market Data’s new visualization platform can help HME’s create a plan by:
Valuing current or prospective markets by overall HME product volume
Quantifying state/county-driven HME provider market share analysis for specific products
Creating and assigning lists of key physicians or facilities to focus efforts moving forward
Identifying physicians currently sending business to competitors to plot a strategy for engagement based on competitive differentiation
Focus on Payer Negotiations
Providers should also focus on where they can improve payer contracting opportunities. VGM’s new reimbursement intelligence data provides industry-leading market intel on what specific commercial payers are paying specific providers for DMEPOS products. VGM’s consulting offering can provide analysis for providers on which payers in their market present the best opportunity to renegotiate rates or explore new payer partnerships based on existing rates being paid to competitors in their market.
[ Our sales teams must learn how to communicate and manage referral source relationships through other platforms. ]
Sales Adaptation and Training in a COVID-19 Environment
COVID-19 is changing how HME providers do business—nowhere is that more apparent than for sales and marketing professionals. Upon resuming activities, physician offices are likely to severely limit patient volumes and unnecessary personnel in their facilities. We must be cognizant of and seek out new policies and requirements in hospitals and institutional facilities tracking sales representative movements and activities. Gone are the days where sales teams can walk into key referral source offices and offer important services. Our sales teams must learn how to communicate and manage referral source relationships through other platforms like Zoom/web conferencing, email, and additional phone calls in order to remain competitive and continue providing value.
Meet Them Where They Are
When reaching out to referral sources, determine the preferred method of communication for the office and key personnel. Many physician offices are already moving to telehealth platforms in order to communicate with patients and more broadbased web conferencing platforms to communicate internally or with vendors, so adapting with them is important. Lead with changes you’ve made to business operations due to the pandemic and develop a more consultative approach to providing value with the services you can provide.
Develop New, Relevant Messaging Tactics
Create talking points to be used by your team that focus on:
Patient device remote monitoring capabilities
Additional in-home precautions being taken
Non-delivery model therapies like portable oxygen concentrators
Expanded service area or capabilities
Available volume of relevant equipment
Begin and end each conversation with a simple question, how can we best serve you and your patients moving forward in this changing environment?
Be Ready and Willing to Adapt
Be willing to adapt, think outside of the box, and know that the services you provide will never be more necessary and important to maintaining healthcare continuity than they are in the coming months.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ryan Ball has worked in the healthcare industry for VGM & Associates for more than a decade as director of VGM Market Data and various analyst roles within VGM’s Government and Regulatory department. Prior to working as a regulatory analyst, Ryan worked as a political campaign consultant, focusing primarily on developing and analyzing data to identify statistically significant market trends and make recommendations on efficient resource allocation. For the past several years, Ryan has been the director of VGM Market Data. In his role, Ryan works with VGM members to provide market intelligence data to identify key referral source opportunities in their markets and provides tools to provide actionable intelligence to post-acute healthcare sales/marketing teams. Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn or at Ryan.Ball@vgm.com.
