Experience Brightree in action
Wondering what all the excitement is about?
Schedule a simple hands-on demo, and go from curious to confident.
3 HME partnerships that benefit from better interoperability
The modern patient, provider, and referrer experience with your HME depends on your ability to communicate and exchange information efficiently and accurately. HMEs looking for opportunities to grow as a business, serve more patients, and meet new revenue goals should start with ensuring their interoperability is at its best.
Healthcare interoperability is the ability to share, send, and receive medical data across different software systems and communication channels. Achieving interoperability for your business gives you the power to provide coordinated, holistic care that appears seamless to the patient and makes your internal operations run smoothly. For HMEs, this holistic care model should prioritize improving three key partnerships:
- Care and communication
- Billing and documentation
- Prescriptions and accessibility to the care network
But what does great interoperability look like? How can post-acute care stakeholders and your team feel the difference between working with software designed for interoperability and outdated systems that ignore modern strategies for data sharing? Let’s dive in.
Easy care and communication for HME patients
As we say time and time again, today’s patients are looking for the same seamless consumer experience they get from retail stores from their healthcare providers. Connected care systems alleviate the headaches that come from
- Playing phone tag with multiple organizations
- Keeping track of correspondence across different channels
- Confusion or frustration from a lack of access to quick info about orders or care plans
When you have to deal with these pain points on a daily basis, post-acute care can feel all-consuming. But what patients really want is to stay healthy and spend more time doing what they enjoy. If your organization can provide seamless support, easy-access resources, and communication options that work for any lifestyle, then you’re on your way to being a partner that patients never want to say goodbye to.
- Inspire this loyalty and attract new patients based on your reputation for excellent interoperability by choosing software systems that allow patients to:
- Select how they want to communicate with your business (e-mail, phone, text, etc.)
- Choose which notifications they need, and which they could do without
- Access educational tools for prescribed devices, such as videos and equipment guides
Place and verify orders digitally (especially important for resupply customers)
Move towards a no-touch model for your staff
Between daily communications, orders, deliveries, and paperwork… your team is likely pretty busy keeping every ball in the air. Digital systems for storing and sharing data and documentation can be the shift you need to stop spending time on manual tasks and start focusing on your bigger business goals.
Specialized software that collects and stores patient medical records, real-time order and delivery updates, billing information, and insurance verifications and claims takes a huge weight off of your staff’s shoulders. This is interoperability at its finest; your team gets more done with less effort. We often refer to this type of automated workflow as a “no-touch system,” meaning tasks get completed without any manual work from an employee.
For an HME team, getting to this state of connected care may look like:
- No more physical paperwork; billing info, documentation, and signatures are all stored in a secure database
- Automated communication informing patients and referrers what you’re doing to support care plans, including delivery notifications, claim updates, and billing and payment information
- The capacity to onboard more patients with the same number of staff members
When smart software takes on the responsibility for essential daily operations tasks, your team is left free to work toward big picture objectives like increasing revenue, building a larger patient base, and providing the highest level of care.
Keep referral sources in the loop and feeling connected
We often hear from referring physicians in the HME industry that sending off a prescription can sometimes feel like shouting into a void. Did the HME prescription get to the right person? Is my patient receiving their equipment? Are they following their care instructions or hitting any roadblocks?
HMEs that understand the importance of interoperability to their referral relationships acknowledge that their patients were the referral source’s patients first. As such, the referrer wants to work with an organization that recognizes their role in the patient’s care. Not only does keeping referrers in the loop with automated or easily accessible digital care information satisfy referrers’ needs, but it also improves the patients’ level of care. When their entire care team is connected, patients see the difference in their treatment outcomes.
Referral sources are looking for HMEs that use digital solutions to:
- Send prompt care updates or confirmation through preferred communication channels
- Provide comprehensive information about equipment and care plans to both referring physicians and their patients
- Give physicians access to an ever-growing network of HME and home infusion pharmacies, making digitally submitting a referral easy and efficient
How can HMEs use software to build business and improve interoperability?
Customized digital solutions give you the chance to enhance communication with patients and referral sources, maximize your team’s efficiency, and serve a larger patient base with less manual labor. It’s 2022, and every corner of the healthcare industry is searching for ways to spend less time making phone calls or filing paperwork and more time amplifying the impact of their services.
To explore customizable software solutions that keep you in close connection with your network of patients and referral sources, get in touch with Brightree today.
Request a demo today for a closer look at Brightree.
See what Brightree can do for you
Jimmy Miner
Jimmy comes from an extensive background in technology sales, operations, customer service, and business growth. His career spans across the healthcare technology, payments, and pharmaceutical industries, and in his current role at Brightree as senior director of Business Development, he focuses on strategic partnerships. Jimmy has a passion for using his broad range of skills and experience to create efficiency and to bring value to clients and business partners.
Brightree provide solutions to post-acute care providers (HME, DME & pharmacy home infusion).
© 2024 Brightree. All rights reserved.