The 10 Essentials for Growing a Hospice Agency
April 19, 2016
Providing hospice care is very personal. Most hospice operators choose the profession because they care deeply about patient comfort and want to make a difference in peoples’ lives. If you, like most clinicians, started your hospice because of your compassionate nature, you may find that survival is becoming more difficult in this harsh environment of continuous changes in rules and reimbursement. There is so much we do not know about the future of health care that it is more important than ever to be prepared for what may come. These ten essentials are important to not only surviving, but also to building and growing a thriving hospice:
1. Have a Plan: Chart a path for where the agency is headed and the steps it will take to get there. Big things are accomplished in small increments, over time. Keep tabs on your progress and be ready and willing to make changes to the plan as the environment changes.
2. Plan for Capital Needs: Businesses most often fail for one reason: they run out of cash. A growth strategy requires adequate capital, and the faster the company is growing, the greater its capital requirements will be. The timing and amount of capital the business will need can be calculated based on your plan.
3. Embrace Technology: Implement systems to track every step of the process. Use the information to track trends and measure your agency against benchmarks. Tracking and understanding the data can help with business planning, avoiding CAP issues and enable quicker responses to changes in regulation and reimbursement.
4. Maintain Good Compliance: Having an effective compliance program will help stave off trouble before it starts. Keeping your ear to the ground for new rules and program changes will keep you ahead of the curve.
5. Focus on Branding: Hospice is a very personal and local business. Your brand should invoke comfort, skill, confidence, and trust. Use recommendations from families who have benefited from the care to strengthen your brand.
6. Educate Your Communities: Hospice is still misunderstood by much of the public. Educating healthcare providers and the public about the benefits to the patient and what services hospice provides is crucial. Hospice has made inroads over the past few years but there is still a lot of work to do to educate clinicians and hospice patients about the services and the benefits to both patients and their families.
7. Have a Team of Advisors: Consultants, attorneys and accountants are invaluable. A good consultant can keep tabs on the CAP and make suggestions before problems spin out of control. A qualified attorney can often help with state and federal audits to resolve issues faster and mitigate financial repercussions.
8. Emphasize Marketing: A growing agency needs a solid marketing team. An effective marketing manager will have a good rapport with physicians, discharge planners and other potential referrers. Paying marketers by some performance based measure encourages productivity.
9. Know Your Numbers: Even if you don’t have a financial background, it is important that you work with your accountant to understand your financial statements. By keeping tabs on the monthly financial performance you will be able to spot trends and spearhead issues. Closely monitoring financial performance is integral to keeping your plan on track.
10. Engage in Peer Networking: Attending conferences, joining LinkedIn peer groups and just talking with other providers will serve as a source of information and encouragement. Who understands better what you are going through than your peers? Networking with peers also provides an opportunity to learn and compare best practices.
Hospice provides an alternative and less expensive vehicle for care of patients and will likely see continued growth overall as baby boomers age. However, the winds of change present many challenges for providers and uncertainty ahead is guaranteed. These ten essentials provide a solid foundation to nurture and grow your agency through these periods of change.