Editor’s Note: The following article by Barbara Rosenblum, Founder and CEO of Strategic Healthcare Programs, (SHP) was originally published in the Spring 2009 edition of the ACHC newsletter: Surveyor. SHP provides one of the nation's largest independent home infusion benchmarking databases. Utilizing the CPR+/SHP interface, your home infusion company can automate the process of obtaining clinical benchmarking data with measurements accepted by accrediting agencies.

Data are most helpful when they’re current and actionable, but it’s hard to resist the temptation to look backward as a new year begins, and benchmarks are the best tool for that job. SHP presents a home infusion year-in-review with industry benchmarks from 212 providers that range from large, non-profit, and hospital-based, to small, for-profit, and rural-based.

Pediatric patients comprised 19.82% of the SHP database; adults between the ages of 18-65 comprised 58.24%; and those over 65 comprised 21.95%. Medicare participation has not changed much, despite Part D. Many providers are unable to service Part D patients since the benefit only covers drugs. The primary payor in the SHP database remains Commercial/Private Insurance, which has been the case for the 13 years that SHP has analyzed infusion data. In order, follow Contract with Managed Care, Medicare and Medicaid.

Payment issues likely drive the therapy-mix in home infusion, because we haven’t seen the distribution change much over the last few years. It will be interesting to see how the Medicare Part B bill will affect volume and types of therapies provided.

Most of the referrals made to home infusion providers come from hospital-based discharge planners or case managers, and community physicians. SNF’s accounted for only 3.43%.

Most therapies are administered in the home and the volume for ambulatory infusion centers (Outpatient Facility), at least among our clients, does not appear to have grown.

Most patients are admitted to home infusion symptomatic (73%) and 16% are also in bed for a portion of the day. Upon discharge, patients show a marked improvement, indicating that home infusion has positively impacted patient outcomes.

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Where is your business coming from? What kind of business is it? Is it profitable business or high-cost, low-reimbursement business? Which sales people are bringing in the former, and which referral sources are bringing in the latter? Is this business being converted to active patients on census, or are you spending time on intake that never materializes into deliveries? The CPR+ New Orders by Date Range marketing report gives you this information quickly and easily. 

In CPR+ version 8.2, from the Main Menu, select Reports (4) > Clinical Reports (1). Choose Marketing Reports (3), then either New Orders by Date Range (3) or New Orders by Date Range – Detail (4), which provides a few additional fields. 

Select your date range from the Predefined Dates dropdown menu or enter a custom date range in the From and To date fields. Select how you want the data on the report to be grouped – by Referral Source, by Sales Rep, or by Therapy Type. If you want to view cancelled patients in the report, check the Include Cancelled Patients checkbox. Click Save & Close (F2) to proceed.

The next window enables you to select the type of order: Drug Orders Only, HME/Supply Orders or Display All Orders. You can also filter the report to show Primary Orders Only, Ancillary Orders Only, or Display All Orders. Click the Save & Close (F2) button to view the report.

You will be presented with a list of patients with their orders. This is not a census! If you received multiple orders for a patient within the date range, then each of those orders will be listed. 

Click here to view the report

The second report totals the orders received in the date range by therapy type. 

Click here to view the report totals

Like all CPR+ reports, this can be easily exported to Excel. Select the output type as Excel, then answer Yes to export to a raw file. You can sort and analyze the Excel file by fields other than those on the printed report, such as the Ordering MD or the Primary Diagnosis.

Run this report weekly to see where to concentrate your sales and marketing efforts.

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