As in any industry, the playing field and the rules of the
game are constantly evolving. And perhaps nowhere more so than in home care. Changes
are galloping ahead at an ever increasing pace. It is becoming increasingly difficult
to identify and connect the right strategic dots to set a solid, secure and
profitable path forward. Well no more. Escalating senior demographics, new and additional
regulations, new policies, the new HHS STAR RATING disclosures and the new emerging
models of home care businesses are revealing a clear picture.
There are two ‘dots’ in that picture that are inextricably
connected. The ‘dot’ of achieving high HHS STAR ratings and the ‘dot’ of the vacuum
that exists in care recipient unified communications that contributes to poor
HHS STAR Ratings. Failure to connect these ‘dots’ and eliminate the vacuum will
not bode well for home care businesses that disregard the connection.
Experience does teach some things:
To date, the adoption of technology by conventional home
care services has been severely hampered by three major factors - (1) budgetary
constraints (2) high levels of staff churn and (3) lack of internal IT resources.
The new home care business models, especially those being funded by deep pocketed
new venture investors, are moving to use technology to fill the vacuum. They will
use technology to give them a competitive advantage, as they should. And, they
are moving aggressively forward to seize the high ground of that advantage.
When technology does come upon the scene in traditional home
care, it most typically arrives, internally focused, on only how to make the
home care business more profitable. Now, I fully understand that this is not a
bad historical choice of an objective for technology spending. But, as I said
at the outset the landscape is changing.
With the ‘age-at-home’ momentum and with hospitals driving
patients, under their new economic model, to choose hospital visits less frequently.
The rules for home care competitiveness are changing.
Home care clients and their families now want and are being
driven to take greater control by adopting a self-managed care philosophy, a
desire to more positively impact and control the quality of their lives and enhance
their abilities to engage with families, friends and their social community more
robustly.
So what does all this mean to the conventional model of the home
care services business?
To be future viable, home care businesses must move to offer
a ‘unifying technology’ that positions them against their new era competitors with
a solution that embraces their patient base ever more closely. To achieve and sustain
reputable HHS STAR Ratings means that the new IT (technology) objective for
home care needs to be one that enhances client/patient engagement and
communications. This needs to be put at the forefront and it needs to be done
quickly.
The choice made by future patients and their families will
be significantly driven by access to a unifying technology for THEM being
offered by the home care service they will select. While fee rates will always
be significant factor in care provider selection, HHS STAR RATINGS and unifying
technologies will dominate fees in importance. The competitors of the new era will
see to it that this is what happens. Central to great HHS STAR RATINGS and thus
survivability, will be the advancement and utilization of robust patient and family
communications. Care giver/patient communications can no longer rely upon a cacophony
of scheduled visits, phone calls, text messages, voice mails and e-mails –
those times are over. The future of home care will be defined by a unified
communications platform that is easy to use, is always ‘on’, enhances the quality
of life, and one that enables your home care business to demonstrate a true differentiating
value to your future clients.
