WEBINAR RECORDING

Harnessing Tech Ecosystems for Hospice: Better Outcomes, Stronger Results

Learn how cutting-edge technology can revolutionize patient outcomes and financial stability in the hospice sector in our webinar hosted by WorldView and BetterRX. Join our expert speakers, Sara Nigro, Director of Channel Partnerships, and James Lezzer, VP of Partnerships, as they explore the transformative impact of integrated technology solutions on hospice operations. Gain valuable insights and actionable solutions that are shaping the future of healthcare today.

 

 

WEBINAR TRANSCRIPT

Hello, everyone. Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us on this, Tuesday afternoon.

So our webinar today is entitled harnessing tech ecosystems for hospice better outcomes for stronger results.

And just as an introduction, the landscape of hospice care is rapidly evolving.

Gong are the days of siloed operations and limited resources.

Today, thriving hospice has leveraged the power of technology to extend their reach, to optimize workflows, and empower their clinicians and caregivers to deliver exceptional holistic care. This is where the concept of a hospice specific tech stack comes into play.

Hi. My name is Jim Lezzer, and I'm the vice president of strategic partnerships here for WorldView. I've been working in healthcare for over twenty years, mostly on the acute care side focused on revenue cycle. In the last five years, I've had the privilege of moving to focus on post acute care side of health care and have personally had experience with hospice care for loved ones. It's my pleasure to be here with you today, and I hope that you find this webinar insightful.

It's also my pleasure to introduce Sarah Negro, Director of Channel Partnership at BetterRX, who will be co presenting with me today.

Sarah has an incredible passion for forging strategic partnerships and an innate ability to foster relationships that drive business growth. She sees herself as a bridge between clients, technology, and partners. As a director of strategic or director of channel partnerships at BetterRX, She spearheads product integration initiatives and promotes the use of their technology platform in hospices nationwide through ecosystem partnerships with other healthcare technologies.

Thank you, Sarah, for joining me today.

Thanks, Jim. So happy to be here with you.

Awesome.

Our agenda for today is gonna begin with a discussion about the challenges facing hospice agencies and the areas that we feel deserve your attention, we're then going to talk about the hospice tech stack and share our recommendations for how you can help your teams. And we'll also share some real stories about how these solutions have helped your peers, including some statistics.

And finally, we'll open up the discussion for Q and A. We're looking forward to it, so let's dive right in.

Sarah,

The Challenges Faced by Hospice Agencies

I know that you had the opportunity to attend Home Care one hundred this year and that there was a lot of great insights shared there. I I think as a starting point, I'd love for you to just kinda lead us off on what hospices should be focusing on.

Yeah. Thank you. And thank you for that incredible introduction.

It's hard to follow that, but I feel the same way about you, Jim. It's so nice to be here with you and just chatting through what the hospice landscape looks like. Coming out of home care one hundred, it's a pretty large conference It features a lot of CEOs from some of the larger organizations across the country and what we really heard was the topic of navigating radical transformation in the hospice care space and that this is happening now and it's really, you know, their roadmap for this is within the next three years but there are so many technologies that can already be leveraged now that many hospices don't realize that they have at their fingertips or maybe they just need a little bit of help learning about different innovations. And so excited to really correlate the two here with you today.

The number one thing that we heard at this conference was just the adopting this consumer mindset. And so we see this in other streets through larger brands that have influence. And so at least for BetterRX, you know, we've almost pulled some of our early on thinking from Domino's which is this concept that Domino's pizza, you know, you can order a pizza. You can see who's filling it or or making it and putting it in the oven and then pushing it out for delivery.

Why can't you do that for your medications? And that's truly how we've carved ourselves as a carved ourselves as a disruptor in the hospice pharmacy space is by the power and backing of technology that we have And so for us, that, you know, connection to the consumer mindset is really prevalent, but we want to see other agencies and other technologies working towards that same goal of leading through transformative change. Reimagining what the workflow for the workforce looks like as well as creating operational efficiency.

And through doing that, you know, we see the convenience and personalization of tools and technologies That was a huge takeaway. Are your technologies easy to use? Are your teams using them correctly? You know, are they being enabled on every it to to use the tools properly because as a consumer of many technologies myself, I know that I'm not armed to properly use all of them. So it's aligning with ecosystem partners that will help contribute to your learning, your education, your growth, and your bottom line. So those are really some of the key takeaways coming out of home care one hundred, and then I would say the largest one that we're seeing is the commitment to data in twenty twenty four how you can use data to propel your agency from a bottom line perspective and from a caregiver satisfaction perspective. So using data to almost create that story for your hospice.

I hope that's a helpful quick overview of just some of the larger takeaways from home care one hundred that truly are going to be rolled out in the next two one to three years honestly, if not now.

And then one of the other just large focuses that we've been seeing in twenty twenty four already are the commitments that agencies are making to each other to learn from each other because you know you have things rolling out about the hospice final role and that is such a complex, you know, rule set of rules and regulations, and it's leading on these other agencies within your community to really harness what those what that impact is to your bottom line. And so keeping, you know, payment rates and quality reporting requirements, regulatory changes all in mind when you're finding ways to connect with your peers in this space better Rx has done a really nice job this year in twenty twenty three of uniting agencies that maybe we're competitors, but we're bringing them together to say you need each other for referrals because every patient is not the right patient for you but you wanna be able to still provide the best care possible for this industry.

So do you have somebody in your community another agency that you can refer that patient to pretty quickly So it's breaking down some of the barriers, leveraging what you know, what your competitors know, how you can work together because as we're approaching the silver tsunami of ten thousand plus people turning sixty five every day, you're gonna wanna have partners that you trust because at the end of the day, it's for the greater good of this industry.

That's great, Sarah. Thank you. And that really does tie into, one of the areas of focus that I I feel having such a strong revenue cycle background, I'm always looking at the front end of the process through the back end of the process for how people are going to get billing done and paid and and making sure that they have the pieces they need along the way.

Excuse me. I think, you know, in speaking to that, one of the areas of focus, I think, is really the concept of building this bridge of trust between acute care providers and hospice agencies know, the reality is agencies, everybody wants referrals. Right? There's there's no lack of desire in that area. Like, but it timely referrals really benefit both the acute care provider and the agency because the, the acute care is under a lot more pressure now to reduce length of stay to get patients transitioned to, excuse me, to post acute care, or at home care, And so the agencies at the same time are struggling with, okay, well, we wanna get patients at the optimal moment of time because then we can improve the we can provide the best care, the most comprehensive care, we can improve the outcome or improve the experience for the patient and their family. So it's an incredibly important area.

I love the thought that you have, even though it really flies in the face of convention of saying you know, you may be wanting to turn down referrals that don't fit your agency.

Because there's either a higher level of acuity or there's a greater frequency of need that this patient's going to have in order to drive for the most optimal experience for that, that patient and their family. So the concept of looking at, or creating coopetition, if you will, is really, really important.

And then I think, I think the last piece of it is, you know, We've seen in different states, especially like California, there's been a massive growth in hospice, which could be its own webinar.

But I I think the important thing here is that, you know, time is of the essence. It's always been of the essence in hospice care, but it's even more so. And I think that's knowing that and having experienced patience and their desire to transition home to Hospice care, the family wants them at home, the acute care wants them at home. So looking at technology as a tool for accelerating and abbreviating the time between referral and care, is is especially critical.

I'd, I'd like to turn it back to you. I'd love to get your thoughts on, disconnected technology of this last bullet here.

Yeah. And thank you. And and disconnected technology is it's the bane of my existence at this point. You know, we're hearing constantly that overall nurses in the field, they are super frustrated with the manual outdated processes that are in play right now.

And so when you have disconnected technology, you're creating more manual labor, more opportunities for, just error across the board and latencies in providing patient care. And so those are things that I really have a problem with. I think most people do when there are solutions available that are truly helping to change the amount of time it takes for better patient care. So When we're looking at disconnected technology, that's maybe, you know, an agency that's not leveraging an EMR integration, which at this point, you know, every agency should be leveraging an EMR integration to their pharmacy solution to their other technologies.

We want there to be that central hub that's able to low data properly be the source of truth. And so we're really seeing, you know, outdated processes like that. That's a main one. But also the idea that you're having to maybe use phone calls and faxes to place orders for medications or your care teams giving verbal orders that is such a, just it's redundant in a lot of ways. It's preventing better patient care because it's taking up so much time. It's hours and hours that you could be giving back to patient care. And I know we'll dive more into that, but the other aspect of this is, you know, When you have disconnected technology, you lose that opportunity for accountability and visibility.

So leverage a technology that's going to show you, you know, who your most expensive nurse is from a medication prescribing aspect or who your most expensive provider is, where your most expensive meds are coming from? Why are they that expensive? Are you on formulary? Off formulary? That commitment to data and insights is really what you should be achieving or striving towards with your agency.

Just enable your care team. You know, it's not I I don't think it's to tattletale or to poke holes in what they're doing, but it's just truly to change their ordering behaviors, at least from a hospice pharmacy perspective, and then of course, you know, disconnected technology means higher levels of nurse burnout and employee burnout. So that's one thing to consider and then just from an engagement perspective, from an employee satisfaction, you know, at home care one hundred, we heard from Doctor. Cindy at the Women's Leadership Summit that seventy percent of your employees are not feeling engaged or rewarded.

That's a really high number.

What can we be doing from a technology standpoint to keep them engaged to make them feel motivated because when they're out in the field and they're serving patients you want them on their a game. So different ways, you know, we'll we'll chat through the different ways during this webinar, but those are really how I see it, what deck what disconnected technology means is so much more than just a fixed cost or a hard cost. It's the soft cost of your employees.

Wow, seventy percent. That's a staggering statistic.

The Importance of Optimizing Tech Stack

Well, so A title for our webinar is talking about the hospice tech stack, and a lot of people may not be familiar with that term, being on the the health care tech side, we we live this every day. So just to kinda level set here, the in the software development world, what a tech stack means is different. It's a set of technologies that are basically stacked together, to build any application. So this can also be referred to as technology infrastructure or solution stack but essentially it becomes, it's the essential pieces for building web applications that are easily, easily to maintain and scale.

And so tech stacks determine the types of applications you can build, how what you can customize, as well as the resources that you need to develop your application. And so most tech stacks are a combination of what is known as front end and back end technology.

So if you way to think about this would be the user interface, so if you're thinking about, you know, this webinar or Facebook or you know, your CRM is the front end, and then the programming language, database server, all the stuff that makes that come to life. Is the back end. To complete our analogy for the hospice environment, you have front end and back end technologies that you're using today. On the front end are communications and care coordination apps, as well as things for, like, documenting visit notes, changes in condition, ordering medications, completing assessments, it's all of those things that are used in the field, basically, or by your clinical staff.

On the back end, you have the EMR, which is really aggregating all of that information and then kinda handling the billing and compliance functions for your agency. So having the right blend of front end and back end technologies not only makes your hospice more efficient, it improves things for your employees and patients alike. Sir, would you talk about the importance of having the right tech stack as it relates to compliance?

Definitely.

This is such a big one and and it does go back to, you know, what's going on with CMS and the final rule, but the CMS really assesses compliance through a few different measures as we know, but adherence to proper medication protocols, documentation accuracy, and ultimately the appropriateness of a medication that's being used for hospice. And so our team, you know, what we're really proud of is that our system will proactively tell a hospice nurse or prescriber that's ordering within our platform if a med is actually a hospice approved medication.

And so all of the meds that leave BetterRX's platform are what we call clean scripts So these are in the inclusive of correct billing information. It has the necessary of necessary wow. Necessary approvals or signatures that are all ready to go to the pharmacy and they're compliant. You don't have to worry about going back. Double backing and it's almost, you know, creating this web of who, where, what, what's left off. We want it to be fluid as possible to help our our agency stay compliant from a medication perspective.

It's such a key one for them also from a reimbursement standpoint. So for us, the value of compliance, in the safeguarding that we're able to provide these agencies is one hundred percent, which a really great feeling from a medication perspective.

Excellent. Thank you. Appreciate that.

Excuse me.

So, talking about referrals when we're talking about the importance of the tech stack, it's it really means being able to capture process referrals more quickly by leveraging automation.

You know, it's hard to believe that every day we still are talking about this twenty twenty four, and health care still uses faxing as a as a means of communication, you know, and even with electronic faxing, what we find is a lot of agencies are experiencing a ton of manual work just to extract the patient details and get that record created to get the intake process completed.

In addition to that, you're talking there's a lot of time that's just spent chasing information.

So part of having the right tech stack is is not all not is also accelerating and reducing, accelerating communication and reducing barriers to it.

Everybody knows, there's nothing more frustrating than email tag or voice mail tag. And so being able to securely message and exchange information minimizes the delays in communication with referring providers and can help agency get more referrals because you're very responsive.

Having an integration with the EMR and other platforms such as messaging and care coordination applications just simplifies the process for everybody involved.

And then, of course, I'm gonna I I wouldn't be wouldn't be me without talking about orders and revenue cycles. So, you know, timing is critical when it comes to billing and getting paid. You know, and physician orders getting them signed and back is often in a bottle neck in that entire revenue cycle process. You know, having tools that makes it easier to deliver, follow-up, and then capture those physician signatures eliminates a lot of that manual back and forth of chasing, unsigned orders, which is gonna end up improving your KPIs of days on build or days in AR day sales outstanding, whatever you track.

Sarah, would you share your insights on some of the other a bottlenecks that people see.

Yeah. You know, it's honestly, from what we hear from hospice partners that are looking to make a change, It's because they're having a problem getting meds either received to their agency from their current provider or there's a bottleneck within their own internal systems. And so what we're able to do is come in, overhaul their process with them that's So simple. We're simplifying things to reduce those bottlenecks, to reduce the aspect of phone calls, faxes, you know, to your point, it's twenty twenty four and like you're faxing things.

Like, I understand sometimes it happens, but from a medication perspective, when that's so timely in hospice care, we need to reduce that barrier. We need it to be all in one platform order e prescribed manage and to the pharmacy for fulfillment So that's what we really focus on. Is solving that problem because we don't want nurses chasing meds. It really goes back to that improved efficiency perspective for them.

But it's also faster patient care. And then something else that we really see just overall is from a CMS perspective again, You know medications and medication management are one of the the one things that really lowers a hospice's star ratings and that can have a huge impact to the bottom line of an agency up to if they lose one single star equating that to two hundred thousand dollars. So these efficiencies and the compliance and the the quickness of getting things to the patient as fast as possible, for better patient care really does need to come full circle through your tech stack.

Excellent.

Hospice Workflow Without a Tech Stack

So that's really great. I I like the insight about medication management having such a big impact on star ratings. I'm sure that's something that everybody's really focused on.

So what we wanted to do is then show you, you know, how these diagrams work without and then with a tech stack as well. So this one shows how things work for a lot of agencies. I'm gonna talk us through the top part of the process and then turn it over to Sarah.

So typically for a lot of people, you've got a referral that's coming in via, facts or electronic facts, And then in a lot of cases, that has to be printed and reviewed while the necessary information is then keyed into the record in the EMR.

Documents typically have to be downloaded locally and then uploaded to the patient record. And a lot of times you'll get more than one referral simultaneous or multiple documents at all at the same time. So they have to then be split apart put into the appropriate buckets and then attach to the EMR, which is just a lot of manual effort that introduces a bunch of risk into this process.

You know, and those risks include that your staff doesn't know who's working on what. You know, things get lost in the inbox, and it's the who's on first game.

The lack of integration with the EMR opens up potential for incorrect data to end up in it. So the other piece of that is that other important documents may not get attached to that patient record So your clinical staff doesn't have that as a reference when they're starting to think about planning care. And then lastly, you run into having manual processes that have to be you have to define them, define them, implement them, and then have people follow them. And in the face of turnover and onboarding new people and all those things, you get into an opportunity for inconsistency to occur because some of that tribal knowledge doesn't always get handed down. And we've all played whispered down the lane, so you know how that kinda goes.

You know, and another in the second spot, you've got patient assessments now have to be documented in the EMR. Now a lot of EMRs do have remote or offline capabilities, which is great because it allows the the nurse to document everything and then just sync up later whenever they're connected again.

But some of your MRs don't offer this functionality, so nurses have to document visits after hours, which leaves an opportunity for misinformation or incorrect information to be captured.

And I'm gonna put a side note in. I'll tell you after years of working and revenue cycle, typically nurses don't do bad documentation, but They do a great job of it. But what else what does happen is people forget. And so it's easy for things to get missed or left out. But the worst part of this is that after doing a full day of clinical care, being out there caring for patients, getting people taken care of, now they go home and they have this whole administrative workday of getting all this stuff documented, which is, you know, a a principal ingredient of burnout for a nurse. Yep. And then we talked about orders, but order getting an order signed can be a trifling process, and it provides lots of opportunities for miscommunication.

You know, physicians may only sign orders on specific days, and that creates opportunities where multiple copies of the same order can be sent over. And now that physician's staff has to sort and call and figure out which orders need to be signed, which ones truly need attention.

Additionally, those returned orders are all gonna get jammed back on the facts, and all sent through as one big bulk. And so now That all has to be then split part again associated with the correct patient attached to the record, and it just creates more delays in the billing process.

So Sarah, I'll turn it over to you to take us through the rest.

Yeah. And that's a really good point.

You know, we're seeing so much stress on the field and the industry as a large. There's more patients than there are caregivers and so making sure that when they leave for the day, they're able to recharge and be with family, be with friends and not having to then go back and like retroactively their, their details in and their notes in. So it's finding these efficiencies that really are honestly just committing to a better quality of life for caregivers as well and nurses and care teams.

But part of this is also really prevalent for the pharmacies and something that we often hear which is terrible honestly is that pharmacies are quitting filling for hospice because there's, you know, this incentive has been disconnected for so long from some of the legacy hospice, you know, PBMs is that there's the mail order model which gets the scripts to the hospice with a mail, you know, mail order or they're calling the pharmacy at two AM and they're the one saying, Hey, we have an emergency of patients in crisis. Can you get out of bed and fill this script? And they're doing that because they care and their pharmacist for a reason and they want to be able to help within their community, but The incentive has been so misaligned that a lot of times they don't wanna do it anymore because they've been so abused by the industry.

And so that's a huge delay in the processing and medication, coordination aspect. And so going back to what I was talking about earlier is that you need a partner that offers clean scripts so that nothing is being chased. It's gone right to the pharmacy and you're not in a position of crisis ever. You shouldn't be in a position of crisis when you're taking the proper protocols actions and you have your operations pretty locked in.

With that being said, you know, traditional PBMs, they're enabling phone calls, faxes, it's a lot of that manual labor and then especially, you know, we've seen if they're using a external non integrated or not, non hospice e prescribed technology that's a care team that's going into the EMR then separately going into their PBM or then going to the pharmacy like it's really disjointed.

And so it's important to look for a partner that has integrations, you know, and so from our standpoint that's up for formulary, you know, making sure that your e prescribe is connected to your formulary And then as a whole, you know, it's really important to look at how your solution partners are making their money. You know, PBMs make money off of medications, a technology company makes money off of the technology for future innovation growth.

And so that's just something that I just wanna point out is asking your your partners, you should always ask, like, how do you make your money? And understanding if their incentive aligns with your incentive, and that will be a very clear indicator.

Great. Thank you.

So

Hospice Workflow With a Tech Stack

let's talk about what it looks like with a tech stack.

Excuse me. So with a tech stack, your organization what it comes down to is they're able you're able to implement and refine the best practices that are driving your success.

You know, there's no doubt your EMR is critical to driving your business. However, EMRs are largely focused on compliance and billing.

There's just a ton of changes that are coming out of CMS every year, and EMRs have a full road map of work that's just keeping things up to date. So they look to partners like WorldView and BetterRX to complement their platform and add those layers of functionality that make it easier for your users.

So having an integrated solution for capturing referrals and starting the intake process in the MR, eliminates a lot of that manual work and accelerates getting that patient into scheduling and therefore into care. And the outcome is beneficial for everyone. Right? The referral referring provider reduces the length of stay The hospice submits the patient to care sooner, and then the patient is transition home, and that's where they wanna be anyway.

You know, then having a solution for managing the entire process around orders eliminates a lot of friction for these critical documents. You know, giving your staff the ability to get those orders out electronically and ensures that the right documentation is sent when it's available.

And then being able to customize that delivery schedule to match that physician's preferences reduces the time of getting order sign and return.

And if you're able, you know, if you're able to capture electronic signatures, then you completely eliminate the risk of things like lost faxes either at that physician's office or at your office.

And then finally, because the documentation is electronic, It can automatically be associated with the correct patient when it's return attached to the chart with minimal or possibly even no interaction at all by your team.

Sarah, would you tell us about the rest of, some of the other areas that are where having a tech stack would be beneficial.

Definitely. And, you know, where you left off there, just that true you know value of being able to be connected with your team without having to physically be in front of them. But everybody be on the same page about what happening with a patient is vital. And so, you know, we talked a little bit more earlier on about the EMRs, but it's also interoperability across different technologies as integrated solutions.

It's really vital in this in this day and age. We want that because it's easier for trackability for data So those are components that are really going to be just a focus for twenty twenty four and beyond. It's making sure that your technologies are playing within the same ecosystem of partnerships. And so what we really mean by that is are they serving the same value Are they helping create efficiencies? Are they helping reduce costs?

And taking that more integrated approach even from a referral standpoint, can they connect you with somebody? Are they identifying problems within your agency that maybe your team hasn't yet? Can they help you provide care?

That's just honestly on the up and up from your bottom line perspective, if it's a revenue focus, or if it's just patient focused, like there has to be gain from the interoperability aspect and also the referral aspect.

And so how we're really seeing that is and our end is through reliable medication fulfillment, advanced cost optimization, real time data to help manage those medication choices and honestly just create ordering behavior changes in your care teams while keeping everybody in the loop at the same time so that there's not that latency or those just discrepancies that you were talking about. You know, it's everybody's connected. Although you're not in the same room, you're all speaking the same language. And when it comes to the patient, they're getting the fastest care possible.

And so for us, that's through our all in one fully integrated solution that's connected to all the leading EMRs and also to our network of over seventy thousand local pharmacies within the community. So our goal is really to help, you know, make ordering as efficient as possible and invoke evoking the right utilization because for hospice, it all comes down the right amount of meds for a patient. And so finding a partner that's going to help you with deprecribing those meds because we are not incentivized off of the medications.

As a technology, we want to see your techno or we want to see your pharmacy costs go down. We're incentivized to help you lower those costs and change just the industry perspective. So leveraging tech while it's different in hospice, it's something that's going to become the status quo and the new normal. So getting ahead of it when you can, but with a valued partner, is really you can't go wrong when you're leveraging a partner in the same ecosystem. And so that's what we really value in WorldView is our commitment to serving patients and to servicing the care teams and the agencies as a whole. So thanks for letting me walk through kind of our end of the tech stack.

Awesome. Thank you, Sarah. So

Case Studies

we we talked about, we've talked about the tech stack, but now I wanna get through some case studies and and talk about how clients have it, realize the benefits from these solutions.

So look, BetterRX I really admire the heck out of your organization. You guys have had tremendous growth over the past few years. It's an incredibly great team to be associated with, and you're making a amazing impact on the hospice industry. So Would you share, your success stories with us today?

Yes. And thank you. That's super kind of view. I know some of our team is on here, so I'm sure they're smiling as well.

But we really do care, as an organization, and so we don't like to think of our clients as clients. We like to think of them as partners and truly what we're doing together because without them, we're not, we don't have a reason. And so it's making sure that when we're looking, to build that partnership with an agency you know, we're thinking about them from a holistic view and their bottom line as it relates to pharmacy costs, but also as it relates to nurse satisfaction, And so the case study that we have here is directly impact, related to time and hours per week. So, we did a This is with a large hospice organization.

We service twenty eight of their locations across the country and so on average we're seeing that we're saving their individual nurses up to five hours a week which collectively that that's five or twenty hours back per week. What could they be doing with that time? I think it's back to patient care reducing, you know, just some of the manual processes and other aspects aspects of the care team and what they're doing So we're giving time back. We're hoping it's going directly back into patient care as it should be.

But really just trying to improve their quality of life. And so, you know, something that we're proud to say is we're the fastest growing hospice technology and what we're able to measure in our system from a data perspective is nurse satisfaction and right now we did a survey in twenty twenty three and asked nurses that have been with better Rx for a year more if their satisfaction level has increased a lot a little not at all ninety eight percent of them said that BetterRX has improved their job satisfaction and so that's a really big number and one that we're really proud about because Obviously, your, our commitment is to the patients, but we're impacting the whole care team at large.

And so this is just one example of how we're doing that through nurse savings. Nurse time savings?

That's tremendous. Ninety eight percent of the nurses that are using it after a year saying that it's improved their their life. That's fantastic.

Well Thank you.

Thank you. I'd like to share just a a quick case study that that we had for world view, working with center care, home health, and hospice.

And and this isn't this rings so near and dear to me because I'm such I'm so revenue cycle focused all the time.

I love this this stat that you had center care was dealing with a large amount of, orders that were just sitting there not signed, and they were able to decrease their turnaround time by over twenty by over eighty percent, excuse me, and that resulted in revenue of more than twenty thousand dollars per month. You know, that's, that's huge. That's huge when you're talking about margins are thin, reimbursements are thin, and depending on your payer mix, and the patients that you care for, if you're talking about Medicaid patients, you know, those those margins are razor, razor thin.

And Medicare isn't isn't a whole heck of a lot better, to be honest. So, you know, this this really helps to improve the financial operations of the organization, which I don't know that a lot of people would necessarily see that correlation one to one. But I think that's really a key thing is is the right front end technology, that's out there facing the physicians and, and, and handling those pieces is driving back end and bottom line improvement, and that's that's really important.

So with that,

Impactful Numbers and ROI

okay. So looking back at our agenda, we have talked about what hospices should focus on the importance of developing a tech stack for your hospice and the impact that it can have, and you've seen a couple success stories. So before we open things up to your questions, we'd like to share some metrics, around ROI, and we also would love for you to share any main KPI metrics or things that you track if you'd like to in the chat box. That'd be fantastic.

Sarah, I'm gonna turn it over to you. Would you share, how BetterRX impacts hospice agencies and how they can gauge the ROI they can expect from working with you.

Definitely.

So using Harbor House, this is an example, and I see we have Brad Tibodeaux from Harbor on this. So hi, Brad. Thanks for joining us. We're really excited about the work that been doing with their care team. And so through our BetterRX ROI calculator, we've estimated that we're saving their agency about one hundred and six hours one hundred and six thousand hours per year, just from manually managing medications. So this is that reduction of no more phone calls, no more faxes, being able to leverage e prescribe all within one system and not having to leverage separate logins So just from the efficiency perspective, and the soft costs associated with time savings, we're having a major impact there and another one that we are super proud of is just, you know, our per patient day rate from an industry standard. You know, we see this really is dependent, of course, upon geography.

The average national pharmacy cost, including ancillary fees according to CMS is around eleven dollars and obviously this fluctuates year over year and will obviously increase in twenty twenty four as everything is still more expensive, but on the East Coast, we see that average PPD rate closer to twelve dollars and thirteen cents. Whereas on the West Coast, we see it about six point seven five dollars and where BetterRX falls in that is that without a tech fee or anything like that pharmacy costs, specifically, we're at five point one nine dollars, which is a huge industry low, and it just is It's the reinforcement that we're incentivized to help lower your pharmacy costs because more meds does not equal profit for us. We want you to be on the right amount of meds for your patients. No more. No less. So we're really proud of the the numbers that we're able to help our hospices achieve.

Wow.

A hundred and six thousand hours, that's that is a formidable number to say the least and, and that's a huge savings or, both east and west coast based agencies. So, I'd like to share about some some world view statistics too. We talked about you heard me in the in the case study talking about center cares increase of monthly revenue by twenty thousand.

I I think, but the other one that's really a compelling stat is, HCR is a client of ours, and they had a, seventeen percent decrease in the volume and sign orders, and the turnaround went from nine to six days. So the, the point here is not just simply reducing, you know, it can reduce the backlog that you have already that's lingering out but then on a go forward basis, it's going to abbreviate that time. And that that's going to simply translate right back into fewer unsigned orders equals less days on build means more cash flow for your agency.

So I think before we turn it over to audience questions, Sarah, just wanted to see if there's anything else that you'd like to add or share with our audience today.

You know, I would I think we covered a good bit but just going back to being vulnerable enough to ask questions is so important in this industry because it's evolving very quickly. And so if you don't know the answer or If you're having trouble with, you know, navigating the hospital's final rule or understanding different technologies that are out there and maybe you just wanna know what what you could be doing better. We I know Jim, I speak for you too, but we're always available as resources to help connect you to the right partner because it's the right thing to do. That's really what motivates us is creating this ecosystem where hospices can lean on us as truly valued partners and solution partners.

Instead of just being vendors, you know, we wanna be so much more than that and we wanna help your agency create value. So I think, you know, that's just kind of my little cherry on top is that please feel free to reach out if you have questions or do you want to learn more or be connected to different people within our our partner ecosystem?

Awesome.

I I I echo that you know, it's funny being in the in the partnerships world, we use the word ecosystem a lot and and there's a running joke in partnerships that says, If you do push ups every time you use the word ecosystem, you'd be jacked like, you know, you couldn't believe.

Right? You'd be so fit.

A whole a whole I think for for a lot of, for a lot of our hospice agencies for our audience today, that concept may be a little less familiar.

Right? You you understand that, you know, the acute care providers, the the people that you're getting your referrals from are part of that.

But then looking beyond that to say, well, how do I align with other agencies in my area or my region? How do I align with my tech providers that I'm working with. Who's who's on my EMR? What other products do they have?

What other solutions can they provide?

And really looking at it through the lens of, are those things layering on the right functionality that's going to make life better for my care team is better for my patients, better for, you know, to for overall outcomes.

So, yes, absolutely invite those questions and and would love to hear from people and see how we can help.

So with that, let me,

turn this over to Alissa to share any audience questions?

Yes. Hello, everyone.

We did get a couple questions that came in. So just a reminder, there's a q and a box, should be at the bottom of your Zoom there. You can put in any questions or just chat them directly to the presenters.

So the first

Questions and Contact Information

question, it looks like we got says, say you're opening a new hospice agency or expanding to offer services.

What are the top three systems I should make sure to have in place first?

Sorry. You wanna take that one?

I will.

It's, you know, at this point, we've really covered off on the EMR aspect. And helping you know that become the source of truth for your agency.

That would be my number one is you you need an EMR pharmacy, you know, selfish pharmacy plug here, but you're probably going to be dispensing medications at some point Truly having a valued partner that's going to help you optimize your costs while also finding the right medications and and fulfillment process that meets your philosophy of care. And then I would say as the industry is evolving, you know, you wanna consider tools like WorldView because they are helping with your complete operational efficiency.

And then as we're heading more, I'm almost saying like as a fourth partner, maybe even a fourth and a fifth, is somebody that can help you with the revenue cycle management, whether it's a consulting agency making sure that they're helping you get your reimbursements properly.

And then lastly just coming off home care one hundred is the value that we're gonna see in predictive length of stay and generative AI and trying to not run from that. It's slowly trickling into our technologies and health care and so it's just enabling you to be a part of the forefront of that. Would be my recommendations for when you're starting to look at your hospice operations.

That's a great answer. I I I think if I were to to echo that, it it would be the same thought process.

I I won't be as as blatantly transparent to say yes. Of course, you should consider world view, but we should we do believe we should.

But I I think the other piece that I would layer in would be, you know, like you said, the EMR or having that platform for, you know, one version of the truth. Right? And then I think the other thing would be that I would be really focused on to to compliment what you said would be communication. Anything that's going to streamline the process of communicating with your referring partners, and communicating with people in the field is going to be really critical for ensuring that they stay connected and everybody knows what's going on.

Melissa, how about any other questions?

Good. Yeah. No. Those are great. Thanks for being, but, the next one we got is How does paying more for tech now help me save more in the long run? When do agencies typically see a positive ROI?

I'll I'll jump in, Jim, if you're okay with that.

Yep. Go ahead, please.

So leveraging technology is an investment, just like it is kind of across the board in any industry, just like it is in our own personal lives, It's finding the right technology partner for you. That I would say instead of focusing on the cost, it's what your gain will be from them. And so instead of siloing it into just well they're helping me with revenue or they're helping me with pharmacy costs, it's How are they helping me with the whole picture? And so I wish that, you know, it would be more affordable. Technology is expensive.

But It's an investment because you're connecting your whole care team and you're also connecting, you know, just your technologies to each other. And so paying more for it now and being organized upfront, finding those efficiencies will help you have a more efficient team which again just ties back to the soft costs of hospice. It's the labor hours and just making sure that your care team is set up for success from day one instead of having to go back and reconcile things or make changes that will put more stress on your team in the field.

Yeah. It it's, you know, having spent a long time in revenue cycle, I I started my career in revenue cycle recovery, in health care.

And, you know, there's a whole cottage industry that does nothing but go back and find lost money.

So when you think about it, from that perspective, investing in these solutions upfront and doing things, you know, the best practice way the first time around prevents that loss that has to potentially be recaptured, that's usually recaptured at fractions of cents on the dollar.

And and that can be really painful for a lot of agencies. So it's it's you know, eventually you're gonna pay for it, right? It's a question of do you pay for it upfront, get best practices, and then you can grow and scale. Versus you're gonna pay for it on the back end because you didn't have those pieces, and now you're having to retool, having to re, you know, kinda build the airplane in flight. Right?

Any other questions that came in, Alyssa?

None that I'm seeing. So I think that might be it.

Excellent.

Well, those are good. Good questions.

Yes. Thank you.

I would like to thank you all for joining us today's to for joining today's webinar, excuse me, It's privilege to have the opportunity to share our insights with you. We hope that you found this information valuable I also wanna thank my co presenter, Sarah and I grow from BetterRX.

She is one of the most passionate people in the hospice industry I know today, and I enjoy every moment I get to spend working with her. So Thanks.

My pleasure. This webinar recording will be available shortly, and you'll receive a follow-up email with the instructions for accessing it. Again, if you are interested in learning how WorldView better our X or both of us can help you, please feel free to reach out at our email addresses provided on the slide.

I guarantee Sarah and I would both love to hear from you. Have a great rest of your day, and we look forward to seeing you in a future way.

Thank you. Thanks to everyone.