Stronger Referrals, Better Outcomes: How HME Providers Can Elevate Wound Care Through Strategic Partnerships

Published in Member Communities on December 02, 2024

In healthcare, effective communication is crucial, especially in specialized areas like wound care. Home medical equipment (HME) providers must engage with referral sources to ensure patients receive optimal care. This article highlights the importance of mastering communication with referral sources and offers strategies for success that can lead to improved patient outcomes.

Step 1: Review the Market Space

Reviewing the market space means identifying demand through comprehensive market research, evaluating the needs of existing patient populations, and identifying overlaps with current patients. Engaging with both existing and prospective referral sources through interviews can provide valuable insights.

Additionally, assessing your team’s knowledge of medical policies and their ability to engage with clinicians and referral sources is essential. If gaps are identified, consider investing in training or hiring knowledgeable staff to ensure effective communication and service delivery. You can also outsource, which could free up time for your other staff members to effectively do their duties. VGM has wonderful vendor partners that are exceptional at this.

Everyone's market is different. For this very important step, it is essential to investigate the population and need for wound care. VGM Market Data can help with identifying this need.

Step 2: Develop Your Best In-Class Wound Care Program

Start from scratch with building the logistics of your program by focusing on the local coverage determination (LCD)/policy article to building out a formulary based on cost-effectiveness and resource availability. From there, you can determine the order process that works best for your business and referral sources.

This includes:

Coverage Criteria: Understand when specific wound care products are covered and when they are not, and document requirements precisely. Consider downloading a checklist of wound care requirements straight from CMS’ website. Please contact Heather.Trumm@vgm.com for assistance in locating these checklists.
Product Considerations: Inform patients about non-covered but necessary products. This is such an important step. Let your patients know what you can offer so they can make an educated decision on what they would like to do. If they don't know their options, they may not know what products you offer.

Once your tiered formulary is built, inform referral sources about your choices.

Step 3: Finding the Right Partners

The next step is to find mutually beneficial partnerships with suppliers and referral sources who align with your goals and benefit both parties and patients. Provide the necessary marketing materials to effectively communicate your offerings. Be sure to also communicate your formulary choices to clinics and engage with patients effectively. If you have a program where you educate and assist patients, then make sure to communicate that to your clinics.

Step 4: Focus on Your Team Training

Train your sales and marketing teams to be order makers, not order takers. By transforming them to be educators themselves, they can effectively communicate the benefits of products and services; fostering ‘up-caring’ practices that are instrumental in securing profitable orders and building valued partnerships.

Comprehensive training to cover clinical aspects, reimbursement processes, and sales/marketing nuances will equip your teams with the knowledge to excel.

Step 5: Building a Referral Base

To build a robust referral base, formulate a strategic game plan. Establish credibility and trust by acting as a reimbursement consultant and set realistic expectations with referral sources. Use HME provider report cards for regular service evaluations and maintaining quality service. Finally, take a holistic approach and focus on the whole patient by addressing their physical, emotional, and social needs to ensure optimal outcomes.

By following these steps, HME providers can effectively communicate with referral sources, ensuring better patient outcomes and a successful wound care program.

This article originated from a presentation given at the 2024 VGM Heartland Conference by Amanda Smithey, CWCMS, Senior Manager Advocacy and Strategic Partnerships – HME Division at McKesson, and Heather Trumm, BSN, RN, WOCN, Director of VGM Wound Care. For questions, contact Heather Trumm at heather.trumm@vgm.com.

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