Four ways to achieve a total organizational uplift in home infusion and specialty pharmacy
The home infusion space is evolving. Is your infusion organization ready?
The demand for home infusion and specialty pharmacy services has increased significantly in the past year and will continue to rise with several more years of sustained growth projected. However, like many other industries, the home infusion and specialty pharmacy landscape have been seriously impacted by labor shortages that are predicted to persist.
With both opportunities and challenges ahead, now is the time for home infusion and specialty pharmacy leaders to address any inefficiencies that pose risk to care delivery and overall performance. Here are four critical areas your infusion organization can focus on now to achieve operational excellence and uplift organizational productivity.
Simplify home infusion and ambulatory infusion center operations with a comprehensive approach to staff and resource management
Staffing is a key challenge in healthcare, and infusion organizations are struggling to manage their appointments, schedule staff, and track mileage. Think about how your technology solution can help you optimize where you schedule staff and how you manage inventory and resources. Move away from inefficient manual systems and consider adding a solution to your tech stack that operationalizes. Having visibility into your available capacity in real- time will allow you to make smart, agile decisions about resource allocation.
Streamline communication with the revenue cycle team to accelerate billing and build on efficiencies
Improving your front office is the first step to improving your back office. While these teams may work independently, their levels of efficiency (or lack thereof) greatly impact one another. Ensuring each area runs smoothly is essential for your revenue cycle’s overall success. With so much of the revenue cycle process starting at intake, ensuring proper information is gathered is crucial to staying on top of billing. In today’s ever-changing reimbursement environment, infusion providers need to collaborate closely with the revenue cycle team to maintain financial health. While reimbursement issues are best handled by revenue cycle teams, clinicians can help by making sure they understand reimbursement requirements and incorporate them into their documentation practices.
Optimize your shipping and delivery operations to maximize reimbursement for every order, preventing costly write-offs
Specialty pharmacies often rely on disparate delivery management systems, which can lead to challenges when multiple couriers are involved. Each carrier has its method of securing proof of delivery documentation and may not always be consistent in ensuring that the full and accurate documentation has been captured successfully. To avoid costly write-offs due to inaccurate or incomplete proof of delivery information, you need a proof of delivery solution that satisfies payer audits on every medical package delivered. Having a single platform that can help you obtain physician signatures, capture proof of delivery, and move orders to the billing stage is crucial to your revenue cycle process. You can take this efficiency even further by leveraging technology to automate prior authorization — a historically disjointed, manual process that results in billing delays for infusion providers.
Enhance care coordination by prioritizing streamlined communication for patients, families, and staff alike
Traditional communication methods between patients, staff, and referral partners often lead to phone tag, paperwork, and delays in getting answers to people that need them the most. In today’s mobile-driven world, patients and their families expect real-time communication via smartphones, tablets, or computers. Is your organization able to meet these demands? By implementing a solution that automatically connects patients and staff members, you can ensure patient, caregiver, and clinical needs are addressed in real-time. Adopting a patient-friendly communication model can be the most impactful for both clinicians and patients. Giving clinicians the ability to share care plans and giving patients and their alternate contacts access to the plan of care in real-time can help streamline care collaboration.
As you refine your infusion and specialty pharmacy operations, technology is an essential asset. The right solutions will bolster your strategy and automate tedious, manual processes that are costing you time and resources. In evaluating your options, look for a complete end-to-end solution that sets your infusion organization on the path to growth and scalability. Ensure that your technology partner supports your organization from the initial onboarding to continuing implementations. As your needs change or your business grows, your solution should accommodate your evolving home infusion or specialty pharmacy operations.
WellSky’s comprehensive software solution is purpose-built for infusion providers. From intake to dispensing, and shipping and delivery to billing, our total infusion and specialty pharmacy platform can help you manage every layer of your business.
Conclusion
Take your infusion organization to the next level of productivity, efficiency, and profitability by partnering with WellSky. Request a consultation to discover how WellSky can help elevate your home infusion pharmacy operations.