Automation: The Answer to Agency Agility

Recruiting. Retention. Value-based Agreements. Industry consolidation. Rising labor costs. Unfunded Mandates (see: EVV). Do any of these challenges sound familiar? They should if you work in Pediatric Home Healthcare. Finding options that efficiently alleviate these issues presents the biggest challenge —  but there may be one simple solution: Automation.

While you can’t stop the storm from coming, you can get your house in order in advance. Think of it like this: what is your company all about? You will probably say something like “a great place for clinicians to work” or “amazing care for patients.” Now look around your administrative team and ask how many people work in service of that mission. Yikes! A lot of people do a lot of things that simply don’t add a ton of value. Yet, those things must get done to keep everything going.

Solve problems with automation

Automation can transform the way a team operates. When rote, menial tasks automatically get done it brings the focus back to more meaningful, creative, relationship-building work. Here are a few ways to tackle the previously mentioned challenges.

Recruiting

Consider how you actively engage with potential candidates. Automatically reaching out to schedule, confirm, and remind candidates of the opportunities at your agency eliminates hours of manual work spent on the phone. Implementing a text message automation system can turn candidates into new hires at a higher percentage without requiring more work from your staff.

Retention

It costs a lot less to keep a good employee than to hire a new one. Reflect on how you engage with your current staff. You should have systems that give people a chance to offer feedback, communicate easily via text, and send positive reinforcement based on loyalty and performance.

Value-based Agreements

Are you working to secure preferred status with your key payers? If not, you may get left behind soon. Your software should gather data in the background without anyone realizing it, and be capable of aggregating and delivering that data in customized formats to other systems. 

Industry consolidation

Are you looking to acquire companies? Are you looking to be acquired? You can achieve returns almost instantly by integrating acquired companies into your automated processes. If seeking acquisition, you can burnish your EBITDA by streamlining your operations. And remember, it doesn’t matter what happened in the past. You just have to present an efficient picture of the present and future!

Rising labor costs

First, see #s 1 & 2 on this list. Next, you need to look at how many people do scheduling compared to your number of patient visits. So much of this process can be automated, and one office FTE can pay for many incremental pay increases.

Unfunded mandates

Medicaid MCOs can seem hellbent on making things difficult. They demand authorization processes that require new workflows, EVV requirements that don’t match other payers in the same state, and billing practices that make no sense. Your software needs to move quickly to keep up, and if done correctly will automate the pieces of the puzzle that remain repetitive.

Automate with experts

 This is a lot to digest. Luckily you don’t have to navigate it alone. Cubhub has industry experts that have already thought through these obstacles and can help you get your company ready for whatever the future holds. Schedule a demo today to see how much you can gain by automating more of the boring stuff!