Life after Home Health sales

[Anonymous]

So what have people done out there after being in a home health sales role? What other opportunities has this job given you? Do employers find this position to be a good one to gain experience?

[Anonymous]

So what have people done out there after being in a home health sales role? What other opportunities has this job given you? Do employers find this position to be a good one to gain experience?

Depends on what you did in home care sales. It is a job that lets you run your own business essentially. You either accomplished alot or not. Your resume should reflect that.

[Anonymous]

I am a pharma rep and I would love to be a home health sales rep. It seems to me like all you haev to do is make these MA's like you and then bring them stuff and ask for some referrals. Man, it's better than working with the doctors.

Maybe my perception is all wrong but seems like less stress, less micromanagement and a chance to be creative in some way.

[Anonymous]

Are you kidding? I went from pharma (the best part-time, glorified catering job I've ever had) to home health where I have to work my ass off just to get close to my referral goal. The three weeks I was out for family leave and my referrals dropped by half. You are constantly dealing with staffing issues, crooked competitors, crooked referral sources, uncooperative patients and families, and follow up paperwork.

All you will get by sucking up to M.A.s and bringing treats are a bunch of fat M.A.s who refer you crap patients. You want to be successful, you have to be in the field from AT LEAST 8am to 5pm, sometimes nights and weekends, develop your network, and learn quickly who is pulling your chain and who can actually help you.

Pharma sales is a cakewalk. Never got paid so much to do so little.

[Anonymous]

To poster #3: Are you kidding me???? I have never been more micromanaged in all my life (and by the way I was in Pharma for 15 years)!!!!! Home Health is not a good job! Poor pay, poor management, poor resources, and the list keeps on going. RUN!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

I work for a company just like amedisys that literally tracks your every move. GPS on the phone. Micromanaged to the hilt.

[Anonymous]

I started in pharma, went to home health and left to go back to pharma. I worked for great lakes home health. What an embarrassment and so much grief. Definitely an industry and company with a lot of crooks. The work load does not matter. At the end of the day, you have to live with yourself.

[Anonymous]

Are you kidding? I went from pharma (the best part-time, glorified catering job I've ever had) to home health where I have to work my ass off just to get close to my referral goal. The three weeks I was out for family leave and my referrals dropped by half. You are constantly dealing with staffing issues, crooked competitors, crooked referral sources, uncooperative patients and families, and follow up paperwork.

All you will get by sucking up to M.A.s and bringing treats are a bunch of fat M.A.s who refer you crap patients. You want to be successful, you have to be in the field from AT LEAST 8am to 5pm, sometimes nights and weekends, develop your network, and learn quickly who is pulling your chain and who can actually help you.

Pharma sales is a cakewalk. Never got paid so much to do so little.

I too came from pharma and agree 100 percent. Trying to find a new job. Beaten like a fing dog by my manager. This job is a joke. Never should have taken it.

[honitel]

Depends on what you did in home care sales. It is a job that lets you run your own business essentially. You either accomplished alot or not. Your resume should reflect that.

Its true! If every job is well done, perhaps we have our answer!

[Anonymous]

Home Care sales did not work for me. I was beaten down and used by my company to cover two territories. I was not paid for double duty. My boss was ruthless. I lasted a year. The company cherry picked referrals. It by far was the single worst experience of my long successful sales career. I worked for Gentiva. Stay away if you value your sanity and have integrity. You have been warned.

[Anonymous]

TO ME, HOME HEALTH IS RIGHT THERE NEXT TO SUCKING DICK FOR A LIVING, AND I THINK I'D RATHER DO THAT IF I HAD A CHOICE! I HAVE BEEN IN MEDICAL SALES NOW FOR THE LAST 10 YEARS AND I RUN FROM ANY MENTION OF HOME HEALTH !!! IT SCARES THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF ME! IT IS THE MOST DEGRADING AWFUL TYPE OF MEDICAL SALES IN THE INDUSTRY WHICH ALL MEDICAL SALES IS HEADING IN THAT DIRECTION BUT STILL HOME HEALTH IS THE WORST ONE BY FAR!

[Anonymous]

Agreed. In particular, stay away from Hospice Advantage. It's an EXTREME joke. Not only are they greedy, but they have incompetent family members in positions they would never qualify for if they had to get a job on their own. You have been warned.

[Anonymous]

Been in Home Health for 6 years after spending 10 in Pharma. Both are tough. Home Health is getting more difficult every day. You're virtually shut out of Hospitals. Case Managers/Discharge planners rule the roost. They are told to send all patients that need home health to the home health run by hte hospital, unless the Physician or patient wants something different. There is a lot of micro-managing in some companies. Medicare referrals are all that really count, even if your company accepts insurance. It's tough to make your numbers. There is a lot of competition outside of the hospital home health. You really have to bust your butt. You have to cater to everyone to set yourself apart. There really is no "real time off", unless you want your referrals to go to another company. If you or someone from your company screws something up, even something minor, you're finished. Perfection is required! Really tough gig!

[Anonymous]

The person above is completely right. I am in wound care sales for a device manufacturer but was in home health sales for nearly 2 years coming out of college. Couldn't get any device companies to hire me b/c I was a recent college grad with no experience and all these companeies wanted like 2-5 yrs of sales experience so home health was the closest thing I could get to "medical" sales exp. at the time being.

You can definitely spin that home health sales can be as tough as some other actual tangible product sales just b/c you are basically offering a commodity in the eyes of the person sending the referral your way, so you can prove that you can build quick relationships.

But I would say home health sales is not a strong long term career choice and the environment is always changing and there's so much turnover. Plus it gets tired kissing ass and just making your rounds to your docs and discharge planners. At an agency I worked for in Florida, we had to give out "items of no value" to accounts each week, I think something around 15-20 a week, so basically you try to be a fake friend as if you care about their lives and say, print something off the internet with vacation spot ideas if the receptionist mentioned "yeah me and my husband aren't sure where to go to vacation over the summer." That would be an item of no value.

[Anonymous]

The person above is completely right. I am in wound care sales for a device manufacturer but was in home health sales for nearly 2 years coming out of college. Couldn't get any device companies to hire me b/c I was a recent college grad with no experience and all these companeies wanted like 2-5 yrs of sales experience so home health was the closest thing I could get to "medical" sales exp. at the time being.

You can definitely spin that home health sales can be as tough as some other actual tangible product sales just b/c you are basically offering a commodity in the eyes of the person sending the referral your way, so you can prove that you can build quick relationships.

But I would say home health sales is not a strong long term career choice and the environment is always changing and there's so much turnover. Plus it gets tired kissing ass and just making your rounds to your docs and discharge planners. At an agency I worked for in Florida, we had to give out "items of no value" to accounts each week, I think something around 15-20 a week, so basically you try to be a fake friend as if you care about their lives and say, print something off the internet with vacation spot ideas if the receptionist mentioned "yeah me and my husband aren't sure where to go to vacation over the summer." That would be an item of no value.


Not a long term career choice? Perhaps not the job itself, but the industry definetly.
The next ten years this country will see a once in a life time explosion of beneficiaries jumping into the medicare market.
Obamacare will most certainly guarantee that hospitals push their patients to their "homes" due to costs.
Patients, if competent, would prefer to do their treatments at home, (We cannot relate but wait until the day, heaven forbid, that you have to do chemotherapy, antibiotic, etc treatment 5 days a week in a hospital or in the care of friends and family in your home).

Whether you like it or not, home healthcare will be the future. It just depends on what organization you land a gig with. Anyone that thinks this industry is dying needs to wake up. The problem is that the idea of home healthcare is relatively new, given the reality of OBamacare, more and more hospitals will realize they will have to put up or shut up when it comes to getting paid.

Mark my words and my post, this will be the future.

[Anonymous]

Above, that is a good point. I am sure the industry will start to boom for the reasons you outlined. I guess to be more specific, you will probably only do well long-term if you work for an already large census home health agency that has a very strong name in the market. Here in Florida, so many "mom and pop" home health agencies are trying to hit the ground running and steal referrals from these agencies that already have well-established with relationships in their respective territory. They will not. The bigger home health agencies will stay where they are and the smaller ones will all burn out.

Also must consider the hospital systems with their own integrated home health program within the hospital. Takes away potential medicare referrals from the stand-alone agencies.