General question regarding home health sales

I have 6 years pharma experience (also additional B2B sales) and wanted to ask what you like and dislike about home health and how it compares + or - to pharma.

Are there any rewarding aspects integrating with families or patients? Or, at the end of the day it's just a typical sales position where it all comes down to numbers. I'm tired of schlepling pills and was curious if this is more rewarding?

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

 

I've been in Home Health about the same amount of time. WAY too many cons to list. It will be a big scar on your resume unless you jump into it and have a best friend who just happens to be an ortho surgeon and does about 40 total joint replacements per month for MEDICARE patients and they send you all their business. Yeah, you pretty much only get credit for bringing new Medicare patients on board. There's a few other insurances and medicare supplemental plans that pay "episodically" instead of per visit but good luck finding a company that's honest in telling you that they get reimbursed well off any random medicare replacement plan.

If you don't have any good connections and aren't bringing in new business and referrals right from the get go you'll likely be let go after a month or two. I've been with my current company for almost a year now but I've seen some other reps jump from 2-3 different companies during my time. They call them home health whores and they have completely lost their minds and all credibility.

Other cons...shitty base salary, shitty commission structure and potential for commission. Patients typically have to be admitted before you get credit for them. Some may pass away, some may go to a SNF for an unnecessary amount of time (nursing homes need those medicare dollars too!) and get referred elsewhere when they do go home. Maybe the nurse that was supposed to start them on service just jumped ship all of the sudden and took a job at XYZ company for 20K more a year and was told she'd only have to drive no more than 15 miles from her home...which brings me to my next con...There's at least 250 home health agencies that I compete with in my territory. One of my hospitals I visit frequently I run into at least 6-8 different HH reps each time I visit. Imagine being a case manager/discharge planner at a hospital and seeing 40-50 different HH reps every day bugging you for business. It really sickens me how many HH agencies there are.

The list goes on. The only real pro is that I've learned a lot in my experience and have had the chance to help some patients wanting to better themselves. I knew absolutely nothing about healthcare and anything clinical when I started working in home health. Now I can facilitate any hospital on getting any trainwreck patient home that they're paying to have to keep them there because there was nothing more they could do for the patient and the patient's insurance cut off the hospital funds.

I've literally worked with patients who were morbidly obese. Going home on a ventilator, completely bed bound with stage 4 pressure ulcers, no family support, and if they did have family support there's probably a huge language barrier. Not to mention they're on 40 different medications that need to be crushed up and jammed through a feeding tube and then another 4-5 iv meds that get pushed through their picc line. Lets not forget about the colostomy and urinary cath care.

It's just a nightmare. I can't remember the last time I had a good nights sleep. You'll likely have to see a shrink for anxiety issues and will start growing gray hair after 6 months. Please don't do it unless you have that golden egg account already locked in. But even then that account can fall apart just by one nurse that you work with not going out and washing her damn hands before performing a dressing change for a wound! Good Luck!

 

Wow! Well there you have it! Thank you very much for your answer, I appreciate it! I knew nothing about home health. Like many others I'm sure, I am looking for
a career that is more internally fulfilling and gratifying than dropping off samples and getting signatures and thought home health could be the answer while helping patients etc.. but your realistic explanation was very eye opening. I don't have a single connection and understand what you mean regarding the importance of existing relationships in a competitive market. Thanks again for your thourough answer.

 

That previous reply is ridiculous. I've worked in HH for over 10 years. 5 years with my current company. If you have the support of your operations staff and a good manager, HH sales is very rewarding and lucrative. Some companies are better than other in pay and quality of services. There are fewer competitors in non-CON states and is something to consider. You may have to change companies to advance yourself, but if you have good relationships and contacts, HH and hospice companies will pay you royally for them.

 

yes... Get ready to work and deal with a ton more BS than Pharma. you can get all the sales/referrals based on your own merit… but you have to count on nurses, staff, operations etc. to do the rest.

 

What is the average base salary for a new HH rep with pharma experience?

 

Pretty wide starting salary range. 45k -75k. Some companies incentive plans are much better than others. A very productive rep with a good company with a good operations team and reputation can make in the 120s with salary+incentive, but most can expect to make considerably less.

 

Thank you...I am in the process of negotiating salary and am new to the industry. Is it customary for your monthly quota to be adjusted based on your salary? ie. The higher your salary the more referrals you need to bring in per month?

 

I know this is a very old thread, but I'd like to offer my 2 cents.
I am an overweight 50 year old woman who makes around $110K per year in home health. I have seen many successful reps, but I have seen far more unsuccessful. The ones that absolutely kill it have a common thread: we work our butts off, and make sure that we help in lowering return to acutes. The reps that do shitty are the ones that are hung over most of the time, work 3 hours per day, and bitch and moan that the FAX is not ringing. If you have the right mindset, you WILL be successful.

 

how are District Managers? What do they do? Any different that Pharma Managers?

 

good Q for us wanting to get with HH or Hospice...come on give us some info