Why such negativity?

Holy crap! I'm an outsider reading about this industry and it's scary. What the hell is going on there? All you people have nothing good to say.

Anyone care to NOT exaggerate and provide some real insight?

People generally love to complain, but where is the balance? Is this industry really as bad as everyone is making it sound?

 

Most national and local agencies are operating on a business model from twenty years ago. Shady referral relationships, wink wink deals and handshakes. Medicare caught on and put in compliance measures. So they tried to exploit loopholes, MC caught on and put in further compliance measures and financial measures to make agencies comply. These measures cost money and when coupled with lower reimbursement you get a perfect storm for fraud. Now they are faced with pre and post pay audits, red flags that hold up payments and often times money that needs to be paid back. So in a sense MC can starve you out and the are!

I find that most local and nationals are poorly run and have a very short sighted business plan. MC is pushing hospitals to d/c early and re admissions are costing hospitals real money. In the not so distant future, SNFs and even PCPs will be financially responsible for their patients when they continually get admitted to the hospital. So what are agencies doing, they are continuing to bring coffee and bagels to referral sources. Instead of designing nursing and therapy programs that can show metrics to referral sources preventing re admission, they leave candy and cookies. In what should be boom time it is not. Unless you are with a hospital affiliated agency(who recognizes this, most do) the future is bleak for the Amedysis and Gentivas of the world. Hope that helps a little.

 

Wow, how short-sided. Do we take customers cookies and candy, absolutely. It's perfectly legal land accepted practice. Why do we do that, because sometimes it's the only thing that will help get us in front of referral sources to detail how our programs can help reduce rehospitaliztion rates maintain a patient with a chronic disease process in a home environment as opposed to more costly hospital and rehab stays. My company, Gentiva, pours millions of dollars into new program development and education of its nursing and therapy staff. After having worked for a competitor in both home health and hospice, I can say Gentiva spends more money on patient care and new program development that any of the other large providers, as well as conducts our marketing and operations in a completely ethical and moral manner with the emphasis being on patient care. If you want to see questionable practices by both marketing and operations, you need to look no futher than LHC. Absolutely deplorable.

 

What metrics can you use that you are actually helping referral sources with re-hospitalizations. Tele health?

 

What metrics can you use that you are actually helping referral sources with re-hospitalizations. Tele health?

 

We all have readmission rate data that we can provide hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and physicians. We also have specialized programs that center around high re-hospitalization rate diagnosis such as CHF and COPD, that provide front loaded visits and more comprehensive monitoring in the home to head off potential exacerbation and prevent a patient from having to go back into the hospital. Having a clear, goal-oriented partnership with the facility and physician and open lines of communication is a big help. Proper education with the patient by utilizing health literacy screening tools, also helps by the patient understanding when their condition is changing and allowing us to coordinate with a physician to change medications or schedule a in-office visit prior to their conditioning worsening to the point where they have to present to the ER. Hospital readmission rates are publically posted on Medicare.gov for Medicare certified agencies.

 

you do what you need to. I slept with a doc to get business. It kills me that I did that because my husband is a good father and husband. It went on for a few years and I did well.

 

I'm not judging but wow! That kind of thing is by far the exception rather than the rule.

 

I think it's more common than you think, prude. I did it cause I NEEDED to get my numbers. I actually enjoyed our time together. It was the coming home par tthat stung a bit, bit I don't regret a thing

 

Well at least you answered the OP's question.

 

True statement

 

This may be true in some markets, but in mine, there are is a very professional group of sales people that compete based almost entirely on their companies merrits, ability to care for patients, specialty programs and those very measurable metrics that the previous poster said did not exist.

 

Wow are you naive! I think I was one of only a very few in my city that DID NOT do this. Not judging, but reps sleep with docs ALL the time, as do their nurses. DUH! You must be young, new or just fallen off the turnip truck. I, however, busted my ass to get business by working smart, not unethically or on my back with my legs spread.

 

Listen Capt. Obvious, it's because it's the TRUTH! Hellooo...open your eyes. Seriously. Not trying to be rude, but it is an ugly industry fraught with corruption, fraud and bullshit. No lie. A fry cook at McD's is better, trust me. Good luck to you!

 

Watch out for Angmar Medical Holdings outta TX. They are run by a bunch of crooks and I'll be doggies if DAVID HILER from Muskogee, OK isn't working for them now after he got FIRED from Girling for sleeping with L.C. his rep, who had a boyfriend at the time. He's got ALL kinds of DUI's and Restraining Orders, not to mention Divorces under his belt. Just check OSCN.net for proof. ALL public record. Yes, sir, he hides behind the gospel all the while breaking the law left and right! Up until a few years ago, he was just a lowly medic for $11 bucks an hour. Irony at it's finest folks I tell ya! Thinks he's God's gift to women. And, he's got some peeps "fleeced" too. Ahh, the Good Ole Boy Network is alive and well down here in D'Oklahoma and Texas, Joplin too. His resume and work history is a complete work of FICTION! He never works either nor does he possess ANY leadership skills/business acumen. I fooled him and L.C. both with a FAKE Dr. list...Bahahaha! Good times! Now he's stolen Girling's proprietary intellectual property and taken it to ANGMAR (Angels Care Home Health) and took credit for it! WHAT A DUMBASS! Keep on breakin' those laws David...and sleeping with the reps. You sir, are a BUTTHEAD of the highest order. I'll be waiting to see your mugshot on the news. God is Good ALL THE TIME!

PS-It would NOT surprise me in the least if these guys get shut down by the FEDS for Medicare FRAUD! Seriously...I really feel sorry for the Eddins ladies. If they only KNEW what goes on behind their backs...smdh.

 

What a **** slut!!

 

I went to home health after being laid off in Pharma and then being miserable working for a wound center getting wound healing referrals in a shit market. Home Health is the sleaziest, grossest and most vile medical sales environment. When you start, you will automatically be given all of the shitty physicians and accounts. I was given pieces and parts of everyone's territory. I obtained referrals, and then got a territory of my own after someone left. The area was "controlled" by the hospital's HH agency, and the docs that were a part of the hospital's medical group were strictly discouraged from referring to anywhere else. The best and biggest SNF in town had a medical director that was also medical director of the hospital's HH agency. I managed to get a few train wrecks from there that probably cost the agency money. There was also a mom and pop agency in town whose rep didn't think the rules applied to him - he gave out gifts from a high end department store, and inundated offices and spent tons of money. I was also given one physician account where the doc was a no-see doc and only Rx'd HH services upon discharge from the hospital. The 2 hospitals that he practiced at - neither one was mine - so I got ZERO referrals from this doc - yet I spent hours each week getting his paperwork signed and brought current. I had no choice - I went to my managers about the time it took me with this physician, and why didn't the "golden boy" who had both hospitals have this doc as well? I was basically told to shut up and go away. I was given no help and no support from management, and in the end was forced out because of my age - I'm sure of it. Yet I had a brilliant career in pharma and a successful one in wound center sales until the market was changed. Glad to be out of HH sales. Only if you are on the brink of financial collapse should anyone with any sales talent get into it.