Accelerating Your DME Growth in 2021

by | April 1, 2021 | 3:02 pm
Accelerating your DME growth in 2021

Improving business efficiency and streamlining operations is central to business growth, even when not in a crisis. For DME/HME businesses that managed to survive the pandemic without significant downtime, 2021 provides the much-needed reset to consolidate finances and put the business on a growth track. To accelerate DME growth, optimize existing resources while ensuring incoming revenue is unhindered.

One of the ways startups and small to mid-sized DME/HMEs can quickly ascend the growth curve is by decreasing expenses without affecting business income and existing revenue sources. The following costs can be reduced or more efficiently managed to optimize existing DME/HME resources:

● Staff training and health insurance costs

DME/HME staff is not trained to manage detailed patient recording while attending to medical needs. However, in most startups and small to mid-sized businesses, the challenge of working with existing resources means owners and employees must multi-task, managing the paperwork that accompanies patient registration while simultaneously attending to core DME needs.

If your DME/HME employs staff, training and well-being, including employee health insurance payments, are a prerequisite. Training and retention costs may be significant for DME businesses, given the technical understanding required. Training must be thorough, to empower employees to conduct business, retain customers, care for medical equipment, and help the business stay compliant with industry requirements.

This still does not take care of complicated medical billing requirements, which typical DME/HME staff may not be trained to handle. Instead, they learn on the job, which exponentially increases error percentage and possibility of delayed payment.

Managing it: Leveraging professional help specifically designed for DME businesses can help owners maximize patient billing while allowing their staff to focus — distraction-free — on work for which they’ve been trained.

● Office rent and utilities

As a startup DME/HME, you may need to ensure your business has a valid address. Rent payments can prove to be a huge drain on the business alongside the costs associated with office utilities. The cost of utilities, especially electricity, depends on the space rented: bigger areas need more power for air conditioning and heating. Water and sanitation costs cannot be avoided; the same goes for power and internet and connectivity.

Managing it: The pandemic has ushered in a new way of conducting business: online. DME/HMEs can save on office rent and utilities by entering into DME partnership. You can rent office space and maintain a bare minimum set-up; the expenses saved can be directed back into the business.

● Computers and office supplies

Technology can help businesses, but it is a costly proposition: computers and office supplies require an additional layer of planning and expense as you set up the infrastructure. Apart from the direct cost of computers and devices such as modems and routers, efficient operations require sometimes specialized furniture that can hold the equipment without cluttering the space. Solutions are required for cable organization leaving room for your staff to work. Equipment, such as business phones, requires purchases as well as expenses in the form of phone and internet connectivity bills.

Managing it: Computer use includes electricity costs and can be a huge contributor to utility expenses. You can continue to rent an office space, but keep equipment and the associated infrastructure to a minimum. This applies to business phone devices as well; reduce the overall equipment to keep infrastructure and billing costs down. Leverage partnerships to help with critical non-core business tasks without affecting business deliverables or client requirements.

Leveraging HIPAA-compliant professional medical billing

A DME partnership can help businesses operate most efficiently: focusing on providing quality healthcare support services. Professional services work in multiple ways: they can help your business share the paperwork involved in registration, or take it over completely so you get reliable billing support. Apart from simply helping the DME/HME cut down on costs, professional insights also streamline the entire process, allowing payment claims to go through unhindered. This in turn paves the way for organized and focused growth for the business.

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