Comparative analytics: Measure yourself against peers

A. With regulatory compliance requirements increasing while reimbursements decrease, HME providers need greater visibility and control over their business performance, and actionable insights into core business measurements. The burgeoning field of comparative analytics enables HME providers to focus their efforts on improving the areas that will deliver the most meaningful results by identifying their best practices in comparison to peers. The following information highlights scenarios where comparative analytics are useful to better understand how well they perform on core business measurements.

Financial performance

From a financial perspective, benchmarking enables HME providers to analyze their gross reimbursement and collection ratios against peers, as well as view payment velocity rates to determine if peers are getting paid faster by the same payers. By drilling deeper into the data, organizations can evaluate peers' denial rates by payer as well as code and modifier utilization. Providers are also able to see if peers are earning more reimbursement on similar services and demographic mixes.

Operational performance

Comparative analytics also help HME providers gain valuable insights into their operations. For example: Staff productivity can be improved by looking at documentation turnaround timeframes, and revenue cycle can be enhanced by measuring procedure code utilization and denials trending. By drilling deeper into the data, businesses can compare these performance metrics to those of their peers to understand how well they perform within their market.

Long-term financial health

Comparative analytics leverage the concepts of business intelligence but contextually compares that data against peers. Using comparative analytics to measure clinical, financial and operational performance against peers enables HME providers to better understand the drivers behind their internal performance, and to identify areas needing improvement. Routinely analyzing these metrics is vital to an organization's financial health and its ability to compete for the long term.

Brian Fugere is COO of RemitData. Reach him at bfugere@remitdata.com.