Are hospital discharge planners satisfied with the contract providers in their areas? HME News and Emerge Sales know the answer.

As promised, I have a few teasers for you from our webcast on Friday about competitive bidding.

Here's one: 61% of hospital discharge planners report that they're very satisfied or satisfied with the contract providers in their areas. If I'm a contract provider, I can feel pretty good about this, but I still want to have conversations with hospital discharge planners to see where they're dissatisfied. Does it have to do with my products and services? Or does it have to do with a faulty bid program? Or is it both?

If I'm a stakeholder trying to modify the bid program, I can feel pretty good about this, too, because it means a good percentage of hospital discharge planners—about one third—are only somewhat satisfied or not at all satisfied with the contract providers in their areas. That's hardly a glowing recommendation. The same questions as above apply: Does it have to do with the products and services provided by the contract suppliers? Or does it have to do with a faulty bid program? Or is it both?

Here's another: 67% of hospital discharge planners report that they prefer to send referrals to one provider with multiple contracts for multiple product categories. We've heard that this is the case, but now we know for sure. If I'm a provider staring at Round 2, this is crucial. My inclination may be to submit bids in as few product categories as possible, insulating myself from the bid program, but that may not be my best bet.

Here's one more, and this one's for all of you non-contract suppliers: 76% of hospital discharge planners report that they still consider non-contract providers for product categories not included in the bid program, and 92% report that they still consider them for non-Medicare business. That's good news.

Register here for Friday's webcast.

Liz Beaulieu