CGM: Avoid the leaky bucket

Q. I'm adding CGM patients every month, but my overall program is not growing the way I'd expect. What am I missing?

A. Your program might have a leaky bucket.

It's one of the most common and costly problems in CGM resupply. Providers focus heavily on new patient acquisition, which is important, but if patients are quietly dropping off the back end, acquisition alone will not grow your resupply program at the rate you're expecting. You could be adding 50 new patients a month and losing 25, and your net growth is only half of what your intake numbers suggest.

Beyond the raw numbers, think about lifetime value. Research consistently shows it costs over five times more to acquire a new CGM patient than to retain an existing one. A patient who stays on the program contributes years of recurring revenue.

One fix starts at intake. One of the most underutilized tools in resupply is simply asking patients how they prefer to be contacted, whether by phone, text, email or direct mail, and documenting it. A patient who gets a reminder the way they want it, at the right time, is far more likely to stay engaged than one who receives a generic outreach they ignore or do not see at all.

From there, build a proactive outreach cadence. Don't wait for patients to call you. Know when their supply is due and reach out first. That single habit closes more leaks than almost anything else.

Finally, measure it. Most DME providers can tell you how many new patients they added last month, but far fewer can tell you their retention rate. If you don't know your number, you don't know the true health of your program, and you can't fix what you're not tracking.

Brett Siegal is director of marketing & business development for DDP Medical Supply. Reach him at bsiegal@ddpmedical.com.