Physician offices rarely perceive differentiation among hospices, home health or palliative care providers in their markets. In many cases, the most important factor they consider when referring to a home-based post-acute provider is the speed with which those organizations respond to them, according to new data from Transcend Strategy Group.
Nearly 81% of respondents to a national Transcend survey said they saw little to no difference in the quality of hospice, home health and palliative care organizations in their area. Transcend conducted online surveys of 150 physician office staff members. Most of the respondents were office managers or served in other managerial positions.
“[Physician offices] are just not educated on the differences among providers,” said Stan Massey, partner and chief strategy officer for Transcend Strategy Group. “The number one answer by far was a timely response to the referral. The number two response was that they reported back to the physician’s office in a timely manner. The attributes that they’re looking for were just as much about how you’re going to help their practice as much as you are the patient.”
Another key finding in the report indicated that about 50% of physician offices refer patients to a specific provider, rather than offering the patient a choice from a list of hospices in their communities.
Physician offices are becoming a more important engine for hospice referrals, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. For much of 2020 and early 2021 hospices started to see a larger percentage of their referrals from physician practices as more patients shunned facility-based care due to fears of contracting the virus or being unable to see family due to safety restrictions.
Among 160 hospice leaders surveyed for Hospice News’ 2021 Hospice Industry Outlook Report, 41% indicated that physician practices represent the largest opportunity for referral growth this year. This number is up from just 27% in 2020.
New physicians outranked other referring settings such as hospital systems and assisted living facilities at 24% and 15%, respectively, according to the Hospice News outlook report. Roughly 15% of respondents indicated that reduced referrals during COVID-19 represented one of the greatest pandemic-related challenges to the hospice industry this year.
“The best thing that providers can do is evaluate the messaging that they want to go out to referral partners to build a point of differentiation, build a value proposition, and then communicate that effectively,” Massey told Hospice News. “With today’s evidence-based medicine, the more data that you have, the better your position will be. Instead of just telling them the services that you provide, show them the outcomes you generate.”
One key differentiator according to Massey is the availability of disease-specific programs for patients with dementia, cardiac disease or other conditions. While some physician offices may be less than proactive when it comes to hospice or palliative care referrals, they do often send patients to specialists.
Hospice and palliative care providers can benefit from reinforcing their position as a medical specialty.
“If a hospice can develop a specialty, let’s say, congestive heart failure, you can target cardiologists or even primary care practices that have a high number of cardiology patients,” Massey said. “Show them what you can deliver in terms of evidence-based outcomes of how your agency performs for those diseases. Now we’re talking about-a very targeted message to a very targeted audience.”
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